The 23rd Marine Guard Detachment (1472) is a military unit of the

Ukrainian Sea Guard The Ukrainian Sea Guard (, ; fully titled – , ) is the coast guard service of Ukraine, subordinated to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, State Border Guard Service. History The creation of the Sea Guard began simultaneously wi ...

of the

State Border 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 ...

. The detachment guarded and patrolled the maritime border in the

Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov is an inland Continental shelf#Shelf seas, shelf sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, and sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the Black Sea. The sea is bounded by Ru ...

, in a section of 154.7

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude at t ...

s (249.5 km) and the

Kerch Strait The Kerch Strait is a strait in Eastern Europe. It connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea in the west from the Taman Peninsula of Russia's Krasnodar Krai in the east. The strait is to wide and up ...

, in a section of 30.4 miles (49 km), within Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson oblasts. But following the fall of

Mariupol Mariupol is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is situated on the northern coast (Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius, Kalmius River. Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was the tenth-largest city in the coun ...

, it was relocated to

Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi (, ; ; ), historically known as Aq Kirmān () or by other names, is a port city in Odesa Oblast, southwestern Ukraine. It is situated on the right bank of the Dniester Estuary leading to the Black Sea, in the historical r ...

History

On 31 July 1994, the 23rd Separate Brigade of Border Guard Ships was established in Kerch from the vessels of Odessa and Balaklava maritime brigades. In the early 2000s, it was renamed we the 23rd Kerch Maritime Guard Detachment. In 2011, the detachment was reinforced with the special purpose maritime security ship "Onyx", formerly the Turkish schooner "Baba Hassan", captured by the Odessa Maritime Security Detachment in 2010 for illegal fishing in Ukrainian waters, it was then repaired and transferred to the Kerch Detachment. On 28 February 2014, at night, a large part of the Kerch detachment by the order of the leadership of the Azov-Black Sea Regional Directorate, was evacuated from

Kerch Kerch, also known as Keriç or Kerich, is a city of regional significance on the Kerch Peninsula in the east of Crimea. It has a population of Founded 2,600 years ago as the Colonies in antiquity#Greek colonies, ancient Greek colony Pantik ...

Berdiansk Berdiansk or Berdyansk (, ; , ) is a port city in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, south-eastern Ukraine. It is on the northern coast of the Sea of Azov, which is connected to the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Berdiansk Raion. The c ...

leaving the maritime border unguarded except for the Kerch ferry crossing, where personnel remained on duty. On 3 March 2014, after midnight, 4 buses full of armed personnel, arrived at the detachment's headquarters in Genmola, besieged it and captured it without resistance, following negotiations. On 18 March 2014, 11 vessels of the Kerch detachment were relocated to Berdyansk and then on the night of 13–14 April to

where 7 vessels of another division were already based. On 31 August 2014, at 15:10, separatists attacked two patrol boats of the detachment, a BG-119 project 1400M “Grif” boat and a “Kalkan” vessel in the

with shelling and direct gunfire lighting up and sinking the “Grif” as well as damaging the “Kalkan”, prompting it to leave. Soon more vessels were deployed to rescue the sunken vessel's crew, 8 sailors were rescued of which 7 were wounded. The reinforcements were targeted with missiles but avoided hits. On 5 October 2014, at about 14:00, near Mariupol, during an attempted inspectiom of the attack site for the search of two missing sailors, a tactical vessel group of the detachment was attacked from

Shyrokyne Shyrokyne (, ) or Shirokino () is a village in the Mariupol Raion of Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. The village is situated on the shore of the Sea of Azov, about east from the centre of Mariupol. War in Donbas The village became a battleground in ...

taking direct hits. The two sailors (Petukhov Denis Anatoliyovych and Tishchenko Bohdan Volodymyrovych) were later found dead and their bodies were recovered. On 7 June 2015, in the afternoon, 2 miles from Mariupol, a UMS-1000 vessel of the detachment encountered a naval mine, mistaking it for a radio buoy and tried to pull it to the ship, causing an explosion wounding six and killing two personnel (Vitaliy Anatolyevich Tatar and Masliy Anton Oleksandrovych), the latter being the vessel commander. On October 9, 2015, the State Azov Sea Marine Environmental Inspectorate handed over another "Kalkan" vessel to the detachment. On 29 July 2016, the Mariupol Sea Guard Detachment celebrated its 22nd anniversary. On 15 November 2016, a new UMS-1000 was transferred to the Mariupol Sea Guard Detachment. The UMS-1000 boat, damaged on 7 June 2015, was raised, repaired and returned to service on 26 May 2017. Since the start of the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, the detachment saw active combat against Russian forces particularly in the

Siege of Mariupol The siege of Mariupol began on 24 February 2022 and lasted until 20 May, as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It saw fighting between the Russian Armed Forces (alongside the Donetsk People's Republic People's Militia) and the Ukrainian ...

and the defense of Azovstal, even acting as infantry due to limited naval combat capabilities. On 11 March 2022, a guardsman of the detachment (Yuryev Dmytro) was killed during a Combat mission in

. BG-59 Baba Hassan was also captured or destroyed before 20 May 2022, being previously deployed in

, east of the

- prior to this On 7 April 2022, two guardsmen of the detachment, (Pichakhchi Mykola Arturovich and Pakholivetsky Vladislav Genrikhovych) who were tasked with the regular delivery of resources to Azovstal to the by sea, were killed when their vessel was hit by a Russian missile system, while transporting the wounded soldiers of the

Azov Brigade The 12th Special Forces Brigade "Azov" () is a formation of the National Guard of Ukraine formerly based in Mariupol, in the coastal region of the Sea of Azov, from which it derives its name. It was founded in May 2014 as the Azov Battalion (), ...

. On 15 April 2022, the ship BG-32 Donbass of the detachment was sunk by Russian forces and two more personnel of the detachment (Levchuk Igor Yuriyovych and Malina Roman) were killed in combat. The detachment was also involved in air evacuations of wounded personnel. BG-24 was captured by Russia after the Battle of Berdiansk ''Arabat'' and 1 unidentified Zhuk 1400M of the detachment were captured after the Battle of Berdiansk. BG-308, BG-310 and BG-311 captured by Russia after the Battle of Berdiansk BG-108 ''KaMO-517'' and 1 unidentified Zhuk 1400M destroyed and wrecks captured by Russia during the

.Image
a0z.ru BG-304, BG-22 and BG-23 both damaged and captured by Russia during the

BG-309 and 1 unidentified Kalkan captured by Russia during the

Following the culmination of the

, the detachment was evacuated and relocated to

. On 27 July 2022, the detachment was awarded the honorary award "

For Courage and Bravery For Courage and Bravery () is an honorary award established by the President of Ukraine to recognize distinguished combat performance, courage, bravery and heroism of units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, National Guard of Ukraine, State Border ...

". On 9 February 2024, 15 personnel of the detachment, captured during the Siege of Mariupol were released from Russian captivity.

Vessels

Commanders

* Captain 1st Rank Yuriy Loshak (2008–2014) * Captain 1st Rank Mykola Volodymyrovych Syrinsky (2015–2019) * Captain 1st Rank Levytskyi Mykola Serhiyovych (2019–2022)Маріупольський загін Морської охорони – 27 років славетних традицій
на http://armyinform.com.ua/ * Captain 1st Rank Paslavsky Mykhailo Mykolayovych (2022-)

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 1994