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Ukrainian Air Assault Forces

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The Ukrainian Air Assault Forces (Ukrainian: Десантно-штурмові війська України, romanized: Desantno-shturmovi viiska Ukrainy, pronounced [deˌsɑntno ʃtʊrmoˈvʲi ʋʲii̯ˈsʲka ʊkrɐˈjine], abbreviated as DShV[a] or AAFU), known until 2017 as the Ukrainian Airmobile Forces[b][6] are the airborne forces of Ukraine. After the Dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, several Ukraine-based units from the Soviet Airborne Forces were absorbed into the newly created Ukrainian Ground Forces, where they remained until 2016, when they separated to become one of five branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Air Assault Forces are in constant combat readiness. They are the high-mobility branch of the military, responsible for air assaults and military parachuting operations. Before the Russo-Ukrainian War they were also the main forces sent by Ukraine to peacekeeping missions around the world.[7] They are considered the elite of Ukraine's armed forces.[8]

Ukrainian Air Assault Forces
Десантно-штурмові війська України
Emblem of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces
Founded1992; 32 years ago (1992)
CountryUkraine
TypeRapid reaction force
RoleAirborne forces
Air assault infantry
Peacekeeping
Size35,000 (2024)[1]
Part ofArmed Forces of Ukraine
HeadquartersZhytomyr
PatronSaint Michael[2]
Motto(s)Завжди перші!
(Always first!)
Color of beret  Maroon
AnniversariesAir Assault Forces Day
(21 November)[3]
Engagements
Commanders
Current
commander		Brigadier General Ihor Skybiuk[5]
Insignia
Flag
Garrison color
Shoulder sleeve insignia
Beret insignia

History

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A VDV soldier in 2011

The Ukrainian Airmobile Forces were created in 1992 as part of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, from units of the Soviet Airborne Forces (VDV) stationed on Ukrainian territory after the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 25 December 1991.[9] Part of the Soviet 98th Guards Airborne Division became the basis for the Ukrainian 1st Airmobile Division, which became known as the most capable division in the Ukrainian ground forces during the 1990s.[10]

In the 15 years after their creation, Ukrainian paratroopers have served in peacekeeping missions to the Balkans, in Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ethiopia, Georgia and DR Congo. In 2007, the 13th Separate Airmobile Battalion served as part of Polish–Ukrainian Peace Force Battalion, a peacekeeping unit with Kosovo Force.[7]

War in Donbas and beyond

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In August 2014 the 95th Air Assault Brigade conducted a raid behind the separatist lines. The 95th Brigade, which had been reinforced with armor assets and attachments, launched a surprise attack on separatist lines, broke through into their rear areas, fought for 450 kilometers, and destroyed or captured numerous Russian tanks and artillery pieces before returning to Ukrainian lines and established a corridor in which the Ukrainian army units and civilians trapped at the border could retreat. It was one of the longest armored raids in military history.[11]

In 2016, the Ukrainian Airmobile Forces became an independent branch of the Armed Forces. Previously, they were part of Ground Forces.[12]

On 21 November 2017 (Ukraine's Paratroopers' Day) President Petro Poroshenko stated that 469 Ukrainian paratroopers had been killed in the (ongoing) Russo-Ukrainian War.[13] On 21 November 2018 he adjusted this to 487 killed.[14]

 
Air Assault soldiers in 2018.

2017 reforms

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Air Assault Forces Day was celebrated on 2 August in Ukraine, as it was in the Soviet Union, until 2017, when it changed to 21 November 2017.[15][3] President Poroshenko said "It is logical to celebrate your professional holiday on November 21. The usual August 2 is the date of the first jump of paratroopers in the Moscow Military District. How is it about us? Moscow is not Kyiv. Ukraine is not Russia."[16] He added that "The start of the new Paratroop Day is part of the Ukrainianization of the historical and political calendar – the replacement of the Soviet-Russian imposed upon us."[17]

On 21 November 2017 the Air Assault Forces received its new insignia – the dome of a parachute "as a symbol of airborne units around the world" and the wings of Archangel Michael and "the flaming sword with which he hits the enemies".[13] The color of the Ukrainian paratroopers was changed to maroon,[13] and from 2017 the UkrAAF wear the maroon berets common to many Western airborne units.

