Ukrainian Ground Forces

On their establishment in 1991, the Armed Forces of Ukraine included approximately 780,000 personnel, 7,000 armored vehicles, 6,500 tanks, and 2,500 tactical nuclear missiles. However, the problem that Ukraine face was that while it had vast armed forces, it lacked a proper command structure. Therefore, on 24 August 1991, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ratified the resolution of taking under its control, all military units of former Soviet Armed Forces, situated on the territory of Ukraine; and in turn the establishment of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine.

Armed Forces of Ukraine

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Following the declaration of Ukrainian independence in 1991, Ukraine inherited the 1st Guards Army, 13th Army, 38th Army, two tank armies (the 6th Guards Tank Army and the 8th Tank Army), and the 32nd Army Corps (32-й Кенигсберский армейский корпус) at Simferopol. In addition, the 28th Guards Motor Rifle Division (MRD) and the 180th MRD were left in Ukraine, having been previously under the 14th Guards Army headquartered at Tiraspol in the Moldovan SSR. The post of commander of ground troops was designated in early 1992. By the end of 1992, the Kiev Military District disbanded, and Ukraine used its structures as the basis for the Ministry of Defence and the General Staff.[11] Between June and August 1993, the first redesignation of armies to army corps appears to have taken place.[12] While the chief of ground forces post had been created in early 1992, it was over two years before the first holder, Colonel General Vasily Sobkov, was appointed on 7 April 1994.[13] The legal framework for the Ground Forces was defined in Article 4 of the law 'On the Armed Forces of Ukraine.' At that time, the Ground Forces had no separate command body, and were directly subordinate to the Ukrainian General Staff.

The creation of the Ground Forces as a separate armed service was enacted by Presidential Decree 368/96 of 23 May 1996, 'On the Ground Forces of Ukraine.'[14] That year both the Ground Forces Command was formed and the 1st Army Corps was reorganised as the Northern Territorial Operational Command (which became the Northern Operational Command in 1998). In 1997 the Carpathian Military District was reorganised as the Western Operational Command.

From 1992 to 1997, the forces of the Kiev MD were transferred to the Odessa MD, and the Odessa MD's headquarters moved to Donetsk.[15] A new 2nd Army Corps was formed in the Odessa MD. Armies were converted to army corps, and motor rifle divisions converted into mechanised divisions or brigades. Pairs of attack helicopter regiments were combined to form army aviation brigades.

President Leonid Kuchma revealed in a December 1996 speech that as many as 191 mechanised infantry and tank battalions were rated not ready, adding,"This is especially dangerous in the forward-based units securing the nation's borders."[16]

According to a plan promulgated in 2000 the Ground Forces were to reduce the number of troops from the then 300,000 to 240,000 by 2015, and an ultimate change from a partial conscript-based force to a fully professional military.[17] The Armed Forces received little more than half of the Hr 68 million it was promised for reform in 2001, but managed to disband nine regiments and close 21 local military bases.[nb 1]

In 2005–06, the Northern Operational Command was reorganised as Territorial Directorate "North". It was tasked with territorial defence, mobilisation training, and preparation of reserves.[18][nb 2]

From 1991 the Ukrainian Ground Forces bought its military equipment only from Russia and other CIS states, as well as locally producing some of their own equipment.[3][4] Until 2014 and the start of the War in Donbass, the defence industry in Ukraine produced equipment mostly for export.[20][3]

In the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution, Russian special forces in unmarked uniforms began surrounding Ukrainian military bases on the Crimean peninsula before capturing them individually using a mixture of attrition and threats.[21] Over the following weeks the Russian Armed Forces consolidated control of the peninsula and established road blocks to cut off the possibility of Ukraine sending reinforcements from the mainland.[22] By the end of March, all remaining Ukrainian troops were ordered to pull out of Crimea.[23] The Ukrainian Army was considered to be in a poor state during and after the annexation with only 6,000 of its troops ready for combat and many of its vehicles lacking batteries.[24] After Russia's annexation only 6,000 of the 20,300 Ukrainian soldiers stationed in Crimea before the annexation left the peninsula. The rest stayed in Crimea.[25]

