55th Separate Artillery Brigade "Zaporizka Sich"

The 55th is the oldest artillery formation in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Its personnel — then the 55th Artillery Division — swore allegiance to Ukraine on January 19, 1992, and its lineage as a fighting unit runs back to 1943.

Since 2014, the brigade has served in every major eastern campaign: the defense of Donetsk Airport, the Debaltseve bridgehead, the blockade of the occupied Crimean border. One of its batteries held out inside the besieged Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol from March 18 to May 20, 2022.

For personal courage in defending Ukraine's sovereignty, brigade commander Colonel Roman Kachur was named a Hero of Ukraine by presidential decree on May 12, 2022.

That same May, brigade crews retrained on Western howitzers in France and Germany in a matter of weeks — and were firing them on the front within the month. On June 30, 2022, the brigade's CAESAR self-propelled gun crews took direct part in the liberation of Zmiinyi (Snake) Island.

"NE SPERECHAIEMOS — STAVYMO KRAPKU" ("We don't argue — we put a full stop")

— motto of the 55th Separate Artillery Brigade "Zaporizka Sich"

Since 2024, the brigade has fielded FPV drone crews and drop-munition teams; since 2025, fiber-optic FPV drones and interceptor drone crews. According to the Ministry of Defence's Delta system, the brigade consistently ranks among the top 3 artillery units for damage inflicted on the enemy.

Today the brigade operates in the Pokrovsk sector of Donetsk region as part of the 9th Army Corps. Over 1,500 of its soldiers have received state and departmental honors since 2014.