The 59th Shkval Battalion: Holding the Front in Dnipro
DNIPRO OBLAST — In a sloped wide green field somewhere in the Dnipro region, soldiers practice basic infantry maneuvers — firing RPG rounds and clearing trenches. These men belong to a “Shkval” battalion, a unit made up of former prisoners who signed contracts with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense in exchange for their freedom after the war.
Several “Shkval” battalions were formed in Ukraine in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion, but this particular unit belongs to the 59th Separate Assault Brigade. These soldiers, with little in common other than having found themselves on the wrong side of the law, must now rely on each other to stay alive as they prepare to head to the Pokrovsk front, one of the fiercest of the war at the time of writing.
The men are rotated from training position to training position on the range in order to give them a varied training experience on different skills and weapon systems. Today, they’re training on AKM rifle and heavy machine gun platforms; practicing trench-clearing; and training on basic drone piloting (albeit on a makeshift drone crafted out of PVC pipe, which jams almost immediately after it is deployed).
After 21 days of training following their basic, these men plan to ship off to the front in the Donetsk region. However, if the Russian advance continues at pace in southern Donetsk — a prospect which now seems all but certain — then the fighting will soon reach these fields in the Dnipro region.
The fields in this case are known as the “Wild Fields,” in accordance with the name given to this region of the Pontic Steppe during the 16th century.
The Wild Fields were at one time strongly fortified in an attempt to keep out nomadic peoples and encourage safe settlement. However, the Mongol invasion and later Crimean Khanate raids into these lands would see more and more of the fortresses fall, pushing through to the northern lands of Kyiv, Cherkasy, Kam’yanets’-Podil’s’kyi, and Vinnytsia. The Wild Fields region became a near-ungoverned area outside of the reach of the monarchies that ruled the border regions. In fact, the Pontic Steppe has historically made this land ideal for the invasions of the Mongol hordes, the slave raids of the Crimean Khanate, both world wars, and now the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The historical solution to security in the wild fields was one military order that serves as a symbol for the modern state of Ukraine — the Cossacks.
Into the Wild Fields
The ’Wild Fields’ in Dnipro. // Photo credit: Devin Woodall, June 9, 2025
The origin of the word Cossack comes from the Turkic language word “kozak”, or “free man”. According to Ukrainian historian Orest Subtelny in his 1988 book Ukraine: A History, “the word Cossack originally referred to the free, masterless men who lacked a well-defined place in society and who lived on its unsettled periphery.” Being a Cossack was often the only pathway out of serfdom that those seeking their freedom could follow. While many misconceptions exist around the Cossacks of old, they were often highly disciplined soldiers, renowned sailors, and fierce guerrilla fighters who dared to fight battles that others would not. They traveled into these Wild Fields to reclaim a freedom that they could not otherwise get and they would not give up without a hardy fight.
Today, the men of the 59th “Shkval” unit could be viewed in a similar light as the Cossacks. Those men who “lacked a well-defined place in society” chose to pick up arms and fight for their nations, or their own, future.
“These “Wild Fields” of Ukraine’s Dnipro region, which has not seen large-scale ground combat since the Second World War, now face the ground advance of the Russian Armed Forces. Dnipro has largely served as a logistical hub since 2014, but the Russian army will likely soon cross into Dnipro, having reached their territorial borders this month. Russian shelling of the region escalated this year and Ukrainian engineers are working to prepare the area, their efforts visualized across the Dnipro region in the form of trench networks, anti-armor ‘Dragon’s Teeth’, tank traps, and barbed wire.
Reaching the city of Dnipro itself would require Russia to advance well over 100 kilometers into Ukrainian territory, across many villages, cities, and newly crafted defensive structures. This poses a costly task for Russian forces at their current rate of advance, but they have persisted onward, potentially threatening Dnipro city itself with artillery shelling and drone strikes should Russian forces achieve the depth necessary to carry out these operations in the area.
Even before that, larger villages and cities like Vasylkivka, Pokrovske, Shakhtarske, or even Pavlograd may be threatened, potentially forcing Ukraine to recalculate its defense of Zaporizhzhia. This has been a source of anxiety for commanders in Ukraine, and senior military leadership in Kyiv, ever since the fall of Velyka Novosilka in Donetsk oblast allowed Russian forces to attack Ukrainian defenses in Zaporizhzhia oblast from a weak point on the east flank, bypassing Ukraine’s main defenses on the south flank.
