Ukrainian Army Structure Being Reformed - How and Why (2025)

Ukraine has begun introducing a new system of command and control of its forces by creating a military corps. The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) has already formed the first, built around the Azov one of Ukraine’s most effective combat units, and is in the process of creating two more based on National Guard units.

The corps will be a higher level of command and control that will incorporate several brigades. Everyone seems convinced that the new system will improve the management of the defense forces, leading to improved coordination and effectiveness on the battlefield.

Better late than never?

It is difficult to find an analyst or military expert who thinks the creation of a corps system would be a backward step.

On Feb. 23, 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed the composition of an army corps and the appointment of eighteen potential corps commanders. Each will be assigned to front-line sectors and receive a permanent compliment of troops, with the brigades around which each corps will be formed having also been identified.

A standard corps will be made up of five brigades, with one additional formation containing seven. Ukraine’s Ground Forces will contain 13 corps with two Air Assault corps, one Marine Corps, and two National Guard corps.

“For three years, we have gained unique experience in fierce battles, conducted successful counterattacks, and become the most effective in using drones on the front line. We introduced technologies, changed the approach to personnel training, and created the best recruiting system in the country.”

“We launched our own FPV and NRK [land drones] schools. We created large-scale cultural and educational projects. It is time to expand our horizons,” Andriy Biletsky, the current Third Separate Assault Brigade (3AB) commander, said on March 14 – without giving any further details.

On April 15 it was announced that the two National Guard corps were already formed following on from that containing the Azov unit and four other brigades. One of the National Guard corps, titled the Second Corps, was built around the Charter Brigade although further details are not yet known.

Currently corps level command is carried out by various Operational, Operational-Tactical, and Operational-Strategic (OSUV, OTUV, and OUV) groupings. Andriy Kharuk, a military historian and lecturer at Ukraine’s Land Forces Academy notes, the corps level organization will result in significantly higher quality operational command.

“Corps should ideally replace the OUV and OTUV that we currently have. Brigades should be united by a common history, types of weapons, and types of tasks. What we have now is a ‘vinaigrette’ of different brigades and so-called ‘attached units’ that are shuffled back and forth, often losing coordination. The corps is a holistic structure. And let’s not even talk about the ‘attached’ units that break brigades into battalions and, let’s be honest, are not valued as much as the ‘main’ ones. It is time to fix this,” Kharuk says.

Despite expert opinion that corps-level command offers clear advantages, it has not previously been introduced because from the earliest stages of the war, resulting from Russia’s full-scale invasion, operational groupings seemed sufficient.

“Well, and you understand, no one wanted a permanent superior above them – every brigade commander wanted to have his own kingdom… So, probably, this wasn’t going to happen soon,” one staff officer told Kyiv Post a year and a half ago.

Has reorganization already happened?

One reason for introducing a corps system is the growth in the size of the UAF. Previously, the post-Soviet Ukrainian army numbered over half a million and was organized around a corps structure. These were phased out in the 2000s as the army was downsized.

During the presidency of the pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, and his Russian defense ministers deliberately weakened the military reducing its strength to a record low of 100,000 personnel – half of whom were rear-area troops - in a country of 40 million people.

It is not surprising that with the start of Russia’s aggression, which remember began in 2014, the army had to be rebuilt from scratch.

Still, corps were not reintroduced back then but now, Kharuk says the 2025 corps will be completely different from those that existed in the 1990s and early 2000s.

“Those corps – the 30th, 7th, 1st, 6th, 8th – were essentially the result of reorganizing existing Soviet combined arms and tank armies. Importantly, Ukraine did not have a corps-level command system at that time. The corps then were administrative, not tactical units, and served mostly administrative functions,” Kharuk said.

That is why, according to military personnel and experts we interviewed, the current corps within the defense forces are a qualitatively new phenomenon. And they will require more highly skilled and experienced officers – who are Ukraine currently lacks even at the brigade level.

“The main issue is staff officers. We need people who can plan and lead at the tactical level – majors, lieutenant colonels, and colonels who understand the broader situation and can think strategically. This is a completely different combat reality, and we need officers with different skill sets,” a military analyst told us.

Will there be enough of them to man all corps? Time will tell. But the rapid formation of corps based on the currently most active brigades such as 3AB, Azov, and Charter – offers the greatest leadership potential.

Observers say that Azov and 3AB simply have more competent “new school” personnel with combat experience who can form the backbone of a corps headquarters – the reason why they were selected as the first focuses for the new corps concept.

Why Azov?

Rumors that Azov would be reorganized into a corps had been circulating for a long time. This was no surprise, as the formation was widely seen as one of the most capable and best-trained Ukrainian units. Recruits into Azov from 2015 to 2018 largely came from nationally conscious and patriotic volunteer officers. The unit’s reorganization according to NATO standards and its emphasis on strong NCOs made it extremely battle-ready. Its defense of Mariupol, which lasted for months against a numerically and technologically superior enemy, proved this.

In addition to Azov, the National Guard’s First Corps includes the 1st Presidential Operational Brigade “Bureviy,” the 12th and 14th Operational Brigades “Chervona Kalyna,” the 15th Operational Brigade “Kara-Dag,” and the newly created 20th Operational Brigade “Lyubart” which was formed from one of Azov’s battalions.

We asked for Azov’s view of the new corps model and how ready they were for it.

“The main goal of the corps model is to unite regular brigades within a single operational zone. To improve command, coordination, and combat capability. Most officers in the corps’ leadership and headquarters come from the 12th Special Forces ‘Azov’ Brigade.

“We also involve officers from brigades within the corps and from the supreme Natinal Guard comandment... We always want more, but we have enough forces and resources to operate at the corps level. We are always ready for battle. But undoubtedly, as a unified combat unit, the corps will be more effective when all its brigades share a single area of responsibility on the front,” a unit spokesperson stated.

This is the key difference from the current OTUV and OUV structures – under the corps system, all brigades move together to a new area of responsibility, maintaining coordination, rather than being rotated individually within tactical groupings.

At the same time, Azov says that one of the corps’ tasks is to strengthen the brigades within it:

“We respect the experience and unique traditions of each brigade and do not aim to change or override them. The main goal is to strengthen and assist, to share our experience. In the future, the corps will include separate support units—logistics, UAVs, training units, and others—that will make it an autonomous structure. The corps is a structural unit of the army, not a business. Its core mission is high-quality command, training, and support.”

From their answers, it is clear that even such a forward-thinking unit as Azov will have a great deal of work to do in establishing an effective corps headquarters and building its autonomy as a combat structure.

Kyiv Post will definitely continue to monitor and analyze how consistently this kind of work is carried out in this and other corps that are being created within the AFU.