One of the Ukrainian army’s best heavy brigades apparently is getting one of the Ukrainian army’s best infantry fighting vehicles: the Swedish-made BAE Systems Hägglunds CV-90. A video that circulated online this week depicts soldiers from the army’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade training with the 37-ton, tracked IFV at a training facility in the Ukrainian rear.
The pairing makes sense. The 93rd is one of the army’s most experienced brigades and should make good use of the Swedish vehicle. The CV-90 boasts excellent day-night optics, a powerful 40-millimeter cannon and thick armor. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky described the IFV as “robust.”
Despite apparently lending some of its troops to Ukraine’s southern command in order to bolster the command’s initial counterattacks along the Mokri Yaly River Valley in early June, the 93rd usually fights under the eastern command.
That’s the same command that oversees the army’s new 21st Mechanized Brigade, the “Swedish brigade” that was the first to ride the CV-90s into battle back in July. It’s more efficient, logistically speaking, for the Ukrainian army to concentrate similar vehicles in the same sectors of the 600-mile front line.
What’s odd is that Stockholm in January announced it would donate to Ukraine only around 50 CV90s. The Russians already have damaged two of the nine-person IFVs and captured one. The damaged CV-90s should return to the front following repairs, but all the same: 49 IFVs isn’t a lot of IFVs when you’re splitting them between two brigades.
A Ukrainian brigade typically has four front-line battalions, each with at least 30 tanks or IFVs. It’s possible the 21st and 93rd are deploying understrength battalions, each with just a couple of dozen CV-90s.
It also is possible Sweden quietly sent Ukraine more than 50 CV90s. It’s worth noting that the Swedish government isn’t like the U.S. government: it doesn’t always disclose all the details of major arms-transfers.
When Sweden gifted Ukraine 50 CV-90s, 10 Strv 122 tanks and eight Archer howitzers—gifts it publically announced—it also gave Ukraine at least one Bgbv 90 armored recovery vehicle, but never announced it. We found out about the Bgbv 90 transfer because one of the vehicles appeared in a photo from the front in July.
Sweden has CV-90s to spare. It’s got more than 500 of the IFVs in its inventory and additional vehicles in production. Earlier this month, Stockholm and Kyiv also inked a deal for joint production of CV-90s in Ukrainian factories.
It might be years before those factories are ready, but it’s possible Sweden is fronting additional CV-90s, on top of the initial 50 or so, as a sort of advance against future joint production.
Every CV-90 makes a difference. While Ukrainian brigades are attacking in the south and southeast, they’re defending in the northeast where the 21st Brigade is—and where the 93rd is likely to redeploy once it completes its CV-90 training.
This defensive campaign aims to defeat a powerful Russian countercounteroffensive targeting Ukrainian settlements west of occupied Kreminna. So far, it’s working. The Russians have much less ground in the northeast than the Ukrainians have gained in the south. All that Swedish hardware surely is a factor in this successful defense.
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