Ukrainian Air Defence Forces

The Ukrainian Air Defence Forces were an anti-aircraft military service of Ukraine, active from 1992 to 2004.

They were established on the basis of the former Soviet 8th Air Defence Army, and the last commander of that army, General-Lieutenant Lopatin, became the first commander of the Ukrainian Air Defence Forces.

From January 24, 1992, after the collapse of the USSR, 28th Air Defense Corps, previously subordinate to 2nd Air Defence Army was transferred under the 8th Air Defence Army of Ukraine. Units stationed in Moldova were transferred to the Moldovan Armed Forces (275th Guards Anti-Aircraft Rocket Brigade, battalions and companies from the 14th Radio-Technical Brigade). There were about 67,000 air defense troops in 1992. The new Air Defence Forces headquarters was formed on the basis of HQ 8th Air Defence Army. There were three air defence corps: the 28th (Lviv), 49th (Odessa), and 60th (Dnipropetrovsk). Holm reports that all three air defence corps were taken over by Ukraine on 1 February 1992, and that the 28th ADC became the Western AD Region on 1 June 1992.

The first issue of the International Institute for Strategic Studies' Military Balance after the Soviet collapse, 1992–93, listed one Air Defence army, 270 combat aircraft, and seven regiments of Su-15s (80), MiG-23s (110) and MiG-25s (80). By March 1994 Air Forces Monthly reported three air defence regions: the Southern with the 62nd and 737th Fighter Aviation Regiments, the Western with the 92nd (transferred from 14th Air Army and based at Mukachevo), 179th, and 894th Fighter Aviation Regiments (from 28th AD Corps/2nd Air Defence Army), and the Central with the 146th (Vasylkiv), 636th (Kramatorsk, seemingly disbanded 1996 and its Su-15s broken up for scrap), and 933rd Fighter Aviation Regiments. The Military Balance 95/96 said that six fighter regiments had been disbanded. (p. 71)

After the accidental shooting down of Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 in October 2001, the commander of the Ukrainian Air Defence Forces, General Colonel Volodymyr Tkachov, first offered to resign and then was dismissed. An anti-aircraft exercise being run from a training area in the Crimea had gone wrong, and a surface-to-air missile destroyed the plane.

In 2004 the Air Defence Forces were amalgamated with the Ukrainian Air Force.

Commanders

 * Lieutenant General Mykhaylo Oleksiyovych Lopatin (1992-1996)
 * Lieutenant General Oleksandr Oleksiyovych Stetsenko (1996-2000)
 * Colonel General Volodymyr Vasylyovych Tkachov (2000-2001)
 * Colonel General Anatoliy Yakovych Toropchyn (2001-2004)