The 3rd Guards Baranovichi Red Banner Fighter Aviation Regiment is a fighter regiment of the

Russian Air Force " Air March" , mascot = , anniversaries = 12 August , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = , decorations = , bat ...

. The regiment was formed on 21 October 1941 from personnel of the Chelyabinsk School of Gunners and Bombardiers as the 688th Night Light Bomber Aviation Regiment. Less than a month later, just after completing training, the regiment left for the front. It fought in the Rzhev salient until January 1942, and in the summer of 1942 in the

Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (later re ...

. For its actions at Stalingrad, the regiment became the 59th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment on 8 February 1943. On 2 September 1943 received the Order of the Red Banner. It fought in Orel-Kursk operation, Operation Bagration, and Warsaw offensive ikely Warsaw-Poznan Offensive in Jan 1945, but could also be the Lublin-Brest Offensive in summer 1944 For actions in liberating

Baranovichi Baranavichy ( ; be, Бара́навічы, Łacinka: , ; russian: Бара́новичи; yi, באַראַנאָוויטש; pl, Baranowicze) is a city in the Brest Region of western Belarus, with a population (as of 2019) of 179,000. It is not ...

, it received the Baranovichi honorific 27 June 1944. It was later awarded Order of Suvorov 3rd class for actions in the Berlin Offensive on 16 April 1945. From 1949 to 1956 the regiment was the 725th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment, flying from Altes-Lager, Dallgow,

Dessau Dessau is a town and former municipality in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the '' Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it has been part of the newly created municipality of Dessau-Roßlau ...

Brandis Brandis () is a town in the Leipzig district, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated 16 km east of Leipzig. Born in Brandis * Karl Bock (1922-2004), physician in the field of pediatric cardiology * Anneliese Zänsler (born 1927), opera and op ...

, and Finsterwalde in Germany. In August 1956, the regiment relocated to Astrakhan, became part of PVO, and renamed 393rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment. In December 1992 it became the 209th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, part of 12th Air Defence Corps, Russian Air Defence Forces. 12th Air Defence Corps became 51st Air Defence Corps in 1998, and soon afterwards became part of the

4th Air and Air Defence Forces Army The 4th Air and Air Defence Forces Army () is an air army of the Russian Air Force, part of the Southern Military District and headquartered in Rostov-on-Don. The 4th Air Army (''4 Vozdushnaya Armiya'') was a Soviet Air Force formation and f ...

. On 1 September 2001 the regiment absorbed the 562nd Fighter Aviation Regiment at

Krymsk Krymsk (russian: Крымск) is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. Population: 57,927 (2020), History It was founded in 1858 as the fortress and ''stanitsa'' of Krymskaya (), named after the Crimean Cossack Regiment. It was the capital of the ...

and became the 3rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (3rd GvIAP) with transfer of battle flag and honorifics of 209th GvIAP and moved to Krymsk. On 24 August 2009, the 3rd GvIAP and 178th Separate Helicopter-Rescue Detachment became 6972nd Guards Baranovichi Red Banner Order of Suvorov 3rd Class Air Base of the 1st Category at Krymsk. On 11 November 2013, the 3rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment was assigned to the

1st Guards Composite Aviation Division The 1st Guards Stalingrad Composite Aviation Division (Russian: 1-я гвардейская бомбардировочная Сталинградская ордена Ленина дважды Краснознаменная орденов Суво ...

of the

Southern Military District 200px, Headquarters of the district at 53 Pushkinskaya Street / 43 Budenovsky avenue, Rostov-on-Don The Southern Military District (Russian: Южный военный округ) is a military district of Russia. It is one of the five military ...

with transfer of the 6972nd's honorifics and flag. Colonel Tagir Gadzhiyev was the division commander in 2016. By June 2019, the regiment became the first aviation unit to begin receiving serial Sukhoi Su-57 fifth-generation fighters. The commander of the regiment, Colonel Anatoly Stasyukevich, was killed in the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

when his motorcade was hit in a Ukrainian artillery strike.

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