Ukraine Names New Leaders of Donetsk Military Groups

Ukraine has announced two newly revamped military groupings within in the Donetsk region entitled “Center” and “Azov.”The “Center” grouping will be headed by Brig. Gen. Andriy Biletsky, commander of Ukraine’s 3rd Army Corps, according to LIGA outlet, citing his deputy Rodion Kudryashov. Biletsky will continue to command the 3rd Army Corps while also leading the new grouping.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.Biletsky, 47, a Kharkiv native, is a trained historian and martial arts enthusiast. He first saw combat as a volunteer rifleman during Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014.When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, Biletsky raised a volunteer civilian unit to defend Kyiv. The unit was later converted into regular forces and expanded into the all-arms 3rd Army Corps, a crack formation at the forefront of Ukrainian tactical drone operations.The second grouping will be called “Azov” and is expected to be led by Brig. Gen. Denys “Redis” Prokopenko, commander of the 1st Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine “Azov,” according to a Hromadske source in the Defense Forces.Prokopenko, 35, is a Kyiv native who studied to become an English teacher, who first fought Russian troops in 2014 as a civilian volunteer.He is best known in Ukraine for leading the determined defense of the port city of Mariupol in 2022 and later for building the 1st National Guard Corps “Azov” into one of Ukraine’s hardest-fighting military formations. Azov Corps training emphasizes discipline and individual soldier skills. Other Topics of Interest Colombian Volunteers Fighting for Ukraine Capture Ground, Russian Defenses in Assault Kyiv-employed Colombians and their compadres used infantry+drone tactics; Russian milbloggers admit the Ukrainians are attacking. But the Kremlin seems to think the fight never happened. The naming of the two groupings follows President Volodymyr Zelensky’s announcement in late August that Ukraine would create two revamped military formations to strengthen its positions in the Donetsk region.“Our positions in the Donetsk region will be strengthened thanks to two renewed groups. The commanders will be Hero of Ukraine Denys Prokopenko and Hero of Ukraine Andriy Biletsky,” Zelensky said.He added that the decision was made in cooperation with the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), Mykhailo Drapaty, the General Staff and Defense Minister Yevhen Khmara.Maj. Robert Brovdi, commander of the AFU’s Unmanned Systems Forces (USF), said the reorganization would bring the two new groupings into closer coordination with the USF.“This is Smart War. The [parallel] Force Groupings of Redis (Prokopenko’s call sign) and Biletsky have been created. The time of network-centric war has come. There will be total synchronization with the USF. The time chain between sensor and shooter will be minimal,” Brovdi said in a statement on his Telegram channel.Two battle-hardened commandersBoth Prokopenko and Biletsky come from a younger than the Soviet-trained general officer corps that led the AFU at the time of Russia’s 2022 fuul-scale invasion.Biletsky’s 3rd Corps has been deployed for more than a year in the northern Donetsk region, defending a 150-kilometer (93-mile) sector between the city of Lyman and the village of Borova.Biletsky has said his troops are holding strong fortifications against which Russian attacks have made little or no progress. Independent monitors have confirmed limited but successful 3rd Corps counterattacks around Lyman between June and August.Prokopenko’s 1st Corps arrived in the Dobropillya sector, south of the 3rd Corps, in August 2025 as an emergency reaction force following a Russian breakthrough. The formation has since recaptured all lost ground.During the later stages of the counteroffensive, Zelensky broke with military precedent by approving Prokopenko’s temporary command of regular army units not normally subordinate to the 1st Corps.Ukrainian military analyst Vasyl Pekhno, speaking in a YouTube report on the AFU’s latest defense plans in the Donetsk region, said the appointments would give “two of our truly legendary commanders” new responsibilities.He said the move was intended to significantly reinforce Donetsk’s defensive sectors, including through stronger command and control.Pekhno also said Russian forces were seeking to secure positions around Ukrainian-held cities before winter, when the lack of vegetation would leave the battlefield more exposed.“They are trying to secure positions around the cities before the cold weather arrives, when there will be no vegetation – when the battlefield will become completely open and transparent, so to speak,” Pekhno said. “Remaining out in the fields over the winter means signing your own death warrant.”Yuriy Butusov, a serviceman and commander of a UAV company in the 13th Operational Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine “Khartia,” who also continues to work as a military journalist and editor-in-chief of Censor.net, said the appointments of Biletsky and Prokopenko were sensible and could strengthen Ukraine’s defenses.However, Butusov warned that Ukrainian positions in the Donetsk region are weakening under continued Russian attacks. He described the situation in Donbas as the biggest challenge Ukraine has faced during the war, saying it was highly unstable and required rapid decisions.“The enemy has come very close to Slovyansk. In fact, how close? They are practically on the outskirts of Slovyansk… At the moment, this is the main – the only, best – natural defensive line,” Butusov said. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.