Operational Command South


The Operational Command South is a formation of the Ukrainian Ground Forces in the southern part of Ukraine, which was formed in January 1998 as the Southern Operation Command on the basis of the Odessa Military District and headquartered in Odessa.
The Southern OK covers 9 oblasts and autonomous republics: Odessa, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk oblasts and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
In 2005-2013 it was known as the Southern Operation Association. In 2015 eastern parts of the operation command territory were passed on to newly formed Operation Command East based in Dnipropetrovsk. The headquarters of the OC South was relocated from Odessa to Mykolaiv.

Composition

By 1 July 2006, the Southern Operational Command included 6th Army Corps and other units comprising:
Exercises that command units have taken part in include "Autumn-98", "reaction", "Southern redoubt-99", "Redoubt-2000", including peacekeeping – series of "Peace Shield", "Cossack Steppe," "common neighborhood", "Sea Breeze", "Fairway of Peace," "South," "cooperative partner" joint exercises with units of the armed forces of France and Italy.

Current Structure

Operational Command South has operational command of ground force units in Vinnytsia, Odessa, Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, and Kherson oblasts.
Additionally the following major ground combat formations of other branches of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, respectively the ground forces, are based in the area of Operational Command South:
Colonel General Volodymyr Shkidchenko commanded the Odessa Military District from December 1993 until it became the Southern Operational Command in February 1998.