In the early months of the War in Donbass that erupted in 2014 the Armed Forces were widely criticised for their poor equipment and inept leadership, forcing Internal Affairs Ministry forces like the National Guard and the territorial defence battalions to take on the brunt of the fighting in the first months of the war.[26][27]

By February 2018 the Ukrainian armed forces were larger and better equipped, numbering 200,000 active-service military personnel and most of the volunteer soldiers of the territorial defence battalions were integrated into the official Ukrainian army.[28]

Within the reporting period of 16 November 2017 to 15 February 2018 a United Nations OHCHR monitoring mission documented 115 cases of credible allegations of human rights abuses committed by Ukrainian military personnel.[29] The nature of the crimes ranges from enforced disappearances, looting of civilian property, torture, rape and sexual violence up to political repression and extrajudicial killings.[29]

In 2007 the system of exercise/training ranges was optimized, decreasing their number and providing a specialized role.[34]

Schooling occurs at:

• 169th Training Center – (Desna / 50°55'35"N 30°45'27"E) – Home to army initial training, for all personnel entering the Army, it is also houses the 169th Teaching Brigade which homes in the tactics and skills of tankers and mechanized/motorized infantrymen.
• Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi National Ground Forces Academy – (Lviv / 49°49'28"N 24°1'2"E) – It is an academy for all officer cadets seeking a commission, an equivalent of the American West Point and British Sandhurst.
• Ivan Chernyakhovsky National Defense University of Ukraine – (Kiev / 50°25'57"N 30°27'52"E) – Teaches specialization like foreign languages, book keeping, cryptology, study of armaments, logistics, etc.
• Ivan Bohun Military High School – (Kiev / 50°25'24"N 30°32'43"E) – A JROTC style boarding school which has curriculum identical to Ukraine's public schools with added focus on military teachings and discipline.
• Korolev Signals Institute – (Zhytomyr / 50°17'6"N 28°36'54"E) – Teaches theory and practice of electromagnetic waves and their uses in communication, radio location, eavesdropping, and jamming.
• Military Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technologies – (Kiev / 50°25'18"N 30°33'25"E) – Teaches subjects of: Computer Science, Systems engineering, Telecommunications, Security Information and Communication Systems, Systems of technical protection of information, Electronic military administration.[35]
• Odessa Artillery Academy

Training ranges are at:

A Ukrainian soldier prepares to engage the opposition force during an air assault at Exercise Rapid Trident 16 July 3, 2016

Ukrainian Army T-64BM during a training exercise

Mechanised Infantry and armoured forces are the primary components of the Ukrainian Ground Forces. Their primary objectives in case of war are capturing and holding targets, maintaining positions, defending against attack, penetrating enemy lines and defeating enemy forces.

The mechanised and armoured forces are equipped with a combination of modern T-80, T-64[36] T-64BM "Bulat"[37] (T-64BV Model 2017, T-64BV) and T-72UA1 main battle tanks;[38][39][40] BTR-4, BTR-60, BTR-70 and BTR-80, wheeled armored personnel carriers and BMP-1, BMP-2 and BMD-2 infantry combat vehicles.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, a large number of the previous Soviet mechanised formations on Ukrainian soil have been disbanded – the IISS says totals have dropped from 14 divisions, in 1992, to two divisions, six brigades, and one independent regiment in 2008.[41] Today, all mechanised and armoured formations are called brigades.

The Ukrainian Ground Forces also include two mountain infantry brigades and the newly formed 61st Jager brigade, reformed from the 61st Motorized Infantry in 2019.[42]

• 10th Mountain Brigade
• 128th Mountain Brigade
• 61st Jager Infantry Brigade

Army Aviation provides reconnaissance, tactical fire support and air transport for the Ukrainian Ground Forces. As of 2017 Ukraine's army fields four Army Aviation brigades:

• 11th Army Aviation Brigade, Kherson
• 12th Army Aviation Brigade, Novyi Kalyniv
• 16th Army Aviation Brigade, Brody
• 18th Army Aviation Brigade, Poltava

The Army Aviation's maintenance facility is the 57th Aviation Base in Brody. The service's equipment includes: Mi-2, Mi-8, Mi-9, Mi-24 and Mi-26 helicopters.

