Day of Engineering Troops of Ukraine
Description:
In the general structure of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, engineering troops belong to special forces. Organizationally, units and subdivisions of the engineering troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are part of the Land Forces, the Air Defense Forces and the Navy, and the Air Force has engineering and aerodrome units and subdivisions.
Engineers are a very interesting military force. It was the engineering troops who were the first to master the latest means of warfare, to introduce them into the arsenal of the army. From the engineering troops, railway troops, communications troops, automobile troops, tank troops and even aviation were separated into independent branches of troops.
Engineers are front-line troops. In wartime, it is the engineering troops that begin the attack. They provide motorized riflemen and tankmen advance.
Military engineers make passages in minefields and barriers of the enemy, clear debris and destruction to ensure the movement of their troops, carry out demining of the area, buildings, roads, airfields, stations, streets.
Engineering intelligence is studying the terrain on which the fighting is to take place, it is obliged to find out what the enemy is preparing to complicate the advance of troops. Engineer troops are involved for fortification equipment positions: fragments of trenches and trenches, construction of shelters for equipment and personnel, communications, equipment of observation and command posts.
One of the main tasks of the engineering troops is the installation and maintenance of minefields and non-explosive barriers (barbed or cutting wire, anti-tank ditches, escarps and counterescarps, barricades, blockages on roads, areas of waterlogging and flooding). Soldiers-engineers try to hinder the advance of the enemy, destroying roads, bridges, destroying water supply, gas supply, electricity, fuel tanks, oil fields.
Engineers prepare, maintain, and mask paths to advance troops. They also arrange crossings over water barriers, mask troops and objects, provide troops with water. In addition to solving the immediate tasks of engineering support of the battle, the engineering troops are entrusted with the task of providing other types of troops with shanty tools, electrical means (from flashlights and batteries to mobile nuclear power plants), providing units and units with electricity.
The Army of Engineers is the only service for which war never ends. It was military engineers from the first days of the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that began to perform tasks from the elimination of the consequences of the accident in the immediate vicinity of the reactor.
During the independence of Ukraine, soldiers of engineering troops discovered and destroyed more than 385 thousand mines, shells, grenades, most of which remained in the ground since the Great Patriotic War. One of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks of engineering troops in peacetime is the disposal of morally and physically obsolete engineering ammunition, equipment and property.
Every year, engineering troops are involved in the elimination of the consequences of natural disasters, in particular, floods in the Western regions of Ukraine, the protection of bridges and hydraulic structures during icebreaking, rescue operations.