The formation of the national armed forces in the modern sense dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century and coincides with the formation of the modern Ukrainian nation. In official history, this period is referred to as the "
Ukrainian War of Independence" or the "First Liberation Struggle." This process coincided with the end of the
First World War and the subsequent collapse of great European empires from previous centuries. The forerunner event was the creation of national military formations in the
Imperial and Royal Armies of
Austria-Hungary, namely the Legion of
Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, on which Ukrainian paramilitary organizations in Galicia were based: Sich Sports and Fire Brigade, "
Sokil" and the national scout organization "
Plast". After the upheavals of
World War I and on the verge of the collapse of empires, the Ukrainians tried again to return to sovereign statehood. As part of the growing disintegration in the ranks of the
Russian Imperial Army, national units began to form. After the Bolshevik coup,
hybrid warfare broke with the
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the
White Guard. During the undeclared war, the
Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic had already formed, but its formation was interrupted by the
German administration. It continued in a limited form after the establishment of
Hetman of Ukraine Pavlo Skoropadskyi's
Ukrainian State, known as the [Second] Hetmanate. The national armed forces continued to develop. The Armed Forces of the Ukrainian state were planned in a more systematic way than in previous versions, although previous development was used in this process, and many mistakes were also made. Uprisings against the Hetmanate's rule eventually resulted, and the reorientation of the
Central Powers who lost in World War I against the
Entente, which in turn supported the White Guard movement and the
Russian Empire as its original ally. Simultaneously with these events, after the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917, numerous military formations were formed on Ukrainian lands, including detachments of the
Free Cossacks,
Makhno's
Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, and the
Bolshevik Red Cossacks. The latter became the basis of the puppet armed forces of the
UkrSSR, and after the occupation of the
Ukrainian People's Republic were included in the
Red Army. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, the
Ukrainian Galician Army came to the defense of the
Western Ukrainian People's Republic, based on the formation of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen of the former Austro-Hungarian Army. During
World War II, Ukrainians tried to regain independence and organized armed units and formations, including the
Ukrainian Insurgent Army, but all of them were destroyed by Soviet authorities within a few years after the war, and Ukrainians were again forced to serve in the
Soviet Armed Forces.
Origins of the post-1992 Ukrainian Armed Forces By 1992, the Ukrainian Armed Forces had been completely inherited from the
Soviet Union, in which Ukraine had been a member state (a
union republic). Like other Soviet republics, it did not possess its own separate military command, as all military formations were uniformly subordinated to the central command of the Soviet Armed Forces. Administratively, the Ukrainian SSR was divided into three Soviet military districts (the
Carpathian Military District,
Kyiv Military District, and
Odesa Military District). Three Soviet air commands and most of the
Black Sea Fleet naval bases were located on the coast of Ukraine. Majority of the officers were educated in Soviet educational institutions, many of them which came under the AFU, what is now the Ivan Bohun High School was actually a Soviet-established institution. When the
Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the newly independent state of Ukraine inherited one of the most powerful force groupings in Europe. According to an associate of the
Conflict Studies Research Centre, James Sherr: "This grouping, its inventory of equipment and its officer corps was designed for one purpose: to wage combined arms, coalition, offensive (and nuclear) warfare against NATO on an external front". At that time, the former Soviet armed forces in the
Ukrainian SSR included the
43rd Rocket Army, the
5th,
14th 17th and
24th Air Armies of the
Soviet Air Forces, an air-defense army (
8th Air Defence Army), three regular armies, two tank armies, the
32nd Army Corps, and the Black Sea Fleet. Altogether the Armed Forces of Ukraine included about 780,000 personnel, 6,500 battle tanks, about 7,000 armored vehicles, 1,500 combat
aircraft, and more than 350 ships of the former Soviet Navy. Along with their equipment and personnel, Ukraine's armed forces inherited the battle honors and lineage of the Soviet military forces stationed in Ukraine, as well as
Guards unit titles for many formations. However, due to the deterioration of Russian-Ukrainian relations and the continued stigma of being associated with the Soviet Union, in 2015 President
Poroshenko ordered the removal of most of the citations awarded during the Soviet era to formations of the Armed Forces and other uniformed organizations. In February 1991, a parliamentary Standing Commission for Questions of Security and Defense was established. On 24 August 1991, the Ukrainian parliament (the
Verkhovna Rada), in adopting the
Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, also enacted a short resolution "About military formations in Ukraine". This took jurisdiction over all formations of the armed forces of the Soviet Union stationed on Ukrainian soil and established one of the key agencies, the
Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. On 3 September 1991, the Ministry of Defence commenced its duties. On 22 October 1991 units and formations of the Soviet Armed Forces on Ukrainian soil were nationalized. Subsequently, the Supreme Council of Ukraine adopted two Laws of Ukraine on 6 December 1991 regarding the creation of the Armed Forces (this is marked as Armed Forces Day), and Presidential Decree #4 "About Armed Forces of Ukraine" on 12 December 1991. The government of Ukraine surrendered any rights of succession to the Soviet Strategic Deterrence Forces (see
Strategic Missile Troops) that were staged on the territory of Ukraine. Recognizing the complications of a smooth transition and seeking a consensus with other former members of the Soviet Union in dividing up their Soviet military inheritance, Ukraine joined ongoing talks that started in December 1991 regarding a
joint military command of the
Commonwealth of Independent States. Inherent in the process of creating a domestic military were political decisions by the Ukrainian leadership regarding the country's non-nuclear and international status. Among these were the definition, agreement, and ratification of the 1990
Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), which not only established the maximum level of armament for each republic of the former USSR, but also a special ceiling for the so-called CFE "Flank Region" – included in this region were Ukraine's
Mykolaiv,
Kherson and
Zaporizhzhia oblasts, and the
Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Another key event in the development of the Ukrainian military was the
1992 Tashkent Treaty, which laid out aspirations for a Commonwealth of Independent States military. However, this collective military proved impossible to develop because the former republics of the USSR all wished to go their own way, ripping the intricate Soviet military machine into pieces. Ukraine had observer status with the
Non-Aligned Movement of nation-states from 1996. However, due to the
2014 Russian aggression against Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada repealed this status in December 2014.
Arms control and disarmament being dismantled through assistance provided by the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program implemented by the
DTRA, 2002 Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited two divisions of the
Strategic Rocket Forces' 43rd Rocket Army (HQ
Vinnytsia): • the 19th Rocket Division (
Khmelnytskyi) (90
UR-100N/SS-19/RS-18) and • the
46th Rocket Division at
Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv Oblast, equipped with 40 SS-19 and 46 silo-mounted
RT-23 Molodets/SS-24s. While Ukraine had physical control of these systems, it did not have operational control. The use of the weapons depended on Russian-controlled electronic
Permissive Action Links and the Russian command and control system. on display at the
World War II Museum in Kyiv Ukraine voluntarily gave up these and all other nuclear weapons during the early 1990s. This was the first time in history that a country voluntarily gave up the use of strategic nuclear weapons, although
South Africa was dismantling its small tactical nuclear weapons program at about the same time. Ukraine had plentiful amounts of highly
enriched uranium, which the United States wanted to buy from the
Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology. Ukraine also had two
uranium mining and processing factories, a
heavy water plant and technology for determining the
isotopic composition of
fissionable materials. Ukraine possessed deposits of uranium that were among the world's richest. In May 1992, Ukraine signed the
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), in which the country agreed to give up all
nuclear weapons and to join the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapon state. Ukraine ratified the treaty in 1994, and as of 1 January 1996, no military nuclear equipment or materials remained on Ukrainian territory nor even were operated by the AFU. On 13 May 1994, the United States and Ukraine signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the Transfer of Missile Equipment and Technology. This agreement committed Ukraine to the
Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) by controlling
exports of
missile-related equipment and technology according to the MTCR Guidelines. Ukraine and
NATO estimate that 2.5 million tons of conventional ammunition were left in Ukraine as the Soviet military withdrew, as well as more than 7 million rifles, pistols, mortars, and machine guns. The surplus weapons and ammunition were stored in over 180 military bases, including in bunkers, salt mines and in the open. As of 2014, much of this surplus had not been scrapped. in a
military exercise in Scotland, 2003
Attempt at reforms and constant fund shortages Ukraine's first military reforms began in December 1996, with the adoption of a new "State Program for the Building and Development of the Armed Forces of Ukraine". One aspect of it was to shrink the standard combat unit from division size to brigade size, which would then fall under the command of one of the three newly created military districts: • the
Western Operational Command, • the
Southern Operational Command, and the largest • the
Northern Operational/Territorial Command. Only Ukraine's
1st Airmobile Division was not downsized. This downsizing occurred purely for financial reasons, with the Ukrainian economy in recession this was a way to shrink the government (defense) expenditure and at the same time to release hundreds of thousands of young people into the private sector to stimulate growth. During this time Ukraine's
military-industrial complex also began to develop new indigenous weapons for the armed forces like the
T-84 tank, the
BMP-1U, the
BTR-3,
KrAZ-6322, and the
Antonov An-70. All these reforms were championed by
Leonid Kuchma, the second President of Ukraine, who wanted to retain a capable military and a functioning military-industrial complex on the basis of a mistrust for Russia, stating once "The threat of