The Army Air Defence units are responsible for protecting troops against enemy air attacks anywhere on the battlefield, and while in combat. The Ukrainian Ground Forces army air defence branch is equipped with a variety of effective surface-to-air missile systems of division level and anti-aircraft missile and artillery complexes of regiment level. Regiment level units are characterized by their high rate of fire, vitality, maneuverability, and capability of action under all conditions of modern combat arms operations. Surface-to-air missile systems and complexes of division level are characterized by their long range and firepower and are equipped with surface-to-air missile complexes; S-300V, Osa, Buk, Buk-M1 and Tor. While anti-aircraft missile and artillery complexes that are of regiment level are equipped with the Tunguska-M1, Igla MANPADS system, Strela, and Shilka anti-aircraft missile systems.[43]

The army's only separate radar system, meaning it isn't a part of any anti-aircraft system, is the Ukrainian Kolchuga-M. It was designed sometime between the years 1993–1997, the system is said to be one of the most advanced passive sensors in the world, as it is claimed to be able to detect stealth aircraft.[44]

• 
  T-64
• 
  BTR-4
• 
  2S3 Akatsiya
• 
  Humvee
• 
  KrAZ-6322
• 
  2K22 Tunguska
• 
  Mil Mi-24

The Ukrainian Army unveiled its new uniforms on 24 August 2016 (Independence Day of Ukraine).[50] The new uniforms are modeled on British military styles.[50] They also incorporate details from the uniforms worn by the Ukrainian People's Army.[50] The new cap includes an insignia of a Ukrainian Cossack grasping a cross.[50]

Henadii Lachkov, commander of the Ukrainian contingent in Iraq, kisses his country's flag

Ukraine deployed a sizable contingent of troops to the Iraq War, these were stationed near Kut. Ukraine's troop deployment was the second largest of all former Soviet states besides Georgia and they deployed more soldiers to the nation then many members of NATO such as Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Ukraine also suffered the fifth highest casualty toll during the war, with only Polish, Italian, UK, and US forces suffering heavier losses.[51]

From 2003–2005 over 1,700 Ukrainian soldiers were deployed to Iraq, the third-largest contingent at the time, they were designated to the 5th Mechanized Brigade (Ukraine), as in Ukraine's mission to Kosovo the troops deployed were contract soldiers and not conscripts. Ukraine began to severely draw down its troop levels in Iraq in 2005 due to mounting casualties and the political toxicity of the conflict. By 2005 only 876 soldiers, roughly half of the original contingent were deployed, by years end troop levels dropped to below 100. In 2008, one year before the official end of the US military mission, President Viktor Yushchenko ordered all remaining troops deployed to Iraq to be returned home and Ukraine's mission to the nation officially over.[52]

Since 2001, Ukraine allowed United States military cargo planes to fly over and refuel on Ukrainian soil on their way to Afghanistan. In 2007 Ukraine deployed a detachment of the 143rd De-mining Center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to Afghanistan. Ukraine has kept a team of soldiers deployed to Afghanistan as part of ISAF since 2007, these mostly consisted of pilots, medical officers, and bomb disposal experts. Ukrainian pilots were responsible for training the pilots of the Afghan Air Force on the operation of several air craft as Afghanistan's forces consisted of many Soviet designed aircraft such as the Mi-17 with which Ukrainian troops were very familiar with. In 2013, the contingent of troops in Afghanistan totaled 26 troops. As of 2014 the Ukrainian contingent was further drawn down and the team included 8 bomb disposal experts and several medical officers.[53]

Ukrainian forces have also been deployed to Kosovo since 2000 as part of the 600 man Polish–Ukrainian Peace Force Battalion. In August 2014, Ukraine ended its mission to Kosovo due to the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[54]

Ukrainian peacekeeping forces have been deployed to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Sudan and South Sudan and Cote d'Ivoire. Ukrainian forces have also been requested to take a more active role in the Northern Mali Conflict of 2012 in battling Islamic forces. One of the largest deployments is the 18th Separate Helicopter Unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine which consisted of 160 servicemen and four Mi-24P helicopters and was deployed to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2011.[55]

• International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2006.
• Yuriy Yurchnya, 'The Armed Forces of Ukraine,' Geneva Centre for DCAF, 2010.