The best army Ukraine has ever had. Changes in Ukraine’s armed forces since the Russian aggression
The best army Ukraine has ever had. Changes in Ukraine’s armed forces since the Russian aggression

Author(s): Andrzej Wilk
Contributor(s): Adam Eberhardt (Editor), Małgorzata Zarębska (Editor), Anna Łabuszewska (Editor), Katarzyna Kazimierska (Editor), Jim Todd (Translator)
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, International relations/trade, Security and defense, Military policy, Geopolitics, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: OSW Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich im. Marka Karpia
Keywords: Ukraine; Ukrainian army; military reforms; armed forces; Russian aggression; defending the state; territorial integrity;
Summary/Abstract: In the spring and summer of 2014, for the first time in its history, the Ukrainian army faced the necessity of military involvement to defend its state. After initially failing to engage in action with the enemy – in the form of irregular armed formations, sent from the territory of Russia, which rapidly took over Crimea – and faced with the threat of Ukraine losing the entire eastern and southern part of the country and real, direct aggression from Russia, it launched military action against the so-called separatists. Initially, the Ukrainian armed forces’ actions in the Donbas were carried out on a small scale and were irregular in nature, based on reacting to the enemy’s activity. Along with the systematic increase in the separatists’ potential (thanks to Russia), as well as the direct involvement of the Russian Federation’s armed forces at a critical period in August 2014, the Ukrainian army’s operations took on a regular character, and the entire military potential of Ukraine was involved in defending the territorial integrity of the state. The military activity in the Donbas carried out at that time, and to varying degrees of intensity in the following months, highlighted the Ukrainian army’s weaknesses, as well as its total inability to implement its constitutional duties. This forced the government in Kyiv to take real action to clean up the country’s armed forces.

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