Russification is a real concern for us". The cancellation of the modernization program left a question of how to provide jobs in the military industrial complex which then comprised a double-digit percentage of the GDP. Export of new and modernized weapons on the world's arms markets was settled on as the best option, where Ukraine both tried to undercut the contracts of the Russian arms industry – offering the same service for a cheaper price, and was willing to sell equipment to whoever was willing to pay (more than once to politically unstable or even aggressive regimes), causing negative reactions from both
Western Europe and the
United States federal government. During this time 320
T-80 tanks were sold to
Pakistan and an unfinished Soviet aircraft carrier the
Varyag, today known as the
Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning. Though the military was well-equipped, it still experienced lack of funds particularly for training and exercises, which led to a number of incidents. In one. the
Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 of 2001 and the
Sknyliv airshow disaster of 2002, but the military's effectiveness was demonstrated in the
Tuzla Island Conflict. in 2011 Ukrainian military tactics and organization heavily depended on
Cold War tactics and former Soviet Armed Forces organization. Under former President Yushchenko, Ukraine pursued a policy of independence from Russian dominance, and thus tried to fully integrate with the West, specifically NATO. soldier during the Rapid Trident 2011
military exercise Until the Euromaidan crisis of 2014, Ukraine retained tight military relations with
Russia, inherited from their common Soviet history. Common uses for naval bases in Crimea and joint
air defense efforts were the most intense cooperative efforts. This cooperation was a permanent irritant in bilateral relations, but Ukraine appeared economically dependent on Moscow, and thus unable to break such ties quickly. After the election of President
Viktor Yanukovych, ties between Moscow and Kyiv warmed, and those between Kyiv and NATO cooled, relative to the Yushchenko years.
Russo-Ukrainian War (2014–present) In March 2014, following the
Revolution of Dignity and the
annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, the government of Ukraine announced a new military service, the
National Guard of Ukraine. Previously, a National Guard had existed up to 2000, so the 2014 NG was a reformation of the one raised in 1991, but this time formed part of the
Internal Troops of Ukraine. In May 2014, when Russian aggression started in the eastern regions, a helicopter with 14 soldiers on board, including General
Serhiy Kulchytskiy, who headed combat and special training for the country's National Guard, was brought down by militants near
Sloviansk in East Ukraine. Outgoing president Oleksandr Turchynov described the downing as a "terrorist attack," and blamed pro-Russian militants. In the early months of the Russo–Ukrainian War, 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. In late July 2015, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry revealed the new Ukrainian Armed Forces uniform designs, and later a revised rank insignia system was created. These made their national debut on 24 August 2016, at the National Independence Day Silver Jubilee parade in Independence Square,
Kyiv. From the early 1990s, the Armed Forces had numerous units and formations with
Soviet Armed Forces decorations dating back to the Second World War or earlier. Due to the
decommunization process in Ukraine, all these decorations were removed from unit titles and regimental colours by 15 November 2015 to cease promotion and glorification of the Soviet symbols. Only one brigade, the 51st, a former Guards unit, had been dissolved the year before. By February 2018, the Ukrainian armed forces were larger and better equipped than ever before, numbering 200,000 active-service military personnel and most of the volunteer soldiers of the territorial defence battalions had been integrated into the official Ukrainian army. In late 2017-early 2018 the
United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported that human rights abuses allegedly committed by Ukrainian security forces and armed groups remained an ongoing issue of the
war in Donbas that erupted in 2014. The nature of the alleged crimes ranged from unlawful or arbitrary detention to torture, ill-treatment, and sexual violence. Within the reporting period of 16 November 2017 to 15 February 2018 the
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) monitoring mission documented 115 cases of credible allegations of human rights violations committed by both sides of the conflict since 2014. On 1 February 2022, the
Territorial Defense Forces (TDF) were formed as the new branch of the Armed Forces. The TDF serves as a
military reserve force which is formed by volunteers who are mobilized for local defense. The branch is an expansion of the old
territorial defence battalions system established in 2014. During the
2008 Bucharest summit, NATO declared that Ukraine could become a member of NATO at Ukraine's discretion and when it met the criteria for accession. Yanukovych, however, opted to keep Ukraine a non-aligned state. This was formalised on 3 June 2010, when the Verkhovna Rada excluded, with 226 votes, the goal of "integration into Euro-Atlantic security and NATO membership" from the country's national security strategy. Amid the
Euromaidan unrest, Yanukovych fled Ukraine in February 2014. Ukraine's stated national policy is
Euro-Atlantic integration, with the
European Union. Ukraine has a "Distinctive Partnership" with NATO (see
Enlargement of NATO) and has been an active participant in
Partnership for Peace exercises and in peacekeeping in the
Balkans. This close relationship with
NATO has been most apparent in Ukrainian cooperation and combined peacekeeping operations with its neighbor Poland in Kosovo. Ukrainian servicemen also served under NATO command in Iraq, Afghanistan and in
Operation Active Endeavour.
