Pages

Monday, May 26, 2014

Ukrainian Armed Forces




One of my most recent projects was inspired by recent events taking place in Ukraine. The country who’s army was being deliberately incapacitated and methodically destroyed by sold-out governments for many years… The same army, which is now facing an uneasy task of liberating their land from armed to the teeth pro-Russian terrorist mercenary scam. Here is a little something for moral support to those brave guys and gals, helping people of Ukraine to realize their dreams of freedom and democracy.







The Armed Forces of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Збройні сили України (ЗСУ) Zbroyni Syly Ukrayiny, (ZSU)) are the military of Ukraine. Ukraine is officially a non-aligned state, but until the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, had a rather warm relationship with its neighbor the Russian Federation, allowing the latter to keep some contingents of its military forces on Ukrainian soil.
Military units of other states participate in multinational military exercises with Ukrainian forces in Ukraine regularly. Many of these exercises are held under the NATO co-operation programme Partnership for Peace.




The Ukrainian Ground Forces (Ukrainian: Сухопутні Війська ЗСУ, Sukhoputni Viys’ka ZSU) are the land force component of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They were formed from Soviet Ground Forces formations, units, and establishments, including three military districts (the Kiev, Carpathian, and Odessa Military Districts), that were on Ukrainian soil when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990–92. Throughout the 1990s, Ukraine retained much Soviet-era army equipment. Since then, however, Ukraine has upgraded its Ground Forces with advanced additions from domestic engineering and modifications. Currently, the Ukrainian Ground Forces buys military equipment only from Russia and other CIS states, as well as locally producing some of their own equipment. Mechanised Infantry and armoured forces are the primary components of the Ukrainian Ground Forces. Their primary objectives in case of war are capturing and holding targets, maintaining positions, defending against attack, penetrating enemy lines and defeating enemy forces.




The Ukrainian Air Force (Ukrainian: Повітряні Сили України, Povitryani Syly Ukrayiny) is a part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Ukrainian Air Force headquarters is located in the city of Vinnytsia. When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, a large number of aircraft were left on Ukrainian territory. Ever since, the Ukrainian air force has been downsizing and upgrading its forces. In spite of these efforts, the main inventory of the air force consists of Soviet-made aircraft. The primary tasks of the Air Force of Ukraine are: winning operational air superiority, delivering air strikes against enemy units and facilities, covering troops against enemy air strikes, providing air support to the Land Force and the Navy, disrupting enemy military and state management, damaging and destroying enemy communication, and providing support by air in the form of reconnaissance, air drops, troops and cargo transportation.
The major mission of the Air Force is to protect the air space of Ukraine. In peace-time, this is carried out by flying air-space control missions over the entire territory of Ukraine




The Ukrainian Naval Forces (Ukrainian: Військово-Морські Сили України, ВМСУ, Viys’kovo-Mors’ki Syly Ukrayiny, VMSU) is the navy of Ukraine and part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It was established in 1992. It consists of 5 branches: surface forces, submarine forces, Navy aviation, coastal rocket-artillery and marines. The Navy numbers 15,470 people. The navy operates in the Black Sea basin (including Sea of Azov and Danube Delta). Distant operations of the Ukrainian Navy are limited to multinational activities, such as Operation Active Endeavour and Operation Atalanta in the Mediterranean and Horn of Africa. The headquarters of the Ukrainian Naval Forces was, until the 2014 Crimean crisis, situated at Sevastopol in Crimea.
In the 2014 Crimean crisis, Russia annexed Crimea, where the majority of the bases of the Ukrainian Navy were situated. Twelve thousands of Ukraine's 15,450 Navy personnel were based in Crimea, and the majority defected to Russia or resigned from military service.[citation needed] Russia also has control of at least 12 of Ukraine's 17 major warships. The base north of Odessa became the main operational Ukrainian Naval base. Ukraine also lost control of its Navy's main underground ammunition-storage site at the Inkerman valley, outside Sevastopol, as well as of its helicopter-repair facilities. The Navy's 750-strong 1st Marine Battalion at Feodosia was overrun by pro-Russian forces, its personnel arrested, and its equipment seized.
On 8 April 2014 an agreement had been reached between Russia and Ukraine to return captured vessels to Ukraine and "for the withdrawal of an undisclosed number of Ukrainian aircraft seized in Crimea". At the time Russian Navy sources claimed the Ukrainian ships were "not operational because they are old, obsolete, and in poor condition".

 The National Guard of Ukraine —(Ukrainian: Національна гвардія України, "Natsionalna gvardiya Ukrayini")(NGU)— is the reserve component of the Armed Forces of Ukraine under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs that was revived in 2014 based on the Internal Troops of Ukraine. The Guard would then be reestablished on March 13, 2014 amidst rising tensions in Ukraine and its region caused by the military intervention in Crimea by Russia.
The National Guard was originally created on November 4, 1991 right after Ukraine gained its independence under a direct supervision of the Supreme Council of Ukraine. However it was controversially disbanded nine years later on January 11, 2000 as part of a 'cost-saving' exercise by the then President Leonid Kuchma. In 1995 - 2000 there existed both the National Guard of Ukraine and the Internal Troops of Ukraine.

As always, the above insignia are available on a limited number of selected quality products via my “Military Insignia” galleries at Zazzle. You may simply follow the direct links in the article to navigate to the corresponding galleries.



I will also make my insignia designs available free of charge to any military units and personnel, for any non-profit/non-commercial and charitable causes, benefiting troops and their families. In addition, I would make my designs available free of charge to any military branches, formations and units for any non-commercial internal duty-specific purposes, such as unit-related web design, training materials or presentations, as I did on many occasions in the past.

The above information provided in part by Wikipedia, Global Security, and the official websites of the corresponding units and formations.

8 comments:

  1. Happy memorial day. Your new stuff is great. By the way, I saw Lone Survivor last week. I noticed at the end, they used some of your graphics. Thought that was interesting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Rob, thanks! Yep, they did use my stuff. I bit on a small side, but cool nevertheless. Cheers...

      Delete
  2. What is the symbol that looks like an axe in the middle of every insignia? Sorry if its in the article.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. White gyrfalcon is the prototype of Ukraine´s trident.

      Delete
  3. What is the symbol that looks like an axe in the middle of every insignia? Sorry if its in the article.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's called Tryzub, which technically is a trident, and is the state coat of arms of Ukraine.

      Delete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete