A brief history of the Ukrainian National Guard (also known as the Ukrainian National Guard), which was founded on November 4, 1991, before the collapse of the Soviet Union, under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Rada (Parliament of Ukraine), amended the Law of the National Guard of Ukraine in 1995 and began to be under the direct command of the President, until January 11, 2000, when it was ordered by the then President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, to abolish its dissolution on the grounds of saving money, Personnel and equipment were all integrated into the Ukrainian Internal Guard Force (also known as the Ukrainian Internal Army) under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as the situation in Crimea continued to deteriorate in 2014, the Ukrainian National Guard was reborn, and on March 11 of that year, the Ukrainian Kobol Rada proposed the reconstruction of the Ukrainian National Guard, which was adopted the next day, rebuilding the Ukrainian National Guard on the basis of the Ukrainian Internal Guard, recruiting mainly right-wing party volunteers, initially planning to recruit only 10,000 people, Later, it gradually expanded to 30,000 or even 60,000 people hoped, especially in November 2014, which absorbed more than 30 former Ukrainian local defense battalions, including Azov Battalion, Dnieper Battalion, Donbass Battalion, and St. Nicholas Battalion, which made the size of the Ukrainian National Guard extremely inflated, but these troops mixed with a large number of extremists. Such as the infamous Azov battalion known for nationalism and neo-Nazism, committed a large number of war crimes during the war in East Ukraine, so much so that it was named and angrily denounced by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and even the United States Congress passed a bill banning military assistance to it, which had a huge negative impact on the reputation of the Ukrainian National Guard, and now due to the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine, the Ukrainian authorities have issued a relaxed recruitment order, and even implemented a visa-free system for foreigners who want to protect Ukraine. The size of the Ukrainian National Guard is believed to be no longer comparable to that of the pre-war period.
Coat of arms of the Ukrainian National Guard
The upper text is the full Ukrainian name of the Ukrainian National Guard, the lower text is the Ukrainian Guard motto "Honor, Courage, Law", and the middle is the Coat of Arms of the Ukrainian National Guard, which was officially opened on May 12, 2014, with the Ukrainian national emblem in the center, and the golden trident logo is derived from the weapon Trizub of the Grand Duke of Kiev, Vladimir the Great.
The six regional commands of the Ukrainian National Guard
The six regional commands of the Ukrainian National Guard are distributed: purple for the Western Region Command (headquartered in Lviv), green for the Northern Regional Command (headquartered in Kiev), yellow for the Central Regional Command (headquartered in Dnipro), red for the Eastern Regional Command (headquartered in Kharkiv), blue for the Southern Regional Command (Odessa) and crimean regional command, which exist in name only because the actual control of the Crimean region is on the Russian side.
Instructor of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team
The rebuilt Ukrainian National Guard was mainly trained by the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team of the United States Army, and officers and non-commissioned officers would further their studies at the Military Academy of the Ukrainian National Guard, because of the rapid expansion of recruitment, the current establishment of the Ukrainian National Guard was very chaotic, and the equipment of the subordinate units was uneven, most of them light infantry. But there are also heavily armed combat units like the Azov and Donbass battalions.
Military Academy of the Ukrainian National Guard
The history of the Military Academy of the Ukrainian National Guard dates back to the Second Joint Border School, founded on December 26, 1931, and gradually developed into the Kharkov Higher Military Command School, which was owned by the Ukrainian National Guard after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but with the abolition of the Ukrainian National Guard in 2000, the school was also dissolved, until 2014, in order to cooperate with the reform of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine (mainly the reconstruction of the Ukrainian National Guard), then the acting president of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov) decreed the rebuilding of the academy and named it the Military Academy of the Ukrainian National Guard, which is now in use.
Rapid Trident Military Exercise
On September 23, 2014, Ukrainian National Guard soldiers in a multinational military exercise code-named "Rapid Trident" in The Lviv Oblast in western Ukraine, in which 15 countries, including the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, participated in the exercise, which was seen as a symbol of NATO countries' commitment to support Ukraine and a strategic deterrent to Russia.
