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Ukraine faces a dilemma at a critical juncture in its conflict with Russia, but doubts loom over its current strategy.

The soldier shortage remains Ukraine‘s most significant challenge, and its solution appears to be ineffective.

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In an attempt to overcome the shortage, Ukraine has chosen to form new brigades rather than reinforce existing ones, a strategy that military experts have deemed a failure, according to the American website “Business Insider.”

In a series of social media posts, Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, described Kyiv’s decision as “one of the most perplexing force management choices ever made.”

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Kofman stated, “Expanding the force with new brigades, when there is an urgent need for men to replace losses among experienced units deployed on the front lines, had obvious trade-offs.” He explained that with a lack of experience, the new units were generally “ineffective in combat.”

“As we saw in 2023, new formations perform poorly in both offensive and defensive roles, requiring a long time to gain experience, cohesion, confidence, and more,” he noted.

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According to Kofman, the strategy partially collapsed as battalions from the new brigades were eventually sent to support the losses in already fighting units.

In May 2023, the Ukrainian leadership announced its intention to create 10 new brigades, each consisting of several thousand men. The commanders hoped to establish units that could rotate in combat or fill gaps on the front line.

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In November 2023, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Armed Forces stated, “There is simply no other effective way to confront the enemy. Today, we face a 1,300-kilometer front with active combat engagements.”

Some units of these brigades received training from Western forces, such as the 155th Mechanized Brigade, about half of whose recruits were trained in France.

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However, the debut of the 155th Brigade late last year created a crisis for Ukraine, with reports indicating that the brigade suffered high desertion rates and was being dismantled to redistribute its resources to other brigades.

In early 2025, Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov revealed that the new brigade, often outnumbered, had to merge specialists like drone jamming operators with infantry roles. These statements sparked backlash, questioning the overall strategy.

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Lieutenant Colonel Bohdan Krotevych, Chief of Staff of the Azov Brigade, wrote, “Creating new brigades and equipping them with new technology while existing brigades suffer from manpower shortages might be pure folly.”

Despite the equipment provided to the 155th Brigade, including dozens of French-made armored vehicles, howitzers, and troop carriers, its failures were described by Kofman as “the most egregious cases” of Ukraine’s force management issue.

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Kofman argued that dividing the new units led to “constant fragmentation of defensive efforts and a loss of cohesion,” adding that “these mixed groupings of forces must still hold the front.”

Increasingly, last year turned the war into a battle of attrition, not only in manpower but also in resources.

Russia, now entering its third year of maintaining its economy amid comprehensive Western sanctions, heavily relies on defense manufacturing and offers substantial bonuses to new recruits.

Some in Ukraine hope that by solving the soldier shortage and maintaining its defensive lines, it will eventually exhaust Russia’s ability to funnel funds and manpower into the war.

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