Territorial Defence Forces

Broad area of activity

Nationwide regional brigades; many committed to front-line sectors far from their home regions.

Notable history

Activated as a separate branch around the 2022 invasion under the 2021 territorial-defence law, absorbing the mass volunteering of the first months. Its brigades evolved from local defence toward regular line service as the war lengthened.

Strengths

Mobilisation scale and local rootedness; the institutional channel that turned the 2022 volunteer wave into formations.

Limitations

Equipment and training gaps relative to regular brigades are publicly acknowledged, even as its employment converged with theirs.

Lineage & institutional history

Formed 2022

Campaigns

Campaigns naming this organisation as a participant. The campaign record owns the relationship and grades it; this list is computed.

• The strategic campaign against Ukraine's electricity system Supporting force · Since October 2022 · moderate confidence · as of 2026-06

  Mobile fire groups against low-flying drones became a standing task, and are the cheap end of the cost-exchange answer.

• Force generation and mobilisation Primary force · Since February 2022 · high confidence · as of 2026-06

  Territorial Defence expanded from a small framework into a large branch in 2022 and is the clearest institutional record of Ukrainian force expansion.

• The February 2022 invasion and the failure at Kyiv Opposing force · February – April 2022 · high confidence · as of 2022-04

  Territorial Defence expanded enormously in the opening weeks and held urban approaches the regular army could not cover simultaneously.