The Armed Forces of Ukraine (Zbroyni Syly Ukrayiny, (ZSU)) is the military of Ukraine. They are the principal deterrent force against any aggression that could be shown against the sovereign state of Ukraine. All military and security forces, including the Armed Forces of Ukraine are under the command of the President of Ukraine, and subject to oversight by a permanent Verkhovna Rada parliamentary commission.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine are composed of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, the Ukrainian Navy, the Ukrainian Air Force, and the Ukrainian Airmobile Forces. Ukraine’s naval forces maintain their own small Ukrainian Naval Infantry force as well as their own Ukrainian Naval Aviation force. The Ukrainian Sea Guard is the coast guard service of Ukraine, however it is part of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine and is not subordinate to the Navy. As a result of the Russian military intervention in Ukraine from 2014, the president commissioned governors of oblasts of Ukraine to create volunteer units under the government program “Territorial Defense”. Initially these units received minimal funding coming from regional budgets and mostly relied on donations. In November 2014 most of the territorial battalions were integrated into Ukraine’s Ground forces.
National Guard of Ukraine serves as the main reserve component of Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Due to the ongoing hostilities with the Russian Federation, Ukraine has greatly increased the size of its military forces to 204,000 soldiers (+46,000 civil servants) in 2014, not counting paramilitary forces such as the border guards (53,000), the new formed National Guard of Ukraine (60,000) or the security service.[13] Ukraine’s armed forces came close to France, which maintained a 229,000 man force, as the largest in Europe when excluding Russia.[14] It was reported that Ukraine’s military swelled to 280,000 personnel. This was largely achieved by the repeated waves of mobilization bringing in new recruits while older soldiers had not yet been processed out, the state budget for 2015 ultimately calls for a force of 230,000. Hryhoriy Pedchenko reported that 51% of Ukraine’s enlisted personnel were contract soldiers.
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 program Partnership for Peace.
Since 3 June 2016 women are allowed to serve in combat units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
