Military ranks of Ukraine: yesterday, today, tomorrow
As in any army of the world, servicemen of Ukraineare divided by ranks. This is necessary for compliance with subordination, determining the degree of responsibility, issuing and executing orders. The procedure for awarding military ranks in Ukraine is determined by law.
Historical reference
The rank system was established in March 1992after the adoption of the Law of Ukraine "On Military Duty and Military Service". Military ranks of Ukraine initially corresponded to the original structure of military ranks of the Soviet Union. Today, APUs have two types of ranks:
- Army, used by the ground forces and air forces;
- Marine for the Navy.
Descriptors
Ukraine, like the Russian Federation, got rid offrom the descriptor of "aviation" in the ranks of the air forces. What is special about it? In Ukraine, the military rank of a serviceman of guards units, formations or ships can be supplemented by the word "guards". The ranks of employees of legal, medical or veterinary professions should have a prefix of "justice", "medical service" or "veterinary service".
The titles of citizens who are in reserve or retired have descriptors of "reserve" or "retired", respectively. Ukraine also supplemented the range with the rank of General of the Army and Admiral of the Navy.
General posts of APU
In accordance with the Decree of the President of Ukraine of March 21, 2002 277/2002 in the Armed Forces of Ukraine 153 posts of higher officers are taken into account, of them by categories:
- General of the Army of Ukraine - 2 people;
- Admiral / Colonel-General - 10;
- Vice Admiral / Lieutenant-General - 44;
- Rear Admiral / Major-General - 97.
Number composition
Ratio of the number of persons of higher officerof the composition (BOC) to other categories of officers is 0.3%. According to the draft state program for the development of the Armed Forces of Ukraine until 2020, it is planned to maintain proportions in the range of 0.3%. Since 2020, this indicator is set at 0.2%.
At the posts of the OSI, 141 people are currently performing military service, including:
- persons of higher officers - 80;
- Colonels - 61.
Structure of the future army
Since 2017, it is planned to introduce a newstructure of military ranks of Ukraine for naval and land forces. The sergeant corps will expand significantly. There will be posts of the chief sergeant, master sergeant, staff sergeant, senior and chief master sergeant.
For the officer corps of land forcespresumably the changes will affect the generals. In particular, the post of brigadier general (according to the NATO OF-6 classifier) will be introduced. In the table of ranks he will be between the colonel and the major general. However, the new system has not yet been approved by the president, but the gradual unification of titles with NATO standards is obvious.
Current titles
At the moment, the troops have the following military ranks of Ukraine:
- Soldier (NATO code OR-1).
- The senior soldier (OR-2).
- Junior sergeant (OR-4).
- The sergeant (OR-6).
- Senior sergeant (OR-7).
- Foreman (OR-8).
- Ensign (OR-9).
- Senior Ensign (OR-9).
For officers:
- The cadet.
- Junior Lieutenant (OF-1).
- Lieutenant (OF-1).
- Senior Lieutenant (OF-1).
- Captain (OF-2).
- Major (OF-3).
- Lieutenant-Colonel (OF-4).
- Colonel (OF-5).
- Major-General (OF-7).
- Lieutenant-General (OF-8).
- Colonel-General (OF-9).
- General of the Army (OF-10).
Reforms
Until 2009, Ukrainian soldiersused military insignia of the Soviet model. Since 2009, the process of reorganizing the rank system and the insignia has begun. New military ranks in Ukraine were decided to be introduced gradually.
The cadets of the first issue of the Training Center of the sergeant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kharkov simultaneously became the first professional sergeants who received fundamentally new insignia on shoulder straps.
This innovation is aimed at approachingstandards of NATO. Prior to the reform, for example, the Major General of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was easily confused with the ordinary major, since both had only one star on Soviet-style shoulder straps. The new major-general has two stars, like most of the NATO member countries. Also an improved system of insignia makes possible the introduction of new ranks, for example brigadier general and new types of sergeants. Updated generals epaulettes have crossed maces, which used to be Kleynods (regalia) of the hetman, colonels and Koshevy Ataman. These experimental signs of difference were not widely used in practice and were partially forgotten.
New insignia
By 2015, the armed forcesuse the insignia and the system of ranks of the Soviet style. Although in the case of the ground forces and air forces, the old signs of the officer corps remained, and those proposed in 2009 for the sub-officers were widely recognized and, thus, replaced Soviet symbols.
Five-beam officer stars decided to replacediamond-shaped. It was such a star in June 1992, approved by the Commission for the development of military symbols. The basis was then the experience of the Armed Forces of the Ukrainian State of 1918, in which symbols in the form of rhombuses were used.
Signs of distinction for sergeants are proposedand narrow chevrons. They were used in the systems of insignia of the armed forces of the UPR in 1917 and 1919. The ornament on the chevrons is taken from the armbands of the Galician army, introduced in 1919.
Another element of the sergeant's differences is the arc. Combining these symbols makes it easy to create characters for additional titles that you plan to enter in the future.
The rank of junior officers is denoted by the stars. Ranks are distinguished by a sign in the form of braids. Three woven cords formed patches of the rank of regimental commanders of the Galician army. The staging of the headquarters of the Ukrainian Army of 1918 also formed a braid of three cords, which was surrounded by another cord. These categories of servicemen just correspond to the category of senior officers of modern APUs.
