44th Separate Artillery Brigade (Ukraine)

The creation of the 44th separate artillery brigade began in September 2014 in the Lviv region, on the basis of the reception center of the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security of the Hetman Petr Sagaidachny Academy ^[1] .

The combat training of the brigade military personnel took place at the Yavorov military training ground.

December 10, 2014 it was announced the completion of the formation of the brigade ^[3] .

By December 12, 2014, the number of brigades was more than 1,000 military personnel in three divisions (of which about 300 completed training and were sent to the combat zone in eastern Ukraine, and more than 700 continued training) ^[4] .

By December 29, 2014, the brigade was provided with equipment by 70% (however, there weren’t enough tractors to tow guns, and part of the vehicles obtained from mobilization of enterprises of various forms of ownership from the civilian sector of the economy needed repair) ^[1] .

At the end of January 2015, the place of permanent deployment of the brigade was the military camp of the previously disbanded 11th separate guards artillery brigade in Ternopol ^[5] , the transfer of equipment and property of the brigade to Ternopol continued until February 13, 2015 ^[6] .

February 12, 2015 and. about. the brigade commander said in an interview that the brigade is 90% manned (there are contract soldiers among the military, but 90% are mobilized) and the brigade has three howitzer divisions and one fourth battalion battery ^[5] .

Meeting the needs of the team is carried out with the involvement of the city budget of Ternopil, extrabudgetary funds and donations ^[7]

• So, in March 2015, the city authorities of Ternopil helped to equip the military unit (providing premises with furniture, plumbing, etc.) ^[8]
• at the beginning of April 2015, the volunteers of the organization “Logistic Center Help the ATO Help” allocated 34 thousand hryvnias for the repair of showers in a military town ^[9]

October 15, 2014 the first howitzer division of the brigade completed combat training and was sent to the combat zone in eastern Ukraine ^[1] .

On January 16, 2015, in the Debaltseve area, during the rocket and artillery shelling, two servicemen of the brigade died (gun commander, senior sergeant N. N. Shtansky ^{[10] [11]} and A. L. Bosy ^[12] )

On the same day, January 16, 2015, in the Artyomovsk region, another soldier of the brigade, S. V. Slobozhenko, died ^[13]

On January 28-29, 2015, the personnel of the 3rd anti-tank battery of the anti-tank division of the brigade conducted defensive battles in the area of ​​the city of Uglegorsk . After all anti-tank guns of the battery were destroyed on January 28, 2015, the artillerymen, together with units of the PSMON Svityaz battalion, continued to defend their positions near the building of the boarding school in the city of Uglegorsk , and then left the encirclement in the direction of the settlements of Krasny Pakhar and Savelyevka ^{[14 ]}

In late January - early February 2015, units of the brigade fired at the Donetsk airport . During one of the shells, the detonation of ammunition was recorded behind the front line ^[15] .

On March 25, 2015, another brigade soldier died in Ternopol ^[16]

On March 30, 2015, units of the brigade were withdrawn from the war zone to the place of permanent deployment. According to personnel officer Andriy Boyko, during the demobilization announced in the spring of 2015, 19 military personnel of the brigade will be demobilized ^[17] .

As of March 2, 2018, the 44th separate artillery brigade lost 22 people during the ATO . ^{[18] [19]}

• brigade command
• 1st Howitzer Division ( 152mm howitzer 2A65 Msta-B ) ^[1]
• 2nd separate artillery division ( 152-mm guns 2A36 "Hyacinth-B" ) ^[1]
• 3rd separate artillery division (152-mm guns 2A36 "Hyacinth-B") ^[1]
• 150th separate anti-tank division ( 100-mm anti-tank guns MT-12 ) ^[14]

The brigade members are armed with small arms ( AKS-74 assault rifles) ^[20] . The brigade received artillery guns and part of the automobile transport from the long-term storage warehouses of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine ^[21] .

The brigade has at least one unit of armored vehicles ( BRDM-2 No. 423) ^[22] and vehicles: GAZ-66 ^[5] , ZIL-131 ^[5] trucks , several KrAZ-255 ^[21] and several received during mobilization of trucks KamAZ-4310 ^[5]

On February 20, 2015, the Warriors of Good charity foundation and the Mega-Polygraph volunteer group in Kiev transferred one UAZ-452 ambulance to the 1st artillery division of the brigade ^[23]