The Western Military District, "with about 300,000 troops, was formed in 2010 from the Moscow and Leningrad" Military Districts. When the Moscow and Leningrad Districts were merged, the Russian soldiers in
Transnistria, the former Soviet
14th Guards Combined Arms Army, became part of the Western Military District. Of the 1,700 Russian Armed Forces soldiers in Transnistria by 2022, military sources in
Chișinău said that only 70-100 were actually Russians; the rest were Transnistrians who were given contracts to serve in the Russian Armed Forces. During the
2008–2012 military reform, the area of the Western Military District received the largest reduction in units and personnel. The number of motor rifle and tank battalions in the former Moscow Military District was reduced from 50 to 22. On 26 February 2014, during the
invasion of Crimea, President
Vladimir Putin ordered the
Russian Armed Forces to be "put on alert in the Western Military District as well as units stationed with the 2nd Army
Central Military District Command involved in aerospace defense, airborne troops and long-range military transport." Despite media speculation it was for in reaction to the events in Ukraine, Russian
defense minister Sergei Shoigu said it was unrelated to the unrest in Ukraine. After a 15-year hiatus, the
1st Guards Tank Army headquarters was re-formed within the district in November 2014. In April 2017, the Defence Ministry reported that the
14th Army Corps had been transferred to the
Northern Fleet Joint Strategic Command. It appears that this army corps, formed with its number in view of the
Second World War actions of the Soviet
14th Army, includes the
80th Arctic Motor Rifle Brigade and the 200th Motor Rifle Brigade. In the September
Zapad 2017 exercise, a significant portion of troops from the Western Military District numbering 12,700 personnel were involved in
Belarus, the
Kaliningrad Region and Russia's other north-western areas as well. A December 2018 Russian Ministry of Defense press release said that an independent
Spetsnaz company had been formed in a combined arms army of the district. Almost the whole forces of the district became involved in the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, suffering considerable losses (see
Casualties of the Russo-Ukrainian War). The district's deployed force became the
Western Grouping of Forces. A new army corps, the
3rd Army Corps, then began forming within the district. The 3rd Army Corps' main base and training centre was identified by Ukraine in August 2022 as being located in
Mulino,
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. The new
72nd Separate Motor Rifle Brigade, intended to form part of the 3rd Army Corps, was reported by
Penza Oblast authorities to be forming at
Totskoye,
Orenburg Oblast. Much of the
Russian Airborne Forces is located within the district's boundaries but not under its command. These forces include the
45th Guards Spetsnaz Brigade (
Kubinka, Moscow); the
76th Guards Air Assault Division (
Pskov); the
98th Guards Airborne Division (
Ivanovo); the
106th Guards Airborne Division (
Tula), and the VDV signals regiment, the 38th Airborne Signal Regiment (n. Bear Lake,
Moscow Oblast). In addition, there are two formations of the
Russian Aerospace Forces within the district's boundaries but under central command: the
1st Special Purpose Air and Missile Defense Army (Moscow SAM and ABM defences) and
15th Army of the Aerospace Forces of Special Purpose (space operations, the former
Russian Space Command). The
Main Directorate of Intelligence (Ukraine) of the
Ministry of Defence (Ukraine) on 26 December 2022 that General
Yevgeny Nikiforov was appointed as commander, Western Military District, and commander of the Russian western grouping of forces in Ukraine. He had been transferred from the post of first deputy commander,
Eastern Military District. In this transfer, Colonel-General
Sergey Kuzovlev was removed from the position of commander of the troops of the Western Military District, after having only been in post for about a month. "The reason for Kuzovlev's dismissal was the failure of preparations for an offensive in the Lyman [area], but [Ukrainian intelligence assessed it also as a] internal political struggle.. because from the Shoigu-Gerasimov orbit changing for a candidate from the Surovikin-Prygozhin group. ==Formations and units==