The 18th CAA was formed in June 2023 in
Crimea as part of the
Southern Military District. According to
Oleg Marzoev, a reserve officer in the
58th Guards Combined Arms Army, the unit was formed on the basis of the 22nd Army Corps of the
Russian Coastal Troops and the newly formed 40th Army Corps. This has come as part of a larger move by the
Russian Ministry of Defense to strip ground units away from the
Russian Navy, in this case the
Black Sea Fleet. As of August 2023, the unit was commanded by
Lieutenant General Arkady Marzoev. Oleg Marzoev claimed that at the time of its formation, the 18th CAA was "one of the largest" units in the Russian Army and that the unit was deployed to southern
Kherson Oblast. In August 2023, the
United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense assessed that the 18th CAA was deployed there to free up more experienced Russian units, namely the
Russian Airborne Forces, to redeploy to the western
Zaporizhzhia Oblast sector to defend against the
2023 Ukrainian offensive. Since July 2024, according to the
United Nations commision, commanders and drone units of the 18th CAA have participated in the terror campaign against the civilian population of the Kherson Oblast, known as "
Human Safari" and classified by the UN as a
crime against humanity: "The Russian
Telegram channels that have posted footage of attacks and threatening text have mentioned drone units of the 18th Combined Arms Army and the “Dnepr” Group of Forces of the Russian armed forces as responsible for many of the drone attacks. The Commission’s investigations have confirmed that these military entities have been operating in Kherson Province and have identified some of their commanders, as well as some drone units involved in the attacks. (...) Many posts shared on these channels point to links between them and units of the above-mentioned 18th Combined Arms Army and the “Dnepr” Group of Forces." ==Structure==