Exclusive: How Ukraine rebuilt its troubled 60th Brigade for Operation Vivaldi

Ukraine's 60th Separate Mechanized Inhulets Brigade spent 2025 retreating along the Lyman front, losing roughly 300 square kilometers as Russian forces crossed the Zherebets River and pushed toward the city itself. A Ukrainian Ground Forces source told the outlet that retreat had become so routine that commanders privately shrugged off ground loss even while reassuring superiors the enemy had been stopped.

The brigade was also dogged by a corruption scandal and command dysfunction before being folded into the newly formed Third Army Corps as part of Ukraine's broader 2025 restructuring into corps-based formations. That overhaul reportedly rebuilt the brigade's leadership from the ground up.

Within a year, the same unit that was quietly bleeding territory near Lyman took part in Operation Vivaldi, described as one of the Ukrainian military's more successful operations of 2026.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.