On 23 May 2018, President Poroshenko signed legislation that renamed the Airmobile Forces as the Air Assault Forces.[18]

Russian invasion

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Main article: Russian invasion of Ukraine

Beginning Thursday, 24 February 2022, the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine,[19] the UkrAAF have been participants of some of the land combat actions of the current conflict, fighting alongside their brethen from the Ground Forces, Territorial Defense and the National Guard.

As of February 20, 2024, the air assault forces suffered a total of 3,104 soldiers killed in action, according to publicly available information.[20]

Organization

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In 2014, the staffing of an airmobile brigade was brought up to 1,200 servicemen. Each brigade was given at least one artillery battalion from the 25th and 55th artillery brigades and a tank battalion. Currently, the total staffing of the brigades ranges from 1,000 to 2,200 personnel, depending on the deployment. Most of the brigades operate in 1-2 battalion tactical groups, in each of which, in addition to infantry battalions, there are up to two field artillery battalions and at least one tank company equipped with BTRs and BMP IFVs.

Organization 2001

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In 2001 the Airmobile Force consisted of:[21]

Unit Base # Location Status
Headquarters 1st Airmobile Division А0220 Bolhrad inactive since 2003
25th Airborne Brigade А1126 Hvardiiske (Dnipropetrovsk Oblast)
45th Airmobile Brigade А1533 Bolhrad
27th Mechanized Brigade А0664 Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi
91st Artillery Regiment А0242 Veselyi Kut
95th Airmobile Brigade А0281 Zhytomyr
79th Airmobile Regiment А0224 Mykolaiv
80th Airmobile Regiment А0284 Lviv
1st Airmobile Division
Separate Brigade
Separate Regiments
 
Ukrainian Air Assault Forces organization 2017

Current Structure

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Air Assault Forces brigades 2023
  Airborne   Air Assault   Airmobile   Jaeger
Composition of Air Assault Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine[22]
  Air Assault Forces General Command A3771 Zhytomyr, Zhytomyr Oblast Commander Maj. Gen. Maxim Myrhorodskyi
  135th Headquarters Battalion[23] A3771 Zhytomyr, Zhytomyr Oblast Commander Lt. Col. Vadym Kinzerskyi
  VII Air Assault Corps
  87th Management Battalion[24]
  25th Airborne Brigade A1126 Hvardiiske, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Commander Colonel Yuriy Sodol
  46th Airmobile Brigade A4350 Poltava, Poltava Oblast Commander Col. Valeriy Skred
  71st Jaeger Brigade A4030 Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast
  77th Airmobile Brigade A4355 Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast
  78th Assault Regiment "Herts" A7788 Commander Col. Vyacheslav Ponamarenko
 

 
 

79th Air Assault Brigade A0224
  • n/a
  • n/a
 Mykolaiv, Mykolaiv Oblast
  • n/a
  • n/a
 Commander Col. Oleksandr Lutsenko
  • Commander "Phoenix"
  • Commander Maj. Roman Kasyanchuk
  80th Air Assault Brigade A0284 Lviv, Lviv Oblast Commander Col. Emil Ishkulov
 

 
 
 

81st Airmobile Brigade A2120
  • A1493
  • A0641
  • A4165
 Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast Col. Oleksandr Lykhman
  • Commander Lt. Col Oleg Chuyko
  • Commander Maj. Vladyslav Tsiba
  • Commander Maj. Oleksandr Lunyov
  82nd Air Assault Brigade A2582 Chernivtsi, Chernivtsi Oblast Commander Lt. Col. Pavlo Rozlach
 

 

95th Air Assault Brigade A0281
  • A1910
 Zhytomyr, Zhytomyr Oblast Commander Col. Oleg Apostol
  • Commander Maj. Oleksandr Porhun
  132nd Reconnaissance Battalion А2298 Ozerne, Zhytomyr Oblast Commander Maj. Yuriy Hupalyuk
  148th Separate Artillery Brigade A3316 Zhytomyr, Zhytomyr Oblast Commander Col. Maksym Lanovy
  421st Separate Battalion of Unmanned Systems [uk] in formation
Educational parts[22]
  199th Training and Education Center
  • 37th Combined Military Training Ground
    • Airborne Training School (as part of 37th)
 A2900
  • A0339
 Zhytomyr, Zhytomyr Oblast
Support Units[22]
  Commander's Office of Amphibious Support[25]
  33rd Engineering Battalion A4733
  71st Center for Moral and Psychological Support Commander Lt. Col. Serhii Shevchuk
  102nd Separate Storage Warehouse for Airborne Equipment А3749 Zhytomyr, Zhytomyr Oblast
  124th Topographic Unit[22] A1977 Zhytomyr, Zhytomyr Oblast
  170th Separate Logistic Battalion A4633 Korostyshiv, Zhytomyr Oblast
  232nd Unified Support Base A0310 Vinnytsia, Vinnytsia Oblast
  25th Garrison of Airborne Assault Troops Officers
  12th Center for the Protection of State Secrets A4223
  347th Information and Telecommunications Node[22] A0876 Zhytomyr, Zhytomyr Oblast

