On 19 March 1970, the 33rd Guards Rocket Division became part of the army.[3] On 25 May 1972, the 60th Rocket Regiment transferred from control of the 19th Rocket Division to direct army subordination.[5] The 434th Rocket Regiment also moved from the 46th Rocket Division to direct army subordination.[6] On 25 May 1975, the army was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.[3]
The 434th Rocket Regiment transferred to Olovyannaya and became part of the 47th Rocket Division there on 1 July 1979.[6] On 12 December 1981, the 35th Rocket Division left the army and moved to Barnaul, becoming part of the 33rd Guards Rocket Army.[7] On 15 October 1984, the 60th Separate Rocket Regiment became part of the 50th Rocket Division.[5]
On 31 March 1990 the 44th Rocket Division at Kolomiya was disbanded.[4] In June 1990 the 50th Rocket Army at Smolensk was disbanded, and its 32nd and 49th Guards Rocket Divisions were reassigned to the 43rd Rocket Army.[8]
The 50th Rocket Division was disbanded 30.4.91, followed by the 43rd Guards Rocket Division 31 December 1992 and the 37th Guards Rocket Division 31 December 1993. On 6 December 1991, the army withdrew from the Strategic Missile Troops and became part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The dismantling of missile units began as barracks and other facilities were transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The missile warheads were sent to Russia.[8] In March 1993, the 33rd Guards, 49th Guards and 32nd Rocket Divisions (all stationed in Belarus) were transferred to the 27th Guards Rocket Army. By 1995, only the 19th and 46th Rocket Divisions remained as part of the army. It was finally disbanded on 8 May 1996.[3]
The 43rd Rocket Army's last commander was Colonel-General Vladimir Alekseevich Mikhtyuk, who served from 10.1.1991 to 8.5.1996.
In early 1994, after the Trilateral Agreement, "General Vitaly Radetskyi, Ukraine’s new Minister of Defence, summoned Mikhtyuk and two of his senior generals to Kyiv.[10] Without warning, General Radetskyi told them they had 15 minutes to decide whether to take Ukraine’s oath of allegiance. General Mikhtyuk and one general took the oath, while the other refused. Then, the minister ordered [Mikhtyuk] to return to his headquarters in Vinnytsia immediately, and convene all of his subordinate commanders. ..He did so explaining his personal decision to remain in Ukraine, and asking each officer to take or reject the oath. “All of my deputies,” Mikhtyuk recalled, “except one, said they would not take the oath and asked me to transfer them to the Russian Federation."
"In March 1994, the 43rd Rocket Army had 18 operational regiments, manned by approximately 6,000 officers and warrant officers. By Ukrainian law, these officers would be retired with dismantlement of the rocket army. The Ukrainian government stated it would only be able to provide housing for 3,500 officers, which left 2,500 officers without housing."[11]
"Leonid Kuchma’s government directed the Minister of Defence in 1994-1996 to keep the SS-24 [note: Soviet designation RT-23 Molodets] missiles on alert. General Mikhtyuk and the 43rd Rocket Army complied."[12]
Russian sources say that the army was disestablished on 8 May 1996.
In either 1993 or May 1996, Colonel-General of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Mikhtyuk was appointed Deputy Minister of Defence of Ukraine - Commander of the 43rd Missile Army, to head the Interdepartmental Working Group overseeing the deactivation and destruction of strategic offensive weapons, стратегических наступательных вооружений (SHO).[13]
"Major General Oleksander Iliashov commanded the 46th Rocket Division, which once had 5,500 men. Although by 1997 the rocket division was much reduced, General Iliashov directed his planning staff to organize and carry out the work of decommissioning the SS-24 complexes. General Mikhtyuk directed that the work begin in July 1998. It did, and over the next three years, 1998-2001, all 46 SS-24 missiles were decommissioned and removed from missile complexes by 43rd Army technicians and Ukrainian contractors."[14]
On October 30, 2001, the last silo launcher (ШПУ) of the RT-23 Molodets intercontinental ballistic missile (according to U.S. Department of Defence classification - SS-24) in the 43rd Rocket Army was destroyed via an explosion.[15]
"One infrastructure requirement.. was digging up and recovering the thousands of kilometers of underground cabling.[16] These cables linked the missiles to regimental, division, army, and strategic rocket force command posts. The 43rd Rocket Army also had hundreds of kilometers of communications cables and wires, as well as power cables to each of the 130 missile complexes and 13 missile command posts. Bechtel was responsible for planning, organising and managing all work associated with eliminating these cables and electronic wires. The 43rd Rocket Army compiled annual statistics on cables recovered and metal scrap salvaged."
On August 20, 2002, after parting with the Battle Banner, the 43rd Rocket Army ceased to exist, and its commander, Colonel General of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Mikhtyuk, was dismissed from military service on the same day.
The Strategic Rocket Forces of the Russian Federation or the Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Federation is a separate-troops branch of the Russian Armed Forces that controls Russia's land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). It was formerly part of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1959 to 1991.
The 8th Guards Order of Lenin Combined Arms Army is an army of the Soviet Army, as a successor to the 62nd Army of the Soviet Union's Red Army, which was formed during World War II and was disbanded in 1998 after being downsized into a corps.
