80th Air Assault Brigade (Ukraine)

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80th Separate Galician Air Assault Brigade
80-та окрема десантно-штурмова Галицька бригада
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
Decorations
For Courage and Bravery
Websitehttps://www.facebook.com/80brigade
Commanders
Current
commander
Col. Ihor Skybyuk

The 80th Separate Galician Air Assault Brigade (

War in Donbass
, and was redesignated as an air assault brigade in 2015.

History

80th Airborne Regiment

The 80th Airborne Regiment was formed on 3 May 1955 in the Lithuanian SSR, the only non-Guards Soviet airborne regiment.

Operation Danube, the crushing of the Prague Spring.[9]

39th Separate Air Assault Brigade

On 3 August 1979, the regiment was disbanded. The 39th Separate Air Assault Brigade was formed from elements of the regiment at

40th Separate Air Assault Brigade was formed in Mykolaiv from other parts of the regiment.[11] In January 1980, the 1st Battalion of the 39th Separate Air Assault Brigade was deployed to Termez for fighting in the Soviet–Afghan War and became the 48th Separate Air Assault Battalion. The battalion was absorbed by the 66th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade in May.[12] In 1986, the 39th Brigade participated in the Chernobyl cleanup. Between January and April 1990, the 39th Separate Air Assault Brigade was deployed to restore order in during the first Nagorno-Karabakh War.[13][14]

1990s

In June 1990 the 39th Separate Air Assault Brigade became the 224th Training Center of the Soviet Airborne Forces. The brigade included the 1st and 2nd Airborne Training Battalions, as well as an artillery training battalion.[13] In May 1992 the training center became part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.[6] In September 1993, the 224th Training Center was renamed the 39th Separate Airborne Brigade.[15] It became the 6th Separate Airmobile Brigade on 1 November 1995. The brigade participated in Exercise Peaceshield in 1995 and 1996. In December 1999, the brigade was reorganized into the 80th Airmobile Regiment.[14]

80th Airmobile Regiment

Troops of the 80th Airmobile Regiment parachute from a C-17 during Exercise Peaceshield 2000

In July 2000, the regiment participated in Exercise Peaceshield 2000 with US troops and forces from other countries.[16] In April 2003, the regiment was moved to Lviv.[14] In 2004, the regiment was scheduled to be sent to Iraq as part of the Ukrainian contingent there. An airmobile battalion, mortar batteries, an engineer platoon, a chemical defense platoon, communications company and military police company were drawn from the regiment and deployed to Iraq on 15 May 2005 as the 81st Tactical Group.[17] The troops were part of Multinational Division Central-South and were withdrawn at the end of the year, the last Ukrainian unit in Iraq.[18] In 2006, the regiment contributed troops to the Kosovo Force UkrPolBat joint Ukrainian-Polish peacekeeping battalion.[19]

A mortar barrel rupture during a tactical exercise of the regiment's 1st mortar battery mortally wounded four soldiers on 6 August 2008.[20] On 27 May 2010, the regiment was visited by then-President Viktor Yanukovych.[21]

80th Airmobile Brigade

Donetsk Airport New Terminal ruins, which the 80th Airmobile Brigade's 3rd Battalion defended during January 2015

On 25 November 2013, the regiment became the 80th Airmobile Brigade.

Metalist at Vesela Hora. 40 bodies of men from both units were returned by the separatists after negotiations.[27] 28 unidentified bodies were buried at Starobilsk on 2 October.[28] On the night of 13–14 October, the brigade reconnaissance group repulsed attacks by the separatist Don Battalion, which was attempting to penetrate Ukrainian territory at the 32nd Checkpoint [uk].[29] On 28 October, seven brigade personnel were released from captivity by the separatists.[30]

