Ukrainian Ground Forces

Ukrainian Ground Forces Сухопутні Війська України
Emblem of the Ukrainian Ground Forces
Active	1919–1922 12 December 1991–present
Size	260,000 Active personnel (2016) 80,000 Reserve (2016)
Headquarters	Kiev
Anniversaries	Army Day (12 December, anniversary of the 1991 formation of the Ground Forces).
Engagements	Kosovo Force (KFOR) Iraq War War in Afghanistan (2001–present) 2014 Russian invasion of Crimea War in Donbass
Commanders
Current commander	Lieutenant General Serhiy Popko
Insignia
Ground Forces Ensign
Flag of Ukraine

1919–1922

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.

Since Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 Ukraine retained its Soviet-era army equipment and have not replaced nor upgraded it. Also the Armed Forces have been systematically downsized since 1991 and as a result it was largely dilapidated in July 2014. Since the start of the War in Donbass in April 2014 in eastern Ukraine Ukraine is upgrading its Armed Forces. Its size of 129,950 in March 2014 had grown to 204,000 active personnel in May 2015. In 2016 75% of the army consisted of contract servicemen.

Prior to the October Revolution of 1917, three separate self-governing Ukrainian states existed on what is Ukraine today. Each of these states possessed armed forces. The largest of these, the Ukrainian People's Republic, itself comprised three separate regimes. The Ukrainian People's Army is an example of one of the early national armed forces. Other armed independence movements existed in the wake of both the First World War and the Second World War, and these armies each had distinct organisation and uniforms. These armed forces, and the independent Ukrainian homeland for which they fought, were eventually incorporated into the neighboring states of Poland, Soviet Union, Hungary, Romania and Czechoslovakia.