30th Mechanized Brigade (Ukraine)

Last updated
30th Mechanized Brigade
(2016–present)

30th Guards Mechanized Brigade
(2004–2016)


30th Guards Tank Division
(1957–2004)


11th Guards Mechanised Division
(1945–1957)


13th Guards Cavalry Division
(1943–1945)


83rd Cavalry Division
(1941–1943)
Ukrainian: 30-та окрема механізована бригада імені князя Костянтина Острозького
30 OMBr.svg
30th Mechanized Brigade shoulder sleeve insignia
Active1 September 1941 – present
CountryFlag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union
(1941 – 6 Dec 1991)
Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine
(6 Dec 1991 – present)
Branch Ground Forces
Type Mechanized Infantry
Size Brigade
Part of Operational Command North
Garrison/HQ Zviahel
MUN  A0409
Patron Konstanty Ostrogski
Motto(s) Dei Gratia
ColoursGarrison guidon:
BF 30 MBrigade.png
Engagements World War II
Cold War
War in Donbass
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
Decorations Order of Red Banner.svg   Order of the Red Banner (removed)
Order of Suvorov 2nd class.png   Order of Suvorov (removed) Za muzhnist' ta vidvagu (2022).svg
For Courage and Bravery
Battle honours Guards (removed)
Novohrad-Volynskyi (removed)
Rivne (removed)
Commanders
Current
commander
Colonel Ihor Dovhan [4]
Notable
commanders
Pyotr Zubov
Mykhailo Mnyshenko
Petro Lytvyn

The 30th Prince Konstanty Ostrogski Mechanized Brigade is a formation of the Ukrainian Ground Forces. The full name of the unit is 30th Independent Mechanized Brigade "Konstanty Ostrogski". [5]

Contents

Following the 2014 war in Donbas, the unit dropped all its Soviet decorations.

History

World War II

Between September 1 and October 1, 1941, the 83rd Cavalry Division was formed in the city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

The division consisted of the following units:

From September 5, 1941, the commanding officer of the division was Lieutenant General Selivanov.

On November 7, 1941, the division was sent to the Volga Military District where it was assigned to the newly forming Cavalry mechanized group of the 61st Army. Until December 28, 1941, the division was fortifying near the station of Lysi Gory Saratov Oblast.

The first battle that the division took part in was near the city of Ryazhsk, Ryazan Oblast as part of the Cavalry mechanized group of the 61st Army as part of the Bryansk Front and the Soviet winter counter offensive in front of Moscow. In January 1942 the division was assigned to the 7th Cavalry Corps and was assigned to be a Mobile Group in the Moscow Defense Zone for the 61st Army. The division remained with the 7th Cavalry Corps for the rest of 1942 and when the Corps was redesignated as the 6th Guards Cavalry Corps in January 1943 the division became the 13th Guards Cavalry Division on 19 January 1943. [6] The division was under the command of General Major Pyotr Zubov. [7]

The 13th Guards Cavalry Division fought at Dubno in 1944, as well as at the Battle of Debrecen and was with 6th Guards Cavalry Corps of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in May 1945.

Cold War

Feskov et al. trace the unit's history as follows. At the beginning of June, the division relocated to Novohrad-Volynskyi. On 1 August 1945, the division was converted into the 11th Guards Mechanized Division. During November and December 1956, the division fought in the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. 44 soldiers of the division were killed during the campaign in Hungary. The division moved back to Novohrad-Volynskyi in January 1957. [8]

On 4 June 1957 it became the 30th Guards Tank Division, [9] part of the 8th Tank Army. In 1960, the division's 58th Separate Tank Training Battalion was disbanded. On 19 February 1962 the 335th Separate Missile Battalion and the 108th Separate Equipment Maintenance and Recovery Battalion were activated. In 1968 the 151st Separate Guards Sapper Battalion became the 151st Separate Guards Engineer-Sapper Battalion. The 1043rd Separate Material Supply Battalion was created from the motor transport battalion in 1980. During the Cold War, the division was maintained at 25% strength. In November 1990, the division was equipped with 224 T-72 main battle tanks. [9]

1990–present

The 30th Guards Tank Division, along with the rest of the 8th Tank Army and the Carpathian Military District, became part of the Ukrainian Ground Forces according to the order of Ukraine About Armed Forces of Ukraine from December 6, 1991. In February 1992, all units of the division pledged their allegiance to Ukraine.

