5th Heavy Mechanized Brigade

5th Heavy Mechanized Brigade is a unit of the Ukrainian Ground Forces.

It was formed in 2016 as the 5th Tank Brigade as part of the Reserve Corps, later known as the 11th Army Corps. The unit participated in numerous exercises, mainly near the occupied Crimea in southern Ukraine. The unit would later be demobilized and remain only on paper.

On the onset of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the brigade was reactivated in Kryvi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, to reinforce the defense of the country. However, due to losses in other tank and mechanized brigades across the country, the tanks and manpowers were used to replenish existing units, and the brigade once again ceased to exist.

In January 2023, efforts to form the brigade once again began to move forward, and by March 2023, it had been recreated and raised in Kamianka-Buzka, Lviv Oblast. In July 2023, the unit received a new insignia and was later assigned to the 10th Army Corps of the Ukrainian Ground Forces.

In January 2024, the official Facebook page of the brigade revealed its first anniversary, indicating the unit is in fact a new formation, not a continuation of the previous 5th Tank Brigade of the Reserve Corps.

Due to the lack of mechanized and armored vehicles in the Ukrainian Defense Forces, the brigade was reformed as the 5th Heavy Mechanized Brigade in December 2024, losing a tank battalion and gaining an additional mechanized battalion as part of the structure.