22nd Army Corps
Identity
The location is the Crimea-based 22nd Army Corps historically associated with the Black Sea Fleet’s coastal troops. Open sources place its headquarters in Simferopol; ISW’s October 2023 ORBAT identifies it as military unit 73954 there, while CNA and Russian official reporting describe the corps as a Black Sea Fleet ground/coastal-defense command structure created in late 2016. ([understandingwar.org](https://understandingwar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/October20122C20202320Russian20Orbat_Final.pdf))
Confirmed components
Publicly corroborated core components include the 126th Coastal Defense Brigade at Perevalne, the 8th Artillery Regiment in the Perevalne/Chaikovske area, the 127th Reconnaissance Brigade in Sevastopol, and the 1096th Air Defense Regiment in Sevastopol. CNA further assessed that corps support included the 133rd Logistics Brigade in Bakhchysarai and a 4th independent NBC regiment probably in Sevastopol; those support-unit details are less transparent in official reporting and should be treated as analytically assessed rather than fully official order of battle. ([understandingwar.org](https://understandingwar.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/October20122C20202320Russian20Orbat_Final.pdf))
Mission
CNA assessed that the corps serves as an intermediate C2 layer between Black Sea Fleet headquarters and Crimea-based ground units, with a force structure oriented primarily toward coastal defense and local independent ground operations rather than large offensive maneuver. Russian official reporting also shows it training for littoral combat: in August 2019 TASS described a major amphibious landing exercise with fleet ships, aviation, tanks, and BTR-80s involving the Black Sea Fleet’s 22nd Army Corps, and in January 2022 TASS reported plans to reinforce the corps with a rocket battalion. ([cna.org](https://www.cna.org/reports/2021/08/Russian-Forces-in-the-Southern-Military-District.pdf))
Geographic relevance
The corps’ basing pattern centers on the Simferopol-Perevalne axis for headquarters, maneuver forces, and artillery, with Sevastopol hosting reconnaissance and air-defense elements tied to fleet infrastructure, and Bakhchysarai supporting logistics. That geography makes the supplied placemarks broadly consistent with the identified formation: they cluster around the same central-Crimea and Sevastopol/Bakhchysarai nodes described in OSCE, CNA, ISW, and Sevastopol government sources. ([osce.org](https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/5/0/457468.pdf))
Current status
Combat reporting during the full-scale war places corps elements on the Kherson axis, including the 126th Brigade and other 22nd Army Corps elements in 2022-2024. However, ISW assessed in 2023 that the former Black Sea Fleet 22nd Army Corps was likely being absorbed or subordinated into the newly created 18th Combined Arms Army and noted that formal composition remained partly unconfirmed; reviewed public sources therefore do not fully resolve whether, as of March 12, 2026, it still functions as a distinct Black Sea Fleet corps in the older sense. Reviewed sources also do not clearly confirm the current corps commander; one recent report described Arkady Marzoyev as corps commander in 2021-2023 and later associated him with command of the 18th Combined Arms Army instead. ([understandingwar.org](https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-april-23-2023?utm_source=openai))