Commanders

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The flag of Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief of the Air Assault Forces
Name Rank Period of command
Vitaly Raevsky Major general 1992–1998
Ivan Yakubets [uk] Colonel 1998–2005
Serhiy Lysovyi [uk] Colonel 2005–2012
Oleksandr Shvets Colonel 2012–2015
Mykhailo Zabrodskyi Lieutenant general March 2015[26][27] – August 2019[28]
Yevhen Moisiuk Major general August 2019[28] – 9 August 2021
Maksym Myrhorodskyy [uk] Major general 9 August 2021[29] – 11 February 2024
Ihor Skybiuk Brigadier general 11 February 2024[5] – present

Armament

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A BTR-4
 
A AT-105 Saxon
 
A T-80BV of the 95th Air Assault Brigade
 
A Ukrainian soldier with a KrAZ Spartan prepares to engage the opposition force during an air assault at Exercise Rapid Trident 16, July 2016

Personal firearms

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  • PM, semi-automatic pistol (9×18mm)
  • Fort-14 [ru; uk]
  • AKS-74,[30] para assault rifle (AK-74 with folding skeleton buttstock) (5.45×39mm)
  • AKS-74U, short-barreled para assault rifle carbine with folding skeleton buttstock(5.45×39mm)
  • AKMS, para assault rifle with a downward-folding metal stock similar to that of the German MP40 (7.62×39mm)
  • AK-TK [ru] – AK-74 modernization
  • Fort-221 – TAR-21 licensed copy
  • RPKS-74, the light weight para machinegun (5.45×39mm)
  • PKM, general purpose machine gun (7.62×54mmR)
  • Dragunov SVDS sniper rifle (7.62×54mmR)
  • GP-25 and GP-30, the under-barrel 40 mm grenade launchers for fragmentation and gas grenades which are attached to AKS-74 of some paratroopers to increase firepower for combating enemy foot troops
  • AGS-17 "Plamya" (Flame),[31] automatic grenade launcher – may be replaced in the future by a much lighter UAG-40.[32]

Armored vehicles

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Artillery

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  • M777 howitzer
  • 2S9 "Nona-S" configuration of 2S9 Nona, 120 mm self-propelled mortar[33]
  • 2S23 Nona-SVK
  • 2S1 Gvozdika
  • 2S3 Akatsiya
  • BM-21 Grad
  • ZU-23-2,[33] an aged but effective and powerful design of a double barrel 23 mm anti-aircraft gun, commonly used against infantry and even APCs and IFVs, it is either mounted on any amphibious hulls, usually based on PT-76 light tank, or can be towed by jeep or truck as it has wheels.

Vehicles

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  •  
    A KRAZ Spartan
  •  
    A MTLB
  •  
    Soldiers prepare for movement during Saber Junction-2018.
  •  
    Soldiers during Saber Junction-2018
  •  
    VDV troops in a military parade in 2014, when they still wore sky-blue berets and telnyashka shirts like their Russian counterparts
  •  
    Flag of the Airmobile forces until 2017
  •  
    Shoulder sleeve insignia until 2017
  •  
    Former emblem

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Ukrainian: ДШВ
  2. ^ Ukrainian: Високомобільні десантні війська України, romanized: Vysokomobilni desantni viiska Ukrainy, lit. 'High-mobility airborne forces of Ukraine', abbreviated as VDV (Ukrainian: ВДВ)

