Awards of the Ukraine Ministry of Defence

[Megan]

Recently, as anyone who glances at my website might have noticed, I've been delving through the awards of the Republic of Ukraine, and latterly the Ministry of Defence. Fascinating story...

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence has not been profligate with awards and has concentrated on rewarding long and meritorious service. Like other ministries, awards were created piecemeal by successive Ministers until on 30 May 2012 the then President of Ukraine, VF Yanukovych, issued a Decree[1] approving a new regulation on departmental incentives; Ministers, heads of central executive bodies, heads (commanders) of military formations, and state law enforcement agencies were all instructed to ensure the revision of acts on the establishment of departmental incentives, bringing such acts in line with the requirements of this Decree.

 

In response, the Ministry of Defence revised their awards system and published an Order in 2013[2] laying out their new system of awards. Some awards were dropped completely, others modified, and even those that were retained were mostly amended. In turn, this order was amended in 2015[3].

---

[1] Decree of the President of Ukraine № 365/2012 of 30 May 2012 "On departmental incentives"

[2] Order of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine dated 11.03.2013 № 165 "On departmental incentive awards of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine"

[3] Order of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine of 9 December 2015 № 705 "On Amendments to the Order of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine of 11 March 2013 № 165”

As far as I can make out, the official Ministry of Defence pre-2013 Awards (in order of institution) are: -

Award “Valour and Honour” – 2 December 1996

Award “Veteran of Military Service” – 2 December 1996

Commemorative Badge "5 Years of the Armed Forces of Ukraine" – 2 December 1996

Medal "10 years of the Armed Forces of Ukraine" – 4 September 2001

Badge of Honour – 20 May 2003

Medal "For Assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine" – 20 May 2003

Medal “For Exemplary Service” – 20 May 2003

Medal "For Peacekeeping" – 13 September 2003

Medal “For Personal Achievements” – 12 September 2005

Medal “For Conscientious Service” – 12 September 2005

Medal "15 years of the Armed Forces of Ukraine" – 6 April 2006

Distinction "For Strengthening Defence Capabilities" – 21 May 2008

Distinction “For the Development of Military Cooperation” – 21 May 2008

 

These all were scrapped in 2012.

 

Note I say 'official' - there is a whole bunch of commemorative medals, mostly associated with specific branches of service that I'm unable, so far, to determine just how official they were. Some, I think, were produced by the coammanders of these branches of service - things like aerial reconnaissance, Airborne Troops, Military Intelligence, Rocket/Artillery Forces - for distribution to those under their command, but Ukraine also has a long-standing tradion of private purchase 'medals' to mark all manner over events, often made to a high standard of both design and manufacture and very difficult to distinguish from official awards (this doesn't just affect the miliary or other ministeries either - it's making research a nightmare!).

 

As an example, here is the Medal "10 Years of Aerial Reconnaissance" - l love the owl - but how 'official' is it?

 

 

[jimn]

Hello Megan

I have been enjoying your work on the Ukrainian awards

Cheers

Jim

[Megan]

Thank you.

 

I'm writing it all up in book form as well. Current intention is to release it as a PDF with a print-on-demand option.

[Megan]

And late last night I found a whole set of awards issued by the Chief of Staff... these also appear to be official with Orders instituting them and a place (afte awards of the Minister of Defence) in the order of precedence). Should keep me occupied for a while!

 

Here's the highest one the Badge "Glory and Honour".

[Megan]

Next is the Medal for Valiant Military Service to the Motherland.

 

[Megan]

And the next: Medal "For services to the Armed Forces of Ukraine"

[Megan]

Medal "For Achievements in Military Service", which has 2 classes.

Haven't found decent images of the reverses, but they are plain anyway so we're not missing much!

[Megan]

The next in sequence is the Medal "For Merit in Emergency Response" which was established in 2009. Unfortunately I have only found a sketch, but no actual images of it. Can anyone help?

[BalkanCollector]

The pictures are from this site: https://www.raritetus.ru/znaki/medali/rf/mchs/medal-za-zaslugi-v-22551/

 

 

 

 

 

[Megan]

Magic... I hadn't turned that up. Thank you!

[BalkanCollector]

13 hours ago, Megan said:

Magic... I hadn't turned that up. Thank you!

 

Searching in English often gives zero results so knowing of cyrillic definitely helps a lot.

[Megan]

I normally search in Ukrainian... this site was in Russian, not quite sure how a Ukrainian medal ended up in their section for EMERCON (the ministry that looks after emergency services, disaster recovery & the like!).