The Southern Group of Forces (YUGV) was a Soviet Armed Forces formation formed twice following the Second World War, most notably around the time of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Long-Range Aviation is a sub-branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces responsible for delivering long-range nuclear or conventional strikes by aircraft. The Russian Long Range Aviation and its now-dissolved Ukrainian counterpart were both previously part of the Soviet Air Forces, before it was split into the Air Forces of its many successor states, most notably the Russian Air Force and Ukrainian Air Force. Those branches were tasked with long-range bombardment of strategic targets with nuclear weapons.
The 6th Combined Arms Army is a field army of the Red Army and the Soviet Army that was active with the Russian Ground Forces until 1998 and has been active since 2010 as the 6th Combined Arms Army. Military Unit number в/ч 31807.
The Byelorussian Military District was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces. Originally formed just before World War I as the Minsk Military District out of the remnants of the Vilno Military District and the Warsaw Military District, it was headed by the Russian General Eugen Alexander Ernst Rausch von Traubenberg.
The 37th Air Army of the High Supreme Command was the strategic bomber force of the Russian Air Force from 1998 to 2009. It was equipped with Tupolev Tu-95MS and Tu-160 armed with nuclear cruise missiles, and the intermediate range Tu-22M3 bombers.
The 6th Red Banner Leningrad Army of Air and Air Defence Forces is an Air Army of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
The Transbaikal Military District was a military district of first the Soviet Armed Forces and then the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, formed on 17 May 1935 and included the Buryat Republic, Chita Oblast, and Yakutia. Chita was the headquarters of the district. It was finally disbanded on 1 December 1998 by being amalgamated with the Siberian Military District, though Chita remained the headquarters of the new amalgamated district.
The Kiev Military District was a military district of the Imperial Russian Army and subsequently of the Red Army and Soviet Armed Forces. It was first formed in 1862, and was headquartered in Kiev (Kyiv) for most of its existence.
The 62nd Red Banner Rocket Division is a formation within the 33rd Guards Rocket Army of the Strategic Rocket Forces, deployed near Uzhur, Krasnoyarsk Krai.
27th Guards Vitebsk Red Banner Rocket Army is one of the 3 rocket armies within Russian Strategic Rocket Forces headquartered at Vladimir, Vladimir Oblast in Western Russia.
54th Guards Order of Kutuzov Rocket Division is a strategic rocket division under command of the 27th Guards Missile Army of the Strategic Rocket Forces of Russia headquartered at Teykovo in Ivanovo Oblast. Its Military Unit Number is 34048.
The Eastern Military District is a military district of Russia.
The 8th Separate Army of the Air Defence Forces was a Soviet military formation established in 1960. Army headquarters was in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR.
The 50th Red Banner Rocket Army was an army of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces. It was created in 1960. Its first commander was General Lieutenant Feodor Dobish. Its headquarters was located in Smolensk.
The 14th Guards Combined Arms Army was a field army of the Red Army, the Soviet Ground Forces, and the Russian Ground Forces, active from 1956 to 1995. By the 1990s, according to sources within the 14th Army, the majority of its troops came from what would become the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, with 51% of officers and 79% of draftees coming from this region.
The 46th Nizhnedneprovskaya Order of the October Revolution Red Banner Rocket Division / Missile Division was a division of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces, active from 1961–62 to 1992 under the Soviet Union, and from 1992 to 2002 as part of Ukraine. The division traced its history back to the 188th Rifle Division, formed in Kaunas in spring 1941. The division fought in the Battle of the Dnieper, for which it was awarded the honorific "Lower Dnieper". After the Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive it garrisoned Sliven in Bulgaria. At some point it moved to Pervomaisk in the then-Ukrainian SSR and became the 20th Rifle Division in 1955. In 1957, it became the 93rd Motor Rifle Division and was disbanded in 1959. In 1960, the 29th Rocket Brigade was formed in Pervomaisk and became the 46th Rocket Division in 1960. The 46th Rocket Division inherited the honors and awards of the 188th Rifle Division. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the division became part of Ukrainian military and was disbanded by 2002.
The 5th Air Army was an air army of the Soviet Air Forces and later the Ukrainian Air Force. First formed in 1942 during World War II, the army provided air support to Soviet forces through the rest of the war, and was renumbered as the 48th Air Army in 1949. It was stationed in the Odessa Military District during the postwar period, and in 1968 its original number was restored. Between 1980 and 1988 it was known as the Air Forces of the Odessa Military District. Redesignated as the 5th Air Army again in 1988, it became part of the Ukrainian Air Force after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and was converted into an aviation corps in 1994.
The 53rd Rocket Army was an army of the Soviet, later Russian Strategic Rocket Forces. It was created on June 8, 1970 from the 8th Independent Missile Corps, under Colonel-General Yury Zabegaylov. Its headquarters was located at Chita, Transbaikal Military District.
Joseph P. Harahan, Combining Military Professionalism, Technological Mastery of Nuclear Weapon Systems, and Diplomacy: General-Colonel V. A. Mikhtyuk and the Decommissioning, Dismantlement, and Destruction of the 43rd Rocket Army (Nuclear) in Ukraine, 1994–2002, paper given at ICOHTEC 33rd Symphosium, Leicester, 2006
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Soviet Union (1960-1991)
Ukraine (1991-1996)
Order of the Red Banner 