It was still designated a tank division as of Decree N 350/93 (August 21, 1993). On October 20, 1999, the division was awarded the Novohrad-Volynskyi designation. On July 30, 2004, the division was reformed into a brigade.

Currently the brigade is the only mechanized brigade that does not have any conscripts. It is also a part of Joint Rapid Reaction Forces. Over a hundred soldiers from the brigade have served in peacekeeping missions in Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Iraq and Kosovo. [10]

A battalion of the brigade was part of POLUKRBAT in the 2006 rotation. [11] As of October 12, 2007, the 2nd Mechanized Battalion of the brigade is deployed in Kosovo as part of the POLUKRBAT. [12]

The commander of the brigade served as a commander of the 5th Separate Mechanized brigade in Iraq.

War in Ukraine

War in Donbas

In the spring of 2014, after the annexation of Crimea to Russia, the 30th mechanized brigade, one of the five brigades of the armed forces of Ukraine, which was manned at that time by contract soldiers and was sent to the south, including to the Berdiansk region, to protect against a possible invasion from Crimea.

The brigade participated in the armed conflict in the east of Ukraine. In the summer of 2014, the brigade took part in the battles for Savur-Mohyla.

In 2015 the brigade took part in the Battle of Debaltseve during the war in Donbas. [13]

On 18 November 2015 the Soviet decorations of brigade's full name (30th Separate Guards Mechanized Novohrad-Volynskyi Rivne Orders of the Red Banner and Suvorov Brigade) were removed, leaving the full name of 30th Separate Guards Mechanized Novohrad-Volynskyi Rivne Brigade. [5] On 22 August 2016, its Guards title was also removed.

As part of Ukrainian Independence Day celebrations on August 24, 2018, the brigade received the new honorific "Konstanty Ostrogski".

As of 1 March 2020, the brigade had lost 178 people during the war in Donbas.

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

In the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the 30th Mechanized Brigade participated in the 2022 Chornobaivka attacks against Russian positions through mortar strikes. [14]

From May 5-13th tanks from the 30th Mechanized Brigade repelled a river crossing by the Russian 74th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade near Dronivka. [15] This action was part of a battle on the Siverskyi Donets river that saw the destruction of 80 pieces of equipment and of the estimated 550 Russian servicemembers conducting the operation, 485 were casualties. The battle is considered one of the "deadliest single engagements" of the war at that point. [16]

By October 2022, the brigade was seen participating in operations during the battle of Bakhmut. [17] The brigade has taken part in the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive. [18] [19]

Order of battle

In 1960, the division included the following units. [9]

Division: 2003

Structure

As of 2024, the brigade's structure is as follows:

Awards

The brigade has received 22 orders, and 30 of its soldiers have been decorated with medals. [20]

Past commanders

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">8th Guards Combined Arms Army</span> Russian Ground Forces formation

The 8th Guards Order of Lenin Combined Arms Army is an army of the Russian Ground Forces, headquartered in Novocherkassk, Rostov Oblast, within Russia′s Southern Military District, that was reinstated in 2017 as a successor to the 8th Guards 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. Military Unit в/ч 61877.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1st Guards Tank Army</span> Russian Ground Forces formation

The 1st Guards Tank Army is a tank army of the Russian Ground Forces. в/ч 73621.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">4th Ukrainian Front</span> Military unit

The 4th Ukrainian Front was the name of two distinct Red Army strategic army groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II.

