Soviet-era in the context of "Kabardians"

The Ukrainian Ground Forces (SVZSU, Ukrainian: Сухопутні війська Збройних сил України, СВЗСУ, romanized: Sukhoputni viiska Zbroinykh syl Ukrainy), also referred to as the Ukrainian army, is a land force, and one of the eight branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It was formed from Ukrainian units of the Soviet Army after Ukrainian independence, and its ancestry is traced back to the 1917–22 army of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine retained its Soviet-era army equipment. The Armed Forces were systematically downsized and underinvested in after 1991. As a result, the Ukrainian army had very little of its Soviet equipment in working order by July 2014, and most systems had become antiquated. Personnel numbers had shrunk and training, command, and support functions needed improvement. After the start of the war in Donbas in April 2014 in eastern Ukraine, Ukraine embarked on a program to enlarge and modernise its armed forces. Personnel in the Ukrainian Armed Forces overall climbed from 129,950 in March 2014 to 204,000 active personnel in May 2015, with 169,000 soldiers in the Ground Forces branch as of 2016. In 2016, 75% of the army consisted of contract servicemen. Since 2014, Ukraine's ground forces have also been equipped with increasingly modern tanks, APCs, and many other types of combat equipment.

The Kabardians (Kabardian: Къэбэрдей адыгэхэр; Adyghe: Къэбэртай адыгэхэр; Russian: Кабарди́нцы) or Kabardinians are one of the twelve major Circassian tribes, representing one of the twelve stars on the green-and-gold Circassian flag. They are also commonly known by the plural terms Kabardin, Kebertei, or Kabarday. Along with the Besleney tribe, they speak a distinctive dialect of Circassian. Historically the Kabardians lived in Kabardia, a region of the north Caucasus. In modern times the Kabardians live mostly in the Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, which partly corresponds to the historic region.

Despite the Soviet administrative divisions that placed Circassians under four different designations and political units, namely Adygeans (Circassians in Adygea), Cherkessians (Circassians in Karachay-Cherkessia), Kabardians (Circassians in Kabardino-Balkaria), and Shapsugs (Circassians in Krasnodar Krai), all four groups are essentially the same people (Circassians). Furthermore, Cherkessians are mostly of the Kabardian and Besleney tribes.