The 26th Separate Kharkiv Aviation Squadron (1467) is an aviation squadron of the

State Border Guard Service of Ukraine The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine ( SBGSU; , ; ) is the border guard of Ukraine. It is an independent law enforcement agency, organized by the Constitution of Ukraine as a military formation, the head of which is subordinated to the Pres ...

with permanent basing of aviation forces and assets at the

Kharkiv International Airport Kharkiv International Airport () is an airport located in Kharkiv, Ukraine. It is the main airfield serving the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city. It is located to the south-east of the city center, in the city's Slobidskyi distric ...

and Kyiv International Airport. It was established in 1993 as has seen combat during the

Russo-Ukrainian war The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

. It utilizes both fixed wing and rotor wing aircraft for its operations.

History

On 31 May 1993, the 26th separate aviation squadron was established with permanent deployment at

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

. On 27 March, an

Mi-8 The Mil Mi-8 (, NATO reporting name: Hip) is a medium twin-turbine helicopter, originally designed by the Soviet Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) in the 1960s and introduced into the Soviet Air Force in 1968. Russian production of t ...

T helicopter (aircraft number 07) of the Odessa squadron crashed on Zmiiny Island and all border guard aviation operations of the Kharkiv squadron were stopped for two months. In late 2000s, the squadron started two annual survival exercises aimed at increasing survival expertise of the aviation personnel in the case of an aviation incident. On 28 March 2011, the squadron's personnel started training on DA40 and DA42MPP NG aircraft purchased from the Austrian company

Diamond Aircraft Industries Diamond Aircraft Industries is a manufacturer of general aviation aircraft and motor gliders, based in Wiener Neustadt, Lower Austria, Austria. It has been a subsidiary of the Chinese company Wanfeng Aviation since 2017. It is the third lar ...

. In total, three such aircraft, a ground surveillance station and an airfield complex were added to the squadron. The aircraft were equipped with an on-board complex that includes a multifunctional platform with a gyro-stabilized camera with real-time image transmission. In 2014, with the start of the

War in Donbass The war in Donbas, or the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. The war began in April 2014, when Russian paramilitaries seized several towns. Ukraine's military launched an operation ...

, helicopters of the squadron evacuated about 150 wounded servicemen of the

and the

Armed Forces of Ukraine The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are the Military, military forces of Ukraine. All military and security forces, including the Armed Forces, are under the command of the president of Ukraine and subject to oversight by a permanent Verkhovna Rad ...

from the frontlines of the

ATO zone Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone (), or ATO zone (), was a term used by the media, public, the government of Ukraine, and the OSCE and other foreign institutions to identify Ukrainian territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions (oblasts) under the c ...

and also took a direct evacuation and support role during the

Battle of the Border The Battle of the Border () refers to the battles that occurred in the first daysThe Battle of the Border began on 1 September, but sources vary with their assignment of an end date for this phase of the campaign. The shortest period is d ...

. On 31 May 2018, the 26th Separate Aviation Squadron celebrated its 25th anniversary. In January 2022, the squadron received two Airbus H125 aircraft. In 2024, H125 aircraft of the squadron were partaking in direct combat against Russian UAVs.Авіація Державної прикордонної служби України
/ref>

Commanders

* Colonel Manmar Yuriy Alekseevich (1993-?) * Colonel Vernydub Mykola Vyacheslavovich (?-?) * Colonel Khilkovsky Oleg Vitalyevich (?-2010) * Colonel Dmytro Volodymyrovych Khalyavka (2011-)

Inventory

References

{{Border Guard of Ukraine State Border Guard Service of Ukraine Military units and formations of Ukraine in the Russian invasion of Ukraine Military units and formations established in 1993