Three years ago, on April 18, 2015, Ukraine’s chief of staff for the army, Gen. Viktor Muzhenko, in an interview published by Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, listed for the first time some of the specific Russian military units fighting in the occupied Donbas.
“Regular Russian army troops are still in Ukraine,” he said, despite a ceasefire agreement signed in February, which ordered the withdrawal of foreign fighters from the frontline. Russia has repeatedly denied claims by Kyiv and the West that it is arming and sending troops to help separatists who have gained control of parts of the east. Gen. Muzhenko named the Russian army’s 15th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, the 8th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, the 31st Airborne Regiment and the 98th Airborne Division. He said he had “proof” that Russian regular troops had fought in three clashes in the east in February 2015, including a fierce battle for the rail hub of Debaltseve, and since then, that area has been controlled by the separatists.
More Russian military units in Ukraine have been identified (thanks to the work of groups such as Bellingcat and Informnapalm.org), including in the invasion and annexation of Crimea. Many of these Russian units were identified due to social media posts of “selfie” photos and the investigations of bloggers and independent media, some as a result of being captured by Ukrainian forces. (An interactive info-graphic is available at https://informnapalm.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2015/08/Rus_in_Ukr_EN-01.jpg or at bit.ly/RussianPresenceEN.)
Among the Russian regular forces in Ukraine have been: the 18th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, the 9th Motorized Rifle Brigade and the 200th Motor Rifle Brigade, the 76th Airborne Division, as well as Russian naval groups, including the Baltic Fleet, the Northern Fleet and the Black Sea Fleet with its Marines. Russia’s GRU units of the 22nd Spetsnaz Brigade and the 45th Guards Spetsnaz Regiment have also been identified.
In addition to Russian regular forces in Ukraine, Russian mercenary fighters from the Vagner company were identified as well. Many of those same fighters were identified in Syria, fighting alongside Assad government forces.
Source: “Kyiv lists Russian units in Ukraine,” RFE/RL, The Ukrainian Weekly, April 26, 2015.