A monument to Army General Vasily Margelov is located at the brigade's base in Ulyanovsk. In April 2010, VDV commander Vladimir Shamanov visited the brigade and viewed its battalion tactical exercises.[12]
In February 2014, elements of the brigade were sent to Crimea.[5] Brigade troops assaulted the building of Crimean Parliament, wearing Ukrainian "Berkut" police uniforms and insignia.[14]
In August 2014 the brigade's units fought in the Battle of Ilovaisk. On 26 August a column of mixed 8th Mountain Brigade and 31st Air Assault Brigade units was ambushed by a Ukrainian anti-tank artillery squad of the 51st Mechanized Brigade near Mnohopillya village.[15] Two soldiers of 31st Brigade were captured: Ruslan Akhmetov and Arseniy Ilmitov.[16][17][18] During a rescue attempt, another 31st Brigade unit was ambushed. Nikolai Kozlov, a paratrooper who participated in the Crimean Parliament building takeover in February, lost his leg in the ambush.[19] After Russian "RBK" media had published an investigation where it assumed Akhmetov and Ilmitov were killed in the battle of Ilovaisk,[20] notorious "Lifenews" media made a TV report, where it visited brigade's garrison in Ulyanovsk and spoke to both Akhmetov and Ilmitov proving they're alive and are actual servicemen of the Russian army.[21][22]
During the Ukrainian forces' withdrawal from Ilovaisk on August 29, Donbas Battalion fighters were able to capture two soldiers of the 31st Air Assault Brigade near Chervonosilske village: Nikita Terskikh and Eugen Sardaryan, as well as some soldiers of 6th Tank Brigade.[23]
On 4 June 2015, TASS cited an unnamed official claiming that the 104th Guards Airborne Division would be reformed from the brigade.[24]
The 31st Airborne Brigade alerted as part of high alert check of the Airborne Forces.
In March 2016, the brigade temporarily moved from its base at Ulyanovsk to Orenburg in snap readiness drills.[25]
The brigade was deployed to Belarus in preparation for the Russian invasion of Ukraine,[26] which began on 24 February 2022. The soldiers of the brigade boarded helicopters that morning, ostensibly for exercises. Once airborne, they were notified that they were at war with Ukraine before mounting a surprise air assault that began the battle of Antonov Airport near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. The brigade quickly seized control of the airfield, but Russian reinforcements were prevented from using it by Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire. Facing counterattacks in which at least 34 soldiers of the brigade were killed. The 31st was then committed to the battle of Hostomel, in which they suffered heavy casualties that included brigade commander Colonel Sergey Karasev and battalion commanders Major Alexey Oskin and Lieutenant Colonel Denis Yagidarov.[27] After the Russian retreat from Kyiv Oblast on 1 April, the remnants of the brigade were redeployed to eastern Ukraine for the battle of Izium and then participated in the battle of Sievierodonetsk.[28] The 31st Guards Air Assault Brigade has been participating in the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive.[4] In September the Brigade's commanding officer, Colonel Andrey Kondrashkin, was killed near the village of Andriivka.[3]
