152nd Jaeger Brigade

152nd Jaeger Brigade is a unit of the Ukrainian Ground Forces.

The brigade began formation as the 152nd Mechanized Brigade in September 2023, amidst Ukraine’s plans to expand the Ukrainian Ground Forces. Following its formation, the unit faced many hardships.

Amidst the brigade’s reformations, it prolonged many issues. The unit spent nine months in training; however, it primarily functioned as a field recruitment center. Orders constantly came to transfer the unit’s personnel to other frontline units; each month, between 300 and 800 soldiers were transferred, forcing the unit to constantly cycle through new recruits. Constant reformation also caused many other issues, such as tank operators being required for a mechanized formation, reassigned elsewhere due to the transition to a motorized brigade, and then needed them once again after they had been reformed once again as mechanized infantry.

In May 2024, the brigade began to receive new personnel without reassignment. However, when training resumed with fresh recruits in August 2024, it was only completed at the platoon level before the brigade’s deployment in Kursk Oblast in Russia. There, they assumed a second-line defensive role, operating both independently and in coordination with other units.

In August 2024, the brigade was reformed into a Jaeger unit, becoming the 152nd Jaeger Brigade, and began supporting defensive operations in the Pokrovsk direction the following month. The unit, amidst its deployment in Pokrovsk, was not deployed at full strength, with smaller units being attached elsewhere.

In June 2024, Colonel Yurii Maksymyiv was appointed to a new position and left the brigade, which he had commanded since the brigade’s formation. He was replaced by Colonel Valeriy Lys, who previously served as the chief of staff of the 1st Tank Brigade.

Insignia

The insignia depicts a chevron with a green canvas adorned with a blue border. At the core of the insignia is a silver spur, representing the Order of the Iron Spur in the Legion’s training. Above it is a ‘Chicka’, a fabric cockade in the national yellow and blue colors of Ukraine, worn on the side of the cap by the fighters of the Legion of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, for which the spur is also an echo to.