SBGS spox: Border guard units have become combat-ready on par with others

Andrii Demchenko, spokesman for the State Border Guard Service, said this at a briefing at Ukrinform on the occasion of Border Guard Day.

As Demchenko reminded, the border guard units were the first to take on the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation and were forced to resist the enemy forces, which were significantly superior, with the available forces and means. Therefore, the need of the hour is to build up, reform and bring the SBGS units to the requirements of the military situation.

“In fact, during the years of the full-scale invasion, brigade-type border guard detachments were formed, of which there are now four in the SBGS - Gart, Forpost, Steel Frontier, and Revenge. All of them were formed from scratch or on the basis of some border guard detachment, but they are equipped, trained and prepared to perform tasks exclusively on the front line. It is also worth noting the increase in the capabilities of all other border guard detachments, which perform tasks primarily on the border with Russia, Belarus, as well as on the southern borders of our country, where they perform certain tasks to destroy the enemy as part of the Defense Forces,” Demchenko said.

According to him, at the time of the Russian invasion, the State Border Guard Service, as a special-purpose law enforcement agency, actually had no powerful weapons. Today the situation has changed dramatically.

“There was a small number of mortar teams, and now we are forced to increase our combat capabilities and have switched to more powerful artillery weapons. For example, our units have 155-caliber guns. Previously, it would have been difficult to imagine border guards having such weapons. This includes building up electronic warfare systems and counteracting enemy aircraft sent to the territory of Ukraine for strikes and reconnaissance. That is why the SBGS is developing units and means to be able to effectively counteract the enemy's means on a par with other Ukrainian soldiers,” Demchenko emphasized.

The SBGS also provides not only special training, as it was before the full-scale invasion, but also combat training for servicemen who are mobilized and contracted. The border guards pay special attention to the development of unmanned aerial systems.

“In fact, we started this work more intensively last year, when the first full-fledged unit of reconnaissance and strike unmanned aerial systems “Phoenix” was formed on the basis of the “Vengeance” brigade. It is now part of the “Drone Line” project and, along with other powerful units of reconnaissance and strike drone systems of the Armed Forces, is performing tasks and scaling up. We are also introducing such units in other combat brigades and border guard detachments that perform combat functions on the border with Russia in order to have all the necessary combat tools to destroy the enemy. And the development of unmanned aerial systems is a very effective component in order to expose the enemy in time and strike at it,” said Demchenko.

According to him, since the beginning of this year alone, more than 2,100 enemy UAVs have been destroyed along the combat line. Also, the State Border Guard Service units have killed and wounded almost 4 thousand enemy soldiers, captured almost 20, destroyed 3 thousand pieces of military equipment and about 300 warehouses with ammunition and fuel and lubricants.

During the full-scale invasion, almost 3,500 SBGS servicemen were awarded state awards for personal courage and heroism, about 1 thousand of them posthumously. And since 2014, 29 SBGS servicemen have been awarded the highest title of Hero of Ukraine for personal courage, 17 of them posthumously.

As reported, the Day of the Border Guard of Ukraine is a professional holiday celebrated annually on April 30, starting in 2018.