The Armed Forces of Ukraine are transitioning from temporary command and control bodies—tactical group of troops—to a permanent corps system.

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, announced this at the “Ukraine. The Year 2025” forum.

“We are constantly drawing conclusions from the experience of combat operations. One of the issues is to improve the quality of management. And it also means improving the structure of the command and control bodies. The groupings staffed by officers from various command and control bodies, educational institutions, structures, the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff have certain drawbacks. That is why we are switching to a corps structure, and this process is ongoing,” the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated.

Syrskyi recalled that the transition of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to a corps system of command began last year.

According to him, the concept of reorganizing the Armed Forces of Ukraine was developed under wartime conditions. Various models, including corps and division structures, were analyzed and studied. Given Ukraine’s circumstances, the corps model proved to be the most optimal and effective, leading to the decision to establish a specific number of corps.

He also added that five corps have already been created, proved their effectiveness, and the process of their formation continues.

In the short term, it is planned to manage several more corps, for which the most trained officers will be appointed. The corps management is formed on the basis of operational teams, headquarters and individual brigades by scaling them up.

“The best-trained officers were appointed to the positions of corps commanders, primarily from among the brigade commanders who have proven their effectiveness. So this process is ongoing, and I hope it will give us the appropriate benefits. We will be able to significantly increase the efficiency of management. And, of course, this will contribute to our overall victory,” said Syrsky.

Army corps

Plans for the final transition of the Armed Forces to the corps system were announced in November 2024. And in early February 2025, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces announced the start of measures to transition the army to a corps structure.

Army corps emerged with the advent of mass armies, when combat operations became more spatially extensive and the management of military formations with numerous combatants and diverse weapons became more difficult. The creation of army corps was also due to the need to have formations capable of solving combat tasks on an independent operational direction.

An army corps usually consists of several combat divisions and/or brigades and support units. Ukraine inherited 6 armies and one army corps from the Soviet Union, which were gradually reformed into 7 army corps in the mid-1990s.

In the Ukrainian army in the 1990s, corps were operational and tactical units, with divisions and brigades in their combat structure. However, with the reforms of the 00s and the disbanding of divisions into brigades, the corps turned into higher tactical formations. Later, the army corps were completely disbanded, and operational commands were created on the basis of some of them. The last one, the 8th Army Corps, was disbanded in 2015. However, the Reserve Corps remained.

After the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the 9th and 10th Army Corps were formed. The Reserve Corps was reformatted into the 11th Army Corps. As of October 2024, the formation of the Fourth Army Corps was underway.

In addition to the army corps, the Army Assault Corps (Rapid Reaction Corps) and the Marine Corps were created as part of the Ground Forces. Also, the Ranger Corps was formed as part of the Special Operations Forces, specializing in reconnaissance, assault operations, and raids behind enemy lines.

You can learn more about the corps structure, as well as about the possible impact of the Armed Forces reorganization on the frontline, in our Militarnyi Podcast.