The Ukrainian Army: A Military History 1991-2025

On February 24, 2022, the largest conventional war Europe had seen since World War II erupted. At the time, many considered Ukraine-and therefore its army, humiliated a few years earlier in the Donbass-as doomed. Since the start of this seemingly endless war, the Ukrainian army has alternated between victories and defeats, inspiring both admiration and criticism. Yet it remains largely unknown.

This work traces the history of the modern Ukrainian army: from its creation in 1991 to its nadir in 2014, and then to the revival that followed before the 2022 invasion. It details the air, land, and naval operations it has conducted since, discussing its equipment, orders of battle, and innovations, as well as the multiple constraints-both institutional and externally imposed-that have hindered its actions. Implicitly, it also reveals several aspects of a Russian military apparatus that is often caricatured.