- Service ensign · official · carried by Ground Forces
- State affiliation · Russia
- Vigil category device · not official insignia
Identity provenance
Service ensign: Flag of the Russian Ground Forces — carried by Ground Forces, not issued to this record. The service flag of the Ground Forces, adopted 2004. The design itself is not an object of copyright: Article 1259(6) of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation excludes official symbols and signs. The file shipped is the Wikimedia Commons SVG "Flag of the Russian Ground Forces.svg", released under PD-RU-exempt on that basis, so no attribution or share-alike obligation attaches. Optimised for web display; geometry unaltered.
State affiliation: Russia.
The smaller square mark is a Vigil category device, drawn from this record’s own domain, echelon and role — not an official insignia.
In brief
Combined-arms army of the old Western MD, since 2024 under the re-created Moscow MD; parent of the 3rd and 144th Motor Rifle Divisions re-formed in 2016, and engaged on the north-eastern axes through the war.
- Scope
- Structure, role, lineage and links. 2 subordinate records published.
- Subordination
- Subordination reported
- Sources
- 5 on the record
- Record state
- Partial
- Broad area of activity
- Peacetime: the Voronezh–Belgorod–Smolensk belt of western Russia. Wartime: the Kharkiv axis in 2022 and the Svatove–Kreminna and Kupiansk sectors since, by ISW's tracking. No disposition is authored.
- Notable history
- A Soviet field army headquartered in Voronezh whose post-Cold War history tracks Russia's changing view of the Ukrainian border: run down in the 2000s, then rebuilt from 2016 when the 3rd and 144th Motor Rifle Divisions were re-formed under it as part of the return to divisions on the western frontier. It fought the 2022 Kharkiv operation and was among the formations driven back in the September 2022 counteroffensive; since then its divisions have been tracked on the Svatove–Kreminna and Kupiansk axes. The February 2024 split of the Western Military District placed it under the re-created Moscow Military District.
- Strengths
- A divisional structure built for this frontier before the war, the priority that the 2016 rebuild signalled, and continuous employment on one axis since 2022, which is rare among Russian field armies.
- Limitations
- The 2022 retreat from Kharkiv oblast exposed how thinly the rebuilt divisions were manned; the army has been reconstituted more than once and its wartime groupings are not the peacetime tree drawn here.
Subordinate formations
3rd Motor Rifle DivisionDivision · subordination reported144th Guards Motor Rifle DivisionDivision · subordination reportedRows are layout only — position and order carry no hierarchy, importance, sequence or strength. Every record shown is an immediate subordinate of the selected organisation.
Lineage & institutional history
Western Military District until that district was split in February 2024; Moscow Military District since. Its two divisions were re-formed in 2016 in the post-2014 return to divisional structures on the Ukrainian border.
Key events
Operation Vivaldi retakes ground north of Lyman
Ukraine's 3rd Army Corps disclosed on 15 September 2026 an operation it named Vivaldi, after The Four Seasons, which it had run in secret in the Lyman sector since late May. It announced four phases between 15 September and 14 October and said on 19 October the operation was complete, its line on the Chornyi Zherebets river. The corps claims 277 km² and 16 settlements — nine retaken from occupation, seven cleared of infiltration. Independent mapping is lower and lags: the Institute for the Study of War found at least 147 km² around Lyman newly visible in its September mapping, and DeepState confirmed named villages phase by phase. The corps says it struck Russian logistics and drone units deep in the rear before its armour moved; ISW assessed that Ukraine likely neutralised Russian drone defences north of Lyman before the third phase. On 9 October ISW assessed that the operation had defeated the northern arm of a Russian attempt to envelop Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, which it called an operational failure for Russia.
Quick actions
System access
Where this record connects into the rest of Vigil. Each row is here because this organisation actually reaches it.
Assessed as of — 2026-07 Last reviewed — 2026-09-28
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