21st Guards Mixed Aviation Division
Identification
Reviewed open sources identify this formation as the 21st Guards Mixed Aviation Division of the 14th Air and Air Defence Forces Army, centered on Chelyabinsk-Shagol. The supplied commander name could not be independently confirmed in the reviewed sources; Andrei Yermakov is publicly verifiable as commander of the Shagol-based regiment in 2019, not conclusively as division commander in 2026. ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_Air_and_Air_Defence_Forces_Army?utm_source=openai))
Shagol strike hub
The Shagol-based regiment is the division’s best-documented element. Russian reporting in January 2019 quoted Col. Andrei Yermakov saying 18 new aircraft had already arrived and six more Su-34s were due that year; later reporting said re-equipment to Su-34 was completed in October 2019. TASS also reported Su-34 and Su-24MR aircraft operating from Chelyabinsk during 2020 exercises, consistent with a strike-plus-tactical-reconnaissance role at Shagol. ([russian.rt.com](https://russian.rt.com/russia/news/598718-su-34-chelyabinsk-armiya?utm_source=openai))
Fighter regiments
Among the outlying placemarks, the Kansk fighter regiment is well supported: TASS directly identified the 712th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment at Kansk, and Izvestia reporting placed the Kansk MiG-31 regiment among the 21st division’s subordinate units. The Perm/Bolshoye Savino placemark matches open-source references to a MiG-31 regiment there, often called the 764th Fighter Aviation Regiment, but the reviewed sources did not authoritatively confirm that exact regiment label as current. ([tass.ru](https://tass.ru/info/5582757?utm_source=openai))
Helicopter element
The 337th Separate Helicopter Regiment is based at Tolmachevo in Novosibirsk Oblast. Open reporting says it was restored from the 562nd Army Aviation Base on 1 December 2018, and regional reporting in August 2025 said it had been granted Guards status by presidential decree. The reviewed sources clearly place the regiment in the 14th Army, but do not publicly and unambiguously confirm whether it is subordinate to the division or directly to army headquarters. ([vpk.name](https://vpk.name/news/237017_pereformirovanie_baz_armeiskoi_aviacii_centralnogo_voennogo_okruga.html?utm_source=openai))
Operational relevance
Taken together, the verified basing pattern suggests a formation spanning the southern Urals to western and central Siberia: Shagol for strike and reconnaissance aviation, Kansk for MiG-31 air-defense coverage, and Tolmachevo for helicopter support. That is an inference from locations and aircraft types, not an official mission statement. Separately, Ukraine’s GUR publicly claimed that a Su-34 from the division’s regiment burned at Shagol on 4 January 2024; that specific loss claim was not independently confirmed in the reviewed sources. ([tass.ru](https://tass.ru/ural-news/9005727?utm_source=openai))