 

I already knew a little Russian, my Ukrainian is now improving, provided you want to talk about medals!

[BalkanCollector]

To be honest, I haven't even thought about the Russian/Ukrainian, I just typed the first few words and it popped out. Sometimes less really is more.

[Ura87]

New order: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z1469-22?fbclid=IwAR20a30C_pWme-zoM6zpCOaoSBI7VsCoZcMlmBTltNkH6pxE1czLQYF9V8s#Text

[Megan]

Oh my - and just when I am about to go on holiday and won't have access to my website! This always happens just when I am about to go away

 

Thanks for this, I shall see how much I can read before I leave. And bookmark the rest for when I get back,

[Zulu_00]

Could someone post a TLDR of that link?

[Megan]

In essence, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence has revamped their entire awards system, only keeping some of the existing ones, changing others, and introducing a whole lot more with an emphasis on actual 'warfighting' awards, something they've been historically light on.

 

I only have 2 days before I go away, but will try & amend my website pages to reflect the changes (or at least make a start), a proper write-up here may have to wait until the new year.

 

hint: Google translate isn't too bad at Ukrainian if you're struggling. And if you are after pictures, there are sketches of all the awards at the end of the document, just keep scrolling down!

 

I prefer actual photos for my website, so everyone keep your eyes out for them, please!

[Antonio Prieto]

For the next update. Some devices are missing today

 

[Megan]

Brilliant, that was quick, Antonio!!!

 

As of November 2022, the awards issued by the Ukranian Ministry of Defence are: -

• Cross of Special Merits
• Decoration "For Exemplary Service"

• Iron Cross

• Knight's Cross

• Military Cross

• Cross of Valour

• Medal "For Wounds"

• Cross of Honour

• Medal "Golden Trident"

• Medal "For Strengthening Defence Capability"

• Star of Military Brotherhood"

• Medal "Defender of Ukraine"

• Medal "For Defence Assistance"

• Cross of the Land Forces

• Corss of the Air Force
• Cross of the Naval Forces

• Cross of Special Operations Forces

• Cross of Territorial Defence Forces

• Cross of Logistics Forces

• Cross of Support Forces

• Cross of Medical Forces

• Cross of Airborne Assault Troops

• Cross of the Communications and Cyber Security Forces

• Cross of Missile Troops and Artillery

• Cross of the State Special Transport Service

• Medal "Warrior-Peacemaker"

• Medal "Service Veteran"

• Medal "20 Years of Conscientious Service"

• Medal "15 Years of Conscientious Service"

• Medal "10 Years of Conscientious Service"

Most of these are completely new, even those previously existing have been redesigned!

[Megan]

If you don't want to wade through the entire ministerial order, there's a summary here: https://www.ukrmilitary.com/2022/12/mou-new-medals.html

 

Which, of course, I found AFTER I'd waded through the entire military order, of course!

[Ura87]

There is a new order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces: https://www.mil.gov.ua/ministry/simvolika-ta-nagorodi/pochesni-ta-pamyatni-nagrudni-znaki-nachalnika-generalnogo-shtabu-golovnokomanduvacha-zsu.html

[Zulu_00]

I've never encountered such a complicated medals system in any country before. And I thought Ireland was bad!

[Megan]

There's long been a tradition in Ukraine that virtually any organisation is entitled to issue its own awards. In the military, you get them from the Ministry of Defence, from the Chiefs of Staff, often from those commanding districts or specialisms.... and then the various regions and settlements are chipping in with their own awards to those who have defended them.

 

Back in 2012 the then President of the country tried to rein them in and succeeded in curtailing some Ministerial excesses but only for a short period, and everyone else carried on regardless. It's difficult to tell what is 'official' and what isn't.

 

It's wild.... and a struggle to document! So thanks to everyone posting whatever they find. Time tor another update to my website, methinks!

[Megan]

Some of those 2022 awards are now beginning to show up so I've been adding them to my website:

 

Knight's Cross (Лицарський хрест)

 

Cross of Valour (Хрест доблесті)

 

 

Cross of the Air Force (Хрест Повітряних Сил)

 

 

Cross of the Naval Forces (Хрест Військово-Морських Сил)

 

 

Cross of the Special Operations Forces (Хрест Сил спеціальних операцій)

 

 

More when I find them

[Megan]

And another one: Cross of the Medical Forces (Хрест Медичних сил)