A tank corps was a type of Soviet armoured formation used during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2nd Guards Tank Corps</span> Tank corps of the Soviet military

The 2nd Guards Tatsinskaya Tank Corps was a tank corps of the Soviet Union's Red Army that saw service during World War II on the Eastern Front of Europe. The unit's most notable moment was in the raid on Tatsinskaya during Operation Little Saturn in World War II. After the war, it continued to serve with the Soviet occupation forces in Central Europe. It was originally the 24th Tank Corps. The formation had approximately the same size and combat power as a Wehrmacht Panzer Division, and less than a British Armoured Division had during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ukrainian Ground Forces</span> Land forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

The Ukrainian Ground Forces, also referred to as the Ukrainian army, are the land forces of Ukraine and one of the eight branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They were formed from Ukrainian units of the Soviet Army after Ukrainian independence, and trace their ancestry to the 1917–22 army of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">6th Combined Arms Army</span> Soviet and Russian field army

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">72nd Mechanized Brigade (Ukraine)</span> Ukrainian Ground Forces formation

The 72nd Mechanized Brigade named after theBlack Zaporozhians is a formation of the Ukrainian Ground Forces. It was previously named the 29th Rifle Division and then the 72nd Guards Rifle Division of the Soviet Ground Forces. In 1957, it became a motor rifle division.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">22nd Mechanized Brigade (Ukraine)</span> Ukrainian Ground Forces formation

The 22nd Mechanized Brigade is a formation of the Ukrainian Ground Forces. It traces its origins to the 66th Guards Rifle Division, originally a formation of the Red Army and later of the Soviet Ground Forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Uranus Soviet order of battle</span>

The Soviet order of battle for Operation Uranus details the combat units of the Soviet forces that fought in Operation Uranus, the Soviet strategic counteroffensive that led to the encirclement of the German troops in Stalingrad. The order of battle lists units present on 19 November 1942, the day the operation began, from north to south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">28th Army (Soviet Union)</span> Soviet Army formation

The 28th Army was a field army of the Red Army and the Soviet Ground Forces, formed three times in 1941–42 and active during the postwar period for many years in the Belorussian Military District.

The 55th Guards Rifle Division was a Red Army military unit, engaged in the Second World War. Its full name was the 55th Guards Rifle Irkutsk-Pinsk Order of Lenin, Order of the October Revolution, three Red Banner, Order of Suvorov 2nd degree division named after the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">8th Tank Army</span> Military unit

The 8th Tank Army was one of ten Soviet tank armies. It was formed from the 52nd Army after the end of World War II. It was stationed around the city of Zhytomyr, in the western Ukrainian SSR, part of the Carpathian Military District. During the Cold War, the army was involved in the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Operation Whirlwind, and the crushing of the Prague Spring, Operation Danube. After the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, the 8th Tank Army became the Ukrainian 8th Army Corps.

The 31st Army was a field army of the Red Army during the Second World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armoured Forces (Ukraine)</span> Military unit

The Armoured Troops are the armored corps of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, the main striking force of ground troops. They are used primarily in conjunction with mechanized forces in key areas and perform the following tasks:

The 129th Guards Rifle Division was formed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in October 1943, based on the 1st formation of the 176th Rifle Division. It was the highest-numbered Guards division designated by the Red Army, although not the last to be formed.

The 15th Guards Mozyr Red Banner Order of Suvorov Tank Division was a tank division of the Soviet Army during the Cold War that became part of the Russian Ground Forces after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

