9th Unmanned Systems Brigade

9th Unmanned Systems Brigade is a unit of the Unmanned Systems Forces. The unit was created in 2014 as 9th Battalion of Territorial Defense “Vinnytsia”. In October 2014, the battalion was reformed as 9th Motorized Battalion and assigned to 30th Mechanized Brigade, later to 59th Motorized Brigade.

On March 9, 2022, the battalion’s commander Serhii Kotenko, who had led the unit since 2015, was killed in action near Zaporizhzhia.

In January 2025, following the reorganization of 59th Motorized Brigade into an assault brigade and the reassignement from the Ground Forces to the Unmanned Systems Forces, the newest branch of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the battalion left the structure of the brigade and formed the core of the newly established 9th Unmanned Systems Brigade, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Bohdan Harnaha.

Among other units, the brigade includes Ukraine’s first all-female UAS unit, “Harpies,” as well as the “Caucasian Legion”, a unit composed of natives of the Caucasus fighting on the side of Ukraine. By July 2025, also the Sonechko Battalion, previously part of the Tymur Special Unit under the Main Intelligence Directorate, joined the 9th Brigade.

In December 2025, Lt. Col. Harnaha was replaced as commander of the brigade by Captain Rustam Nurgudin, former chief of staff of the “Achilles” Unmanned System Unit.