The Ukrainian armed forces in recent months have stood up dozens of new brigades. They have equippedmostly with heavy equipment donated by Kyiv’s NATO allies. Many of the rest are drawing their tanks, fighting vehicles and artillery from Ukraine’s reserve of ex-Soviet weaponry.
Sweden long has aligned with NATO but didn’t apply to join the transatlantic alliance until after Russia widened its war on Ukraine 17 months ago. NATO requires unanimous consent from current member states before it admits a new member, and Turkey has withheld its consent for Sweden to join. Not to be outdone, Sweden in January and February announced a major arms package for Ukraine including eight Archer 155-millimeter howitzers, 10 Stridsvagn 122 tanks—basically, Swedish versions of the German-made Leopard 2A5—and 50 CV90 infantry fighting vehicles with powerful 40-millimeter autocannons. The vehicle consignment boosted to $1.5 billion the total value of Swedish military support for Ukraine.
brigade, which with around 2,000 people tends to be smaller than, say, an American brigade is. Ukrainian mechanized brigades typically have three or four line battalions with a combined arsenal of around a hundred IFVs and 30 tanks, plus an artillery battalion with two dozen howitzers.