72nd Separate Motor Rifle Brigade
Identification
Best match is the Russian Ground Forces’ 72nd Separate Motor Rifle Brigade, a 3rd Army Corps formation raised in 2022. Because open sources do not publicly confirm a single permanent peacetime garrison, this record is more reliably treated as a unit-level entity than as one fixed installation. ([penza-post.ru](https://penza-post.ru/news/05-08-2022/87722))
Formation site
The clearest open-source location tie is Totskoye, Orenburg Oblast. On 5 August 2022, Penza Oblast governor Oleg Melnichenko said volunteers would serve in the 72nd Brigade and that its formation over the following month would occur on the base of military units in Totskoye; ISW separately reported the brigade was being formed in Orenburg Oblast as part of the new 3rd Army Corps. ([penza-post.ru](https://penza-post.ru/news/05-08-2022/87722))
Command alignment
The brigade’s link to 3rd Army Corps is well supported, but its exact post-2024 district alignment is not fully settled in public sources. Russia split the former Western Military District into Moscow and Leningrad military districts effective 1 March 2024, and at least one current OSINT order-of-battle listing places 3rd Army Corps under Leningrad rather than Moscow; the hierarchy path should therefore be treated as a working attribution, not a publicly confirmed fact. ([garant.ru](https://www.garant.ru/hotlaw/federal/1685647/?utm_source=openai))
Combat record
Verified public reporting places brigade elements on the Bakhmut southern flank in 2023. The UK government said elements of the brigade withdrew in bad order south of Bakhmut in May 2023, and ISW later cited Ukrainian reporting that elements of the brigade lost combat capability in the fighting for Andriivka and Klishchiivka in September 2023. ([gov.uk](https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/russias-attacks-on-the-ukraine-people-will-not-compensate-for-its-failings-on-the-battlefield-uk-statement-to-the-osce?utm_source=openai))
Current posture
As of early March 2026, Critical Threats reported elements of the 72nd Brigade operating east and southeast of Kostyantynivka—near Predtechyne, Stupochky, and eastern Kostyantynivka—under 3rd Army Corps, with drone elements striking Ukrainian positions. Russian state-media reporting in March 2025 also showed a T-80BVM tank crew from the brigade operating near Chasiv Yar, indicating continued presence on the Bakhmut-Kostyantynivka axis and observable armor plus UAV-enabled strike capability. ([criticalthreats.org](https://www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-february-25-2026?utm_source=openai))