The brigade's 3rd Battalion fought in the

81st Airmobile Brigade, the unit was forced to retreat from the new airport terminal,[31] reportedly under heavy artillery fire and chemical attack. Over 50 soldiers from both units died in the fighting between 19 and 21 January.[32] After the Ukrainian withdrawal from the airport on 21 January, at least 15 soldiers from the brigade were captured by the separatists. Several of the soldiers were subjected to frequent beatings.[33]

A Humvee of the brigade during the 2016 Kyiv Ukrainian Independence Day Parade

Since at least May 2015, the brigade has been equipped with 28

M1114 Up-Armored Humvees.[34]

80th Air Assault Brigade

On 24 August 2015, President

Andriy Kovalchuk was awarded the titile Hero of Ukraine for his leadership.[40]

As of June 2017, elements of the brigade, equipped with Humvees, defended positions at

Pisky, near Donetsk Airport.[41] On 2 August, brigade commander Colonel Volodymyr Shvorak stated that the losses of the brigade in the Donbass amounted to 104 killed, seven missing, and 542 wounded, most of which were suffered during the defense of the Luhansk airport in late 2014.[23]

The brigade took part in the defense of Ukraine during the

By September 2022, elements of the brigade were also identified via

Members of the brigade were seen reaching the outskirts of

92nd Mechanized Brigade, and the 25th Airborne Brigade. That same day, the Kyiv Post announced the liberation of the city, despite the Ukrainian Armed Forces operational silence.[44] The UK Ministry of Defence commented, suggesting that the capture of the city dealt a "significant blow" due to Russian supply nodes routing to the Donbas region.[45]

In February 2023 the brigade took part in the Battle of Bakhmut.[46]

During the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive, the brigade has been involved in Eastern Ukraine campaign in the Donetsk Oblast, Bakhmut direction.[47]

Deployments

Soldiers from the brigade have served in Afghanistan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Kosovo,[19] Sierra Leone, and Iraq.[24]

Structure

As of 2023 the brigade's structure is as follows:[48]

  • 80th Separate Air Assault Brigade, Lviv
    • Brigade’s Headquarters
    • 1st Air Assault Battalion
    • 2nd Air Assault Battalion
    • 57th Separate Rifle Battalion. Unit was formed in 2022 to reinforce 80th Air Assault Brigade(this battalion was made a cadre formation of the 82nd Air Assault Brigade and it is no longer a part of the 80th Air Assault Brigade, it was replaced in the summer of 2023 with a new 3rd Battalion)
    • 4th Battalion
    • Tank Company
    • Artillery Group (Brigade artillery group equipped with 2S1 self-propelled artillery vehicles).[49]
    • Anti-Aircraft Defense Battalion
    • Reconnaissance Company
    • Engineer Battalion
    • Logistic Company
    • Maintenance Company
    • Signal Company
    • Radar Company
    • Medical Company
    • CBRN
      Protection Company

Past commanders

  • Colonel Ihor Overin – 2005[50]
  • Lieutenant Colonel (later Colonel) Viktor Kopachynskii (2008[51]–March 2015)[52]
  • Colonel Andrei Kovalchuk (2015[35][53]–March 2016)[40]
  • Colonel Volodymyr Shvorak (2016–N/A)[54]
  • Col. Ihor Skybyuk (N/A-present)[49]

References

  1. ^ https://m.jpost.com/international/article-749049
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  4. ^ "Майже 200 військовослужбовців строкової служби призову «Осінь – 2007» на базі 80-го окремого аеромобільного полку 13 АК, дислокованого у Львові склали Військову присягу на вірність українському народові" [Almost 200 conscripts call "Autumn – 2007" of 80th separate airborne regiment take oath]. mil.gov.ua (in Ukrainian). 26 November 2007. Archived from the original on 11 February 2012. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  5. ^ Feskov et al 2013, p. 249
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  8. .
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  • Feskov, V.I.; Golikov, V.I.; Kalashnikov, K.A.; Slugin, S.A. (2013). Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской [The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II: From the Red Army to the Soviet: Part 1 Land Forces] (in Russian). Tomsk: Scientific and Technical Literature Publishing. .