References

  1. "Чорнобаївка-18. Українські мінометники ліквідували склад боєприпасів окупантів – відео". 2 May 2022.
  2. "Institute for the Study of War". Institute for the Study of War. Archived from the original on 2022-03-25. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  3. Roscoe, Matthew (2022-10-25). "WATCH: Ukraine's 30th Mechanised Brigade dropping VOG-17 and F1 grenades on Russian positions". Euro Weekly News. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  4. "КРАЩІ ЧАСТИНИ ТА З'ЄДНАННЯ ЗБРОЙНИХ СИЛ УКРАЇНИ 2007 рік" [Best Units in the Armed Forces of Ukraine 2007](PDF). Viysko Ukrainy (in Ukrainian) (12): 4. 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 July 2011.
  5. 1 2 "Ukrainian President decree №646/2015".
  6. Red Sabers, Soviet Cavalry Corps, Divisions, and Brigades, 1941-1945, Charles C. Sharp
  7. "Biography of Major-General Petr Ivanovich Zubov". Generals.dk. Retrieved 2012-03-09.
  8. 1 2 Trygub, Oleksiy (30 August 2011). "70 років гвардійської слави" [70 Years of Guards Fame]. Narodnaya Armia (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 19 April 2013. Retrieved 30 August 2011.
  9. 1 2 3 Holm, Michael. "30th Guards Tank Division". ww2.dk. Retrieved 2016-02-28.
  10. "Міністр оборони України Анатолій Гриценко: "Ми беремо активну участь у миротворчій операції у Косовому і братимемо участь в ній і надалі. До тих пір, поки питання з приводу статусу Косового не буде вирішено остаточно на політичному рівні"" [Defense Minister of Ukraine Anatoly Hrytsenko: "We are actively engaged in peacekeeping operations in Kosovo and will participate in it in the future until the question about the status of Kosovo is finally resolved at the political level "] (in Ukrainian). Press Center of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. 12 December 2006. Archived from the original on 6 February 2012. Retrieved 2012-03-09.
  11. 1 2 "У ході спільного командно-штабного тренування "Співдружність-2006" на Яворівському полігоні українські та польські офіцери узгодять дії спільного штабу "УкрПолбату" під час виконання завдань наступної ротації 2006 року" [In joint command and staff exercise "Commonwealth 2006" on Yavoriv training ground Ukrainian and Polish officers agree on joint action Staff "UkrPolbat" during the next rotation of assignments in 2006] (in Ukrainian). Press Center of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. 29 March 2006. Archived from the original on 10 October 2007. Retrieved 2012-03-09.
  12. "З поверненням на Батьківщину 95 українських миротворців завершилася чергова – восьма – ротація національної складової спільного українсько-польського миротворчого батальйону "УкрПолбат" багатонаціональної тактичної групи "East" сил КФОР у Косовому" [Return home of 95 Ukrainian peacekeepers ends eighth rotation of national component of joint Ukrainian-Polish Peacekeeping Battalion Multinational Group East KFOR in Kosovo]. Press Center of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. 12 October 2007. Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  13. New defensive line outside Artemivsk attacked by militants, deaths reported, Ukraine Today (May. 8, 2015)
    Traumas of soldiers becoming more visible after Debaltseve, Kyiv Post (March 6, 2015)
    Volunteer accuses separatists of killing more Ukrainian prisoners (AUDIO), Kyiv Post (May 1, 201)
  14. Katasonova, Yana (2 May 2022). "Чорнобаївка-18. Українські мінометники ліквідували склад боєприпасів окупантів – відео". LIGA.net (in Ukrainian).
  15. "Ukrainian Troops Destroy Russian Armored Unit Trying to Cross River". Newsweek. 2022-05-20. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  16. "Institute for the Study of War". Institute for the Study of War. Archived from the original on 2022-03-25. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  17. Roscoe, Matthew (2022-10-25). "WATCH: Ukraine's 30th Mechanised Brigade dropping VOG-17 and F1 grenades on Russian positions". Euro Weekly News. Retrieved 2022-12-19.
  18. "Ukraine aims to wear down and outsmart Russian army distracted by infighting". 30 June 2023.
  19. "Soldiers of 30th Brigade destroy two enemy equipment units in two hours". 12 July 2023.
  20. "Керівний склад військової частини" [Management of the military unit]. Lebedin.info (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 29 September 2007.
  21. "Про присвоєння почесного найменування "Новоград-Волинсь...| від 20.10.1999 № 1356/99". Zakon1.rada.gov.ua. Retrieved 2012-03-09.