Every year on November 3, Ukraine celebrates a professional holiday of all employees and military personnel of the engineering troops — Engineering Day ( Ukrainian. « Day of Engineering » ). It was approved by Decree of the President of the country № 1399/99 of October 27, 1999 as a sign of outstanding services of sappers, veterans and warrior warriors of Ukraine.
In the general structure of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, engineering troops belong to special troops. Organizationally, the units and units of the engineering troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are part of the Ground Forces, the Air Defense Forces and the Navy, and the Air Force has engineering and aerodrome units and subsections.
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 counter-escarps, barricades, blockages on the roads, areas of waterlogging and flooding ). Engineering warriors try to complicate the advance of the enemy by destroying roads, bridges, destroying water supply, gas supply, electricity, fuel tanks, and oil fields.
Engineering troops prepare, maintain and mask the paths for the advancement of troops. They arrange crossings through water barriers, mask troops and objects, provide troops with water. In addition to solving the immediate tasks of engineering support for combat, engineering troops are entrusted with the task of providing other military branches with a chance tool, electrical equipment ( from flashlights and batteries to mobile nuclear power plants ), providing parts and units with electricity.
During the independence of Ukraine, soldiers of the engineering troops discovered and destroyed over 385 thousand mines, shells, grenades, most of which have 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.
It was the military engineers from the first days of the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant who began to carry out tasks to eliminate the consequences of the accident in close proximity to the reactor.
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 an ice drift, and rescue operations.