128th Separate Mountain Assault Zakarpattia Brigade

The brigade's official birthdate is July 12, 1922, when the 1st Turkestan Rifle Brigade was expanded into a division. Its path ran through Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan, through several renamings, to a division named after a Soviet marshal, formed in Esztergom, Hungary in 1956.

1991 became the turning point: division commander General Viktor Hrechaninov was the first divisional commander to declare support for Ukrainian statehood, and on January 19, 1992, his soldiers swore allegiance to Ukraine. In 2000 the division received the honorary name "Zakarpattia." By the end of 2012 it had become the 128th Separate Brigade for good.

The current brigade was blooded in April 2014, fighting for Luhansk Airport. In winter 2015, one of its hardest battles came at Hill 307.9 near Sanzharivka on the Debaltseve bridgehead — heavy losses, but the position held. For their courage there, brigade commander Colonel Serhii Shaptala and battalion commander Vasyl Zubanych were both named Heroes of Ukraine.

In May 2018 the brigade was renamed from mountain-infantry to mountain-assault — and received new insignia: a mountain-grey shield bearing a St. Anthony's cross, two crossed axes, and an edelweiss stylized as a ten-rayed sun, one ray for each ethnic community of Zakarpattia serving in its ranks.

"LEM MY" ("Only us")

— the brigade's motto, in the Zakarpattia dialect

The brigade met the full-scale invasion defending Zaporizhzhia region, then moved to liberate villages in Kherson region in August 2022, defended Soledar in December 2022, and returned to the Zaporizhzhia axis in January 2023, where it still holds the line. In February 2024, Master Sergeant Anatolii Banatskyi was named a Hero of Ukraine.