The 36th Separate Marine Brigade named after Rear Admiral Mykhailo Bilinskyi (Ukrainian: 36-та окрема бригада морської піхоти імені контрадмірала Михайла Білинського, romanized: 36-ta okrema bryhada morskoi pikhoty imeni kontradmirala Mykhaila Bilynskoho) was formed in 2015 from units withdrawn from the occupied Crimea – 1st and 501st Marine Battalion, which were previously part of Ukrainian 36th Separate Coastal Defense Brigade.

[4][6] On 20 July 2015, less than a year following the evacuation of Ukrainian forces from Crimea, the 36th Marine Brigade was formed from military units which had remained loyal to Ukraine following the peninsula's annexation by Russia.

On 18 March, two Russian Kalibr missiles, fired from nearby Kherson, struck a Ukrainian army barracks in Mykolaiv housing some 200 soldiers whom were asleep at the time of the attack.

[6] It is presumed nearly all 200 soldiers were killed, as only one survivor was pulled from the rubble the next day and temperatures reached below 6 °C (43 °F) during the night.

[7] On 13 April, the Ukrainian government forces stated that, as a result of a special operation, units of the 36th Marine Brigade managed to connect with the Azov Regiment in Mariupol.