59th Assault Brigade

The brigade was established on December 8, 2014, under the Operational Command South. Its formation incorporated three former volunteer territorial defense battalions: the 9th, 10th, and 11th battalions, who took part in first combat rotations in Donbas, near the Svitlodarsk salient, Avdiivka, and other hotspots that demanded endurance and professionalism.
In 2020, the brigade was awarded the honorary name of Yakiv Handziuk, a Ukrainian military figure from the period of the national liberation struggle

In 2022, it stood as the sole Ground Forces unit defending the Kherson Oblast against Russian invasion forces. Its units fought heavy battles in the area of the Oleshky Sands and later conducted an organized withdrawal across the Dnipro River to reinforce the defense of Mykolaiv. The brigade halted the enemy advance and then took up positions near Posad-Pokrovske, where conducted combat operations along the Kherson axis — until Ukraine’s autumn 2022 counteroffensive changed the course of events. Soldiers of the 59th who entered Zelenyi Hai under cover of night, and later raised the flag in Blahoda tne and then in Kherson itself, symbol of ukranian liberation of the right bank of the Dnipro river.

In 2023–2024, the brigade’s units were operating actively in Donetsk Oblast, from the Avdiivka to the Pokrovsk axis.
In February 2024, Lieutenant Colonel Bohdan Shevchuk, former battalion commander within the 68th Jaeger Brigade, was appointed as new leader of 59th Motorized Brigade.
Later that year, a breakaway group from the Da Vinci Wolves unit formed the 108th Mechanized Battalion, operating under the brigade’s command.

In January 2025, the unit was reorganized into an assault brigade and reassigned from the Ground Forces to the Unmanned Systems Forces, the newest branch of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. At the same time, 9th Motorized Battalion left the structure of the brigade and formed the core of the newly created 9th Unmanned Systems Brigade.

From that time the brigade started operating in the Pokrovsk front, on the Novopidhorodne – Novopavlivka axis.
On may 2025, the lead of the brigade passed from Lieutenant Colonel Bohdan Shevchuk to Colonel Oleksandr Sak. In April 2026, the famous Signum Unmanned Systems Battalion transferred from the 53rd Mechanized Brigade to the 59th Assault Brigade, likely following the desire to reconnect with Colonel Sak, former commander of 53rd Mechanized Brigade and previously commander of 3rd Battalion of 93rd Mechanized Brigade, from where Signum originated.