31st Mechanized Brigade

31st Mechanized Brigade is a unit of the Ukrainian Ground Forces.

The unit was planned to be formed in January 2023, when it began its formation, being established alongside the 23rd Mechanized, 48th Artillery, 117th Mechanized, and 118th Mechanized Brigades.

By mid to late February 2023, its formation was in full swing, as it was forming in anticipation of the upcoming Ukrainian summer counteroffensive.

Unlike many other newly formed brigades during the Russian full-scale invasion, the unit was equipped primarily with Soviet-era equipment and conducted its training within Ukraine rather than abroad.

As early as February 2023, the brigade’s first mechanized battalion was deployed to the front while the remainder of the formation was still in the process of being organized.

At the onset of the offensive, the unit was poised to help in the effort to go on the attack, assaulting Russian positions in Donetsk Oblast as part of the wider effort to try and break the Russian land bridge between Crimea and the Donbas, ultimately taking the city of Melitopol in its early stages.

In June 2023, elements of the brigade took part in the assault on Rivnopil in Donetsk Oblast. Later that month, on June 25, 2023, Rivnopil was liberated, which had been occupied by Russian troops since March 2022.

Later that year, the brigade also carried out combat operations in the Avdiivka direction. The following year, it would conduct defensive efforts around the crucial city of Vuhledar, later falling that year under the initiative of the 72nd Mechanized Brigade, and also defended Pokrovsk and Orikhiv.

The unit also defended the cities of Vremivka and Novopavlivka.

In July 2025, the 31st Mechanized Brigade was assigned to the 20th Army Corps, a newly stood-up combined arms formation as part of the wider military reform towards a Corps-Brigade structure.

On July 14, 2025, by Decree of the Ukrainian President, the Brigade was awarded the honorary title “named after Brigadier General-Khorunzhyi Leonid Stupnytskyi”.

Insignia

The insignia depicts a traditional chevron with a blue border and dark green canvas, symbolizing the unit’s role as a mechanized formation. At its center is a heraldic emblem derived from the coats of arms of the princely Ostrozky family, whose historic domains included the region around Zvyahel, Zhytomyr Oblast, where the brigade was formed. The symbol connects the unit to the military and cultural legacy of Bolhynia and one of the most influential noble dynasties in Ukrainian history.