Direct proof of use
Conflict Armament Research documented AK-74-family rifles in Ukraine during field investigations into weapons recovered from armed formations of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. Its report lists eight 5.45x39 mm AK-74 rifles, three AKS-74 rifles, two AK-74N rifles, and one AK-74M rifle documented in Ukraine between December 2018 and December 2019.
CAR's trace work separated several recovered rifles from Ukrainian state inventories. Ukrainian authorities reported that six of the documented AK-74 rifles, two AKS-74 rifles, both AK-74N rifles, and the AK-74M rifle had never been in Armed Forces of Ukraine service and were not recorded as stolen, lost, written off, or transferred to other military units. The same report identified three other AK-74-family rifles that had previously been in Ukrainian military units based in Crimea and were abandoned after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, with one AK-74 later recovered from armed formations in Luhansk region in March 2016.
Sources: Weapons of the War in Ukraine
Timeline
The weapon's conflict record begins with inherited Soviet stocks and the 2014 seizure of Crimea. CAR later traced two AK-74 rifles and one AKS-74 rifle to Ukrainian military units in Crimea, where the rifles were abandoned after the annexation before at least one AK-74 was recovered from Russia-aligned armed formations in Luhansk region in March 2016.
From 2018 to 2020, CAR teams documented AK-74-family rifles in Kyiv, Mariupol, Kramatorsk, Severodonetsk, Holubivka, Sarny, and Rivne. HistoryNet's 2022 account described the AK-74 as one of the common infantry weapons shared by Russian and Ukrainian forces during the full-scale phase of the war.
Sources: Weapons of the War in Ukraine, The Mainstay Assault Rifle of Both Sides in the 2014 Russia-Ukraine War
Narrative
In this conflict, the AK-74 is best understood as a baseline infantry weapon rather than a specialized system. HistoryNet described it as one of the weapons common to both Russian and Ukrainian forces and noted that Ukraine inherited AK-74 use after independence. Its continued importance was tied to the 5.45x39 mm cartridge: the same account noted that Ukraine's move toward Western rifle designs was slowed by the difference between AK-74 ammunition and NATO-standard 5.56 mm ammunition.
Ukrainian reporting in 2025 described Soviet Kalashnikov variants as the Ukrainian army's main assault rifle family for many years, first in the eastern Ukraine war and later after the full-scale invasion. That reporting also described Ukraine's search for replacements as wartime wear, depleted Soviet-era stocks, and Western aid diversified the rifle mix.
The CAR sample shows the eastern-Ukraine side of the record in greater detail. It includes baseline AK-74 rifles, folding-stock AKS-74 rifles, optics-rail AK-74N rifles, and an AK-74M, all chambered for 5.45x39 mm. The documented rifles were recovered or recorded in the conflict environment between 2018 and 2020, and CAR's Ukrainian government trace responses distinguish rifles linked to abandoned Crimea stocks from rifles that Ukrainian authorities said had no recorded Armed Forces of Ukraine service, loss, theft, write-off, or transfer.
Sources: The Mainstay Assault Rifle of Both Sides in the 2014 Russia-Ukraine War, Ukraine Launches Large-Scale Production of Assault Rifles, Weapons of the War in Ukraine
