3rd Army Corps
Identity
This record most plausibly refers to Russia's 3rd Army Corps, a corps-level Ground Forces formation created in 2022 for operations against Ukraine, not to a single publicly confirmed fixed installation. Open sources place its initial formation in the Western Military District; because President Putin's 26 February 2024 decree put Nizhny Novgorod Oblast inside the recreated Moscow Military District from 1 March 2024, a Moscow Military District attribution is geographically plausible if the record is keyed to the corps' Mulino-associated rear base, but that administrative linkage is not publicly confirmed for the corps headquarters itself. ([gur.gov.ua](https://gur.gov.ua/en/content/rosiia-formuie-poblyzu-ukrainy-shche-odne-udarne-uhrupovannia))
Formation hub
The best-supported geographic association in open sources is Mulino, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. British Defence Intelligence, as reported by RFE/RL on 10 August 2022, said the 3rd Army Corps was based out of Mulino; CNA later noted that the Western Military District's new 3rd Corps was training there; and Ukraine's GUR said on 29 July 2022 that Russia was forming the corps in the Western Military District for employment against Ukraine. These sources support Mulino as the corps' formation and training hub, but they do not publicly confirm a permanent peacetime HQ address. ([rferl.org](https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-russian-troops-volunteers-ground-forces/31981675.html))
Structure
By late 2023, ISW/Critical Threats, citing Russian-source reporting, described the 3rd Army Corps as including the 6th Motorized Rifle Division, 72nd Motorized Rifle Brigade, 17th High-Power Artillery Brigade, 10th Tank Regiment, 27th Artillery Regiment, 52nd Anti-Aircraft Missile Division, and support elements. Jamestown separately reported that the corps headquarters was formed at the end of 2022 and that the 6th Motor Rifle Division and 17th High-Power Artillery Brigade were formed alongside it. ([criticalthreats.org](https://www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/restructuring-and-expansion-of-the-russian-ground-forces-hindered-by-ukraine-war-requirements))
Current posture
Open-source battlefield reporting places corps elements in sustained frontline service rather than rear-area reserve status. ISW tracked 6th Motorized Rifle Division elements near Klishchiivka and Andriivka in February 2024; Critical Threats reporting on 27 February and 5 March 2026 placed the 72nd Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, 17th High-Power Artillery Brigade, and 6th Motorized Rifle Division's 27th Artillery Regiment under operational control of the Southern Grouping of Forces on the Druzhkivka-Kostyantynivka axis. ([understandingwar.org](https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-february-21-2024?utm_source=openai))
Command status
Public reporting on command relationships remains unsettled. Critical Threats/ISW wrote that the corps formed in the Western Military District and later cited Russian-source claims that it shifted to the Central Grouping of Forces and Central Military District in summer 2023, while stressing that a full administrative transfer was unclear; by February-March 2026, the same project was describing 3rd Army Corps elements as under operational control of the Southern Grouping of Forces. The supplied commander name, Major General Vladimir Belyaevsky, could not be corroborated in accessible official-source reporting; one Ukrainian database instead identifies Major General Gennadiy Shevchenko as corps commander from July 2022, but that remains unconfirmed by Russian official releases. ([criticalthreats.org](https://www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/restructuring-and-expansion-of-the-russian-ground-forces-hindered-by-ukraine-war-requirements))