5th Combined Arms Army

5th Combined Arms Red Banner Army
5-я общевойсковая армия
Great emblem of the 5th Combined Arms Army
Active	1939–Present
Country	Soviet Union (until 1991)  Russia (since 1991)
Branch	Soviet Army (until 1991)  Russian Ground Forces
Type	Combined Arms
Size	World War II: usually several corps (~10 divisions) Postwar: 5–7 divisions
Part of	Eastern Military District
Garrison/HQ	Ussuriysk
Engagements	World War II Invasion of Poland Operation Barbarossa Battle of Moscow Soviet invasion of Manchuria Russo-Ukrainian War[1] 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive[2]
Decorations	Order of the Red Banner Guards
Commanders
Current commander	Major General Aleksey Podivilov

The 5th Combined Arms Red Banner Army (5-я общевойсковая армия) is a Russian Ground Forces formation in the Eastern Military District.

It was formed in 1939, served during the Soviet invasion of Poland that year, and was deployed in the southern sector of the Soviet defences when Adolf Hitler's Operation Barbarossa began in June 1941 during World War II. In the disastrous first months of Barbarossa, the 5th Army was encircled and destroyed around Kiev.

Reformed under Lelyushenko and Govorov, it played a part in the last-ditch defence of Moscow, and then in the string of offensive and defensive campaigns that eventually saw the Soviet armies retake all of Soviet territory and push west into Poland and beyond into Germany itself. The 5th Army itself only advanced as far as East Prussia before it was moved east to take part in the Soviet attack on Japan.

Since 1945, under the Soviet and now Russian flag it has formed part of the Far East Military District keeping watch on the border with the People's Republic of China. As the Russian armed force shrunk, it found itself part of the larger Eastern Military District in the twenty-first century.

On February 19, 2024, the 5th Army was awarded the honorary designation "Guards".^[3]