References

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  1. ^ The Military Balance 2022. International Institute for Strategic Studies. February 2022. ISBN 978-1-00-062003-0.
  2. ^ (in Ukrainian) Instead of airborne troops in Ukraine there will be Airborne Assault Troops, BBC Ukrainian (21 November 2017)
  3. ^ a b (in Ukrainian) Day of paratroopers decided to move Archived 2017-11-10 at the Wayback Machine, Ukrayinska Pravda (8 November 2017)
  4. ^ (in Ukrainian) Since the beginning of the conflict in the Donbas killed 415 Marines Archived 2016-08-07 at the Wayback Machine, Ukrayinska Pravda (2 August 2016)
  5. ^ a b "Zelensky appoints 4 new high-level military commanders". The Kyiv Independent. 11 February 2024. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
  6. ^ "Основні показники реформування Міністерства оборони та Збройних Сил у 2016 році". 2020-09-21. Archived from the original on 21 September 2020. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  7. ^ a b "Ukrainian paratroopers celebrate 15th anniversary" (PDF). KFOR Chronicle. 31 August 2007. p. 23. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 September 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  8. ^ "Combat training of Ukrainian troopers: They aren't called Ukrainian Armed Forces' elite for nothing, - Poroshenko on Ukrainian commandoes. PHOTOS (16.08.18 16:54) « Incidents | Censor.NET". 16 August 2018. Archived from the original on 2019-01-04. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
  9. ^ Kobasa, Askold I. (December 1995). A Strategic-Military Analysis of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Naval Postgraduate School. p. 53. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
  10. ^ Kobasa, Askold I. (December 1995). A Strategic-Military Analysis of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Naval Postgraduate School. p. 112. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
  11. ^ "21st Century Maneuver | Marine Corps Association". www.mca-marines.org. Archived from the original on 2017-08-25. Retrieved 2017-08-24.
  12. ^ "Основні показники реформування Міністерства оборони та Збройних Сил у 2016 році". www.ukrmilitary.com. 4 August 2017. Archived from the original on 2017-09-07. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  13. ^ a b c "Poroshenko: 469 Ukrainian paratroopers killed in Donbas amid war". www.unian.info. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
  14. ^ "Some 487 Ukrainian paratroopers killed in Donbas hostilities". Interfax-Ukraine. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
  15. ^ "Ukraine marks 25th Airmobile Forces anniversary". www.unian.info. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
  16. ^ President: The Day of Airborne Forces will be celebrated on November 21 Archived 2017-11-23 at the Wayback Machine, Presidential Administration of Ukraine (21 November 2017)
  17. ^ (in Ukrainian) President: Day of Airborne Assault Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be celebrated on November 21 Archived 2017-11-21 at the Wayback Machine, Presidential Administration of Ukraine (21 November 2017)
  18. ^ Poroshenko enacts law on Ukraine's Air Assault Forces. UNIAN. Published 23 May 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  19. ^ "Conflict in Ukraine". Global Conflict Tracker. Council on Foreign Relations. 28 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  20. ^ "UA Losses".
  21. ^ "№ 477-р від 3 грудня 2001 року "Про шефство Дніпропетров". Archived from the original on October 3, 2011.
  22. ^ a b c d e "Високомобільні десантні війська". Ukrainian Military Pages. Archived from the original on 2 September 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
  23. ^ "Структура ВДВ". Archived from the original on 25 August 2016.
  24. ^ "87-мий окремий батальйон".
  25. ^ "У владі неба. В Десантно-штурмових військах сформований новий підрозділ". Archived from the original on 27 January 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  26. ^ "President conferred the rank of Brigadier General to commander of the Airborne Forces Mykhailo Zabrodskyi". Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. 2 August 2015. Archived from the original on 3 August 2016. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  27. ^ "Mykhailo Zabrodskyi appointed as new chief of ATO forces". www.unian.info. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
  28. ^ a b Ukraine's Major General Moisiuk appointed Commander of Airborne Assault Troops, UNIAN (21 August 2019)
  29. ^ "Maksym Myrhorodskyy appointed commander of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces". Militarnyy. 9 August 2021. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  30. ^ S stands for skladnoy (Russian: складной), means folding. Issued only for parachute-landing purposes
  31. ^ "MoD News Article". Archived from the original on June 7, 2011.
  32. ^ "Automatic grenade launcher UAG-40". www.lk.com.ua. Public Company Leninska Kuznya Plant. Archived from the original on 2016-06-02. Retrieved 2016-06-06.
  33. ^ a b "MoD News Article". Archived from the original on June 7, 2011.
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