Post-2014 relations However, following the Russo–Ukrainian War and
parliamentary elections in October 2014, the new government made joining NATO a priority. On 23 December 2014, the Verkhovna Rada renounced Ukraine's
non-aligned status that "proved to be ineffective in guaranteeing Ukraine's security and protecting the country from external aggression and pressure". The Ukrainian military is since transforming to
NATO standards. During the Russian buildup on the border in 2021, President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a renewed call to Western powers for NATO membership, but was ultimately unsuccessful. with the senior leadership of the Ukrainian military in May 2019 However, following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, NATO
military logistical support, including a wide array of arms and ammunition, was rapidly provided by NATO countries, and continued to the present (mid-2024) -- with commitments for its indefinite continuance—and NATO officials and member states' leaders began to declare that Ukraine's eventual membership in NATO was expected following conclusion of the war. In 2023, Ukraine's defense minister,
Oleksii Reznikov, described Ukraine as, essentially, a "
de facto" member of NATO, with the expectation that "in the near future" Ukraine would become an actual "
de jure" member of NATO.
Russian invasion of Ukraine , 29 May 2022 to Ukrainian soldiers killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 On Thursday, 24 February 2022, the Russian Armed Forces invaded Ukraine. The Ukrainian Armed Forces and its auxiliary and wartime-affiliated organizations, have participated in many of the combat actions of the current conflict. Alongside the combat actions, the influx of Western weapons and materiel to the Armed Forces from NATO member armed forces,
ex-Soviet stock from many Eastern European nations as well as captured Russian tanks, armed vehicles and other weapons have also resulted in an ongoing modernization and expansion of the forces at large. the total personnel was 200,000 (including 41,000 civilian workers). Conscription was stopped in October 2013; Acting president
Oleksandr Turchynov reinstated conscription in May 2014. In early 2014, Ukraine had 130,000 personnel in its armed forces, which could be boosted to about one million with reservists. In July 2022, Defense Minister
Oleksii Reznikov stated that the Armed Forces had an active strength of 700,000; Reznikov also mentioned that with the Border Guard, National Guard, and police added, the total comes to around one million. Following the
Revolution of Dignity, Ukraine adopted a
military doctrine focusing on defense against Russia and announced Ukraine's intentions for closer relations with
NATO armed services, most especially if it joins the organization in the future. In June 2022,
Davyd Arakhamia, Ukraine's chief negotiator with Russia, told
Axios that between 200 and 500 Ukrainian soldiers were
killed every day during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In August 2023,
The New York Times quoted unnamed U.S. officials as saying that up to 70,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed and 100,000 to 120,000 wounded. In April 2024, President Zelenskyy signed a new
mobilization law to increase the number of troops. From 2023,
desertion is punishable by up to 12 years in prison. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, more than 100,000 criminal cases for desertion were initiated by the end of November 2024. In August 2022,
Amnesty International noted "a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war when they operate in populated areas," citing numerous instances of the Ukrainian military placing equipment nearby or inside buildings occupied by civilians, and then firing at Russian forces. Amnesty also noted the use of hospitals and schools near populated residential neighborhoods as Ukrainian military facilities. Since the beginning of the invasion, several new branches to the Armed Forces have been established or proposed to match or outmatch the capabilities of the Russian Armed Forces, including
Unmanned Systems Forces (the first-ever drone branch of any military),
Assault Forces,
Space Forces, and
Cyber Forces. == Structure ==