The "Ukrainian Volunteer Brigade of special purpose" was created as part of the Russian army. Five units formed from the former Ukrainian military were brought into the brigade.
According to the Volunteer Corps of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the brigade was created by combining the "separate battalion named after Maxim Krivonos", "Ukrainian volunteer battalion named after Alexei Berest", "detachment named after Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Matrosov", "separate detachment named after Martin Pushkar" and "special Sloboda detachment named after Warrior Selifontov".