One of my friends graduated from airborne school

[JediMindTricks]

This post is not meant to offend anyone, I am not trying to start any kind of flame war, I'm just proud of a friend, and of my homeland.

One of my friends, who has served in the war zone in eastern Ukraine for 40 months, with varying volunteer battalions, first Donbas-1 then Praviy Sektor. Enrolled in one of the newest Airborne troops schools in Ukraine. He is 26 years old.

He was really impressed with the new tactics, new gear, new weapons, and the overall training that he got to experience. He had opportunity to train with US airborne and SOF teams, and a little bit with Canadian and Estonian airborne.

The Ukrainian armed forces has come such a long way since the beginning of the war. Sasha says morale is really high.

He's in a couple of these photos, but I'm not going to point him out.

[Smitty]

Man, that's bad ass. Congrats to your buddy and I hope for a peaceful end to hostilities out there.

[BTemple]

That is pretty damn cool.

[RSMRE]

Congrats to your buddy! Good luck to him in his future endeavors

[JediMindTricks]

thank you so much fellas! I just sent him a new pair of binoculars, an extra pair of knee pads, and eye-wear, its always good to have extra, and a folding knife.

[RSMRE]

thank you so much fellas! I just sent him a new pair of binoculars, an extra pair of knee pads, and eye-wear, its always good to have extra, and a folding knife.

Thanks for sharing the pics that you did, hope to see more in the future if possible

[JediMindTricks]

These are photos hot from an email. I asked for permission to share some, these are approved for sharing.
These are from the Praviy Sektor volunteer unit that Sasha served with. They are friends for life.
These last 8 months or so have been very difficult, attacks are mounting up, losses are heavy, wounded are heavy. (some of the big group photos look older, but others are within the last 5-6 months. Thats what I'm told. Enjoy.
Please, I mean no offense. No flame war please.

This is from the 1st Praviy Sektor Assault Squad.

[RSMRE]

Thanks for the additional pics!....always awesome to see them. Good luck to your friends.

[LoriJean8591]

That is totally awesome, man I miss being around an army environment!
Thank you so very much for all the awesome pictures, they bring back good memories.

[JediMindTricks]

I am so glad people are enjoying the photos.

I got a flash drive in the mail this last week, with photos from a 95th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade photographer. This is not where Sasha will be serving, but the pictures are badass. There's a lot of photos, I will post some now, some later, some more later

HISTORY


The 95th Air Assault Brigade is a unit of Ukrainian Air Assault Forces, Ukraine’s rapid reaction force. The brigade is located in Zhytomyr. It is considered one of the most prestigious and capable units in the Ukrainian military. The brigade is one of the Ukrainian Partnership for Peace units. The brigade received a lot of publicity for its raid behind the separatist lines allegedly inflicting heavy losses on separatist and Russian forces during the war in Donbass.

In 2014 the 95th Brigade took part in the Siege of Sloviansk and the Kramatorsk standoff during the War in Donbass. On May 13, 2014, seven Paratroopers from the unit were killed during an ambush by separatists in Kramatorsk.

In August 2014 the brigade conducted a raid behind the separatist lines. The 95th Airmobile Brigade, which had been reinforced with armor assets and attachments, launched a surprise attack on separatist lines, broke through into their rear areas, fought for 450 kilometers, and destroyed or captured numerous Russian tanks and artillery pieces before returning to Ukrainian lines. They operated not as a concentrated brigade but rather split into three company-sized elements on different axes of advance. According to Phillip Karber, it was one of the longest raids in the military history