In 1992, after the
Dissolution of the Soviet union, the 156th Anti-aircraft Missile Brigade of the
14th Guards Combined Arms Army headquartered in
Moldova, took the oath of loyalty to Ukraine on 12 January 1992 becoming the 156th Anti-aircraft Missile Regiment. In 2007, the Regiment was relocated from
Oleksiivka in
Odesa Oblast to
Donbass, one division of the regiment was stationed in
Avdiivka and the other two went to
Luhansk and
Mariupol. On 20 May 2008, the regiment was given the honorary name "Donetsk". At the start of
War in Donbass, the regiment was evacuated to
Zolotonosha in
Cherkasy Oblast where it is currently headquartered. The formerly "
Avdiivka" division saw deployment at Zenit base on the southeastern outskirts of
Avdiivka, east of
Opytne, equipped with typical firing positions for air defense complexes, underground communications and service buildings. Starting from mid April until mid June 2014, separatists protested in front of the regiment's Zenit base, proposing to them to defect so the servicemen retaliated by air firing, crowd dispersal and barricades. The
3rd Separate Special Purpose Regiment (Ukraine) was also sent to the base to protect it. On the morning of 21 June 2014, the base was subjected to massive shelling from mortars and large-caliber machine guns destroying the radio equipment of the Regiment, followed by a separatist assault capturing the HQ of the 156th Regiment, some servicemen of the 156th regiment defected to the separatists. The 156th regiment continued fighting using
ZU-23-2s and
RPG-22s. From 10 July, the
First Battle of Donetsk Airport started and the 156th regiment struck separatists from its positions at Zenith base destroying separatist vehicles. On 18 July, units from the
93rd Mechanized Brigade came to Zenith base with a force consisting of four tanks and a pair of
BMP-2s. On 19 July, separatists surrounded the Zenith base but as the positions were heavily fortified there were no human casualties but parked vehicles of the 93rd brigade were destroyed forcing the 73rd Brigade to be withdrawn on 20 July. On July 21, fighting around the airport intensified again, so the 156th regiment provided support by destroying two separatist vehicles after which its positions were subjected to many hours of separatist fire from small arms, mortars, a tank and even
BM-21 Grads killing a soldier of the regiment. After a month, the "Avdiivka" division of the 156th regiment was transferred to
Zolotonosha as the Zenit position was handed over to
Wild Duck Detachment. On 3 September 2014, personnel from the
Dnipro-1 Regiment were ambushed and besieged near the village of
Pisky on the highway between
Avdiivka and
Donetsk. So the 156th regiment was sent as backup providing fire support using
ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns lifting the siege but during the engagement a soldier of the regiment (Boris Sergeyevich Kozak) was killed by sniper fire. On 11 July 2015, a soldier of the regiment (Oleksandr Volodymyrovych Baranenko) was killed by a separatist sniper whilst serving in the
ATO zone. On.13 May 2016, a soldier of the regiment (Kostyantyn Valentynovich Grinchenko) was killed from the wounds suffered as a result of an earlier engagement with separatists. On 25 February 2022, the second day of the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, the convoy of the 156th regiment was on the way to the front lines when Russian strike helicopters attacked it destroying a battery and killing a soldier of the regiment (Bereza Serhii Hryhorovych). On 24 August 2022, the regiment was awarded the honorary award "
For Courage and Bravery". ==Structure==