T-64
The Ukrainian National Guard is equipped with the T-64 main battle tank of the Azov battalion, pay attention to the Wolfsangel symbol on the front side of the tank, which is also one of the most recognizable symbols of the Azov battalion, which is equipped with 100 Tanks of the Ukrainian National Guard.
EC225
The Ukrainian National Guard is equipped with EC225 Super Cougar helicopters, and Ukraine purchased 55 helicopters from the Airbus Group in 2018 at a cost of 550 million euros, including 21 EC225s, 10 EC145s and 24 H125s, of which 21 EC225s were all allocated to the Ukrainian National Guard.
Cossack
The Kozak armored vehicle equipped by the Ukrainian National Guard, developed on the chassis of the Italian Iveco Eurocargo, costs 250,000 euros and can carry up to fifteen soldiers, mainly for the Army, the National Border Guard and the National Guard, of which the National Guard is equipped with 38 vehicles.
Spartan
The Ukrainian National Guard is equipped with a large number of armored vehicles of the UAE STRET Group, such as 40 Spartan armored vehicles, 10 Cobra armored vehicles, 19 Cougar armored vehicles, 7 Shrek anti-mine anti-ambush vehicles, etc., which are basically designed for Canada but are authorized by the Ukrainian heavy truck manufacturer KrAZ.
BTR-3
The Ukrainian National Guard is equipped with a large number of BMP series and BTR series armored vehicles, conservatively estimated at around 500, including 260 relatively new models of the BTR-3, which are completely new and jointly developed by the UAE Adcom Military Industry Company, the Kharkiv Morozov Mechanical Design Bureau of Ukraine and the National Science Center of Ukraine, although somewhat similar to the BTR-80, the BTR-3 is a completely new production vehicle, not an update of existing vehicles in service.
The following are the successive supreme commanders of the Ukrainian National Guard after the reconstruction in 2014, nominated by the President of Ukraine and appointed by the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada, generally with the rank of lieutenant general.
Stepan Portolac
Stepan Poltorak (born 11 February 1965 in Odessa, graduated from the Soviet-era Ordzyzyvsky Higher Military Command Academy, served as the first Supreme Commander of the rebuilt Ukrainian National Guard on 15 April 2014 until 14 October 2014, and then as Minister of Defense of Ukraine until 29 August 2019, with the final rank of Generals of the Army. However, some people translate the Rank of Ukraine as General or General.
Alexander Clevinko
Alexander Kryvenko (born 20 April 1958 in Kirovgrad, graduated from the Soviet-era Omsk Higher Joint Arms Command School, and served as the first deputy commander of the rebuilt Ukrainian National Guard from 15 April 2014 until 10 November 2018, but briefly acted as supreme commander of the Ukrainian National Guard from 14 October 2014 to 6 February 2015. His eventual rank was Lieutenant General. Please note: From February 6, 2015 to December 30, 2015, another Deputy Commander of the Ukrainian National Guard, Mykola Balan, acted as Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian National Guard.
Yuri Alerov
Yuriy Allerov (born February 6, 1964 in Lviv), graduated from the Leningrad Higher Military Command Academy in the Soviet Period, became the second Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian National Guard from December 30, 2015 until June 14, 2019, and finally held the rank of General, Alerov is considered a person who has contributed greatly to the development of the Ukrainian National Guard. After two reforms in 2016 and 2018, the Combat Effectiveness of the Ukrainian National Guard has been effectively improved and has reached NATO standards.
Micora Barran
Mykola Balan (born 12 December 1968 in Tsmenezia, graduated from the Saratov Higher Military Command Academy under the Soviet era, and in 2015 acted as Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian National Guard as Deputy Commander of the Ukrainian National Guard until the arrival of the above-mentioned Yuri Alerov, after the departure of Yuri Alerov. Balaam served as the third supreme commander of the Ukrainian National Guard until January 27, 2022, with the final rank of lieutenant general, and Balaán resigned on January 27, 2022, when a Ukrainian National Guard serviceman fired an assault rifle at himself, which killed five servicemen on the spot and injured five others.
Yuri Lebed
Yuriy Lebed (born May 2, 1967 in Sumy), graduated from the Soviet-era Higher Artillery Command School in Samui and is currently acting as deputy commander of the Ukrainian National Guard as deputy commander of the Ukrainian National Guard.