At the command post of the 31st Separate Mechanized Brigade named after General-Khorunzhyi Leonid Stupnytskyi, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, together with Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi, met with warriors of the unit. The 31st Separate Mechanized Brigade is conducting defensive operations in the Oleksandrivskyi sector, at the junction of the Donetsk, Dnipro, and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Oleksandr Syrskyi reported to the Head of State that, despite the announced ceasefire, the enemy had not reduced its assault actions.
The President also heard a report from brigade commander Ivan Shalamaha on the operational situation in the defense area of the 31st Separate Mechanized Brigade, as well as on coordination with adjacent units conducting counteroffensive actions in this sector and pushing the enemy back toward the borders of the Dnipro region.
The Head of State thanked the defenders for their service and presented them with the Orders of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, III class, and the Orders “For Courage,” II and III class.
“I want to thank you on this day and wish you victory in our war. Thank you for defending Ukraine, our sovereignty. I am confident that, having defeated one Nazism, we will defeat another as well. I wish health to your families and loved ones. Stay strong, take care of yourselves. Today, the defense of our state rests on your shoulders,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized.
The President discussed with battalion and company commanders the specifics of foreign nationals’ service in the brigade, as well as their recruitment, training, and integration. They also discussed in detail the development of UGVs. Warriors of the 31st Separate Mechanized Brigade presented their own distributed logistics system using small, inexpensive UAVs, which makes it possible to reduce the level of material losses. In particular, drones carry out 60% of the unit’s logistics missions.
Special attention was paid to the possibility of allocating separate funding for brigades for innovation and R&D. Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that the relevant agencies and the military would work through this issue at their level.