Russian military leadership has also repeatedly reiterated that one of their conditions for ceasefire is a withdrawal from the regional capital of Zaporizhzhia and the neighboring regions of Kherson, Donetsk, and Luhansk. With these enemy goals in mind, Ukrainian armed forces command has tried to prepare the region for its first-ever ground defense, pulling from new sources of manpower like the ‘Shkval’ battalion currently training in these fields.
Before the Storm
A “Shkval” soldier takes a moment of downtime from training. // Photo credit: Devin Woodall, May 15, 2025
Soldiers line up two by two, one behind the other, the rear man grasping his partner’s shoulder. Together these new Shkval brigade recruits trudge forward through a trench system, rifles ranged upwards.
”Bang bang!”, they shout in the most serious fashion they can manage. These men are fresh, having just begun rifle range training several days ago. Live ammunition is a precious commodity, and live fire training comes later, so for now they must settle for shoddy mimicry.
Shuffling forward, they crouch and mime the firing of their rifles while ducking and maneuvering around the tight corners of the trench. Perched on the ground above, an officer reaches down and drops a dummy grenade over their heads, causing the soldiers to duck, scurry, and dive over one another to avoid an imagined shrapnel injury.
In between dropping dummy grenades, the training officer looms overhead, chewing out soldiers whenever they slip up or make an error. When particularly upset, he drops the butt of his rifle into the trench, lightly bonking the soldier beneath him on the helmet.
These tactics may seem brash, but there is hardly any time to prepare these men for the grim reality of the front: they will be shipped out after around three more weeks of training. Considering the circumstances of their conscription, these men will be sent to some of the worst parts of the front to help stabilize the situation. They are like a firefighting team, as one commanding officer described, dispatched across the front to put out hotspots.
Still, the trainer has no control over the state of the men upon their arrival after basic training. He can only work to increase their odds of survival in the short time they have.
At the rifle range, a highly varied skill level is on display. Some shots hit their target, clanging neatly on the metal backstop. Others miss entirely, careening into the hillside with a thud and a puff of dirt. Another trainee, one of the older ones, collapses into exhaustion, laying down on the ground as soon as his range time has concluded. These shortcomings are typically drilled out during training, and though their time is abridged, there is still the hope that some lessons will get across.
Hometown Heroes
Commander “Makhno” of Kharkiv’s 113th Territorial Defense Brigade, “Phoenix Squad”. // Photo credit: Devin Woodall, May 20, 2025
Last month in Kharkiv oblast, OBR spoke to Commander ‘Makhno’ of the 113th Kharkiv Territorial Defense Brigade. Makhno is a local resident of Dnipro, and is also a ‘cyborg’, a nickname given to those who fought against overwhelming Russian power in the 2014 Battle of Donetsk Airport. The Dnipropetrovsk region, he said, has been suffering for a long time.
”Cities like Nikopol, Marhanets, and Kryvyi Rih, all of which are in Dnipropetrovsk oblast, are constantly under enemy fire,” he said.
Places like Nikopol have suffered heavy attacks from drones and artillery throughout the entire war. Cities like Kryvyi Rih and Marhanets, meanwhile, are often targeted with long-range ballistic missiles and Shahed drones. Dnipro has not been spared from the war simply because it has been spared from direct ground incursions.
“The front frontline is constantly moving,” Makhno emphasized. “Once again, the enemy infantry and their overall tactics are clear. If we don’t get our partners to commit to concrete actions soon, namely, if we don’t secure a steady supply of ammunition and equipment, then we won’t be able to keep up.”
Makhno’s solution is echoed time and time again by those in the military, yet the realm of global geopolitical diplomacy exists well beyond the auspices of reality on the ground: despite the necessity, Ukraine’s allies have faced consistent shortfalls in terms of weapons delivery and logistical support.
In the absence of sufficient equipment and able body and willing volunteers, Ukraine is increasingly dependent on alternative forms of manpower, like these Shkval battalions. Time will tell whether such buttresses are sufficient to hold off the Russian ground incursion into Dnipro, but whether ground invasion or standoff artillery and drone bombardment, one thing is certain: the war shows no signs of stopping any time soon.
