Right Sector
 Right Sector    | |
|---|---|
 | |
 The colours represent "Blood and soil".[1] | |
| Formation | November 2013 |
| Founder |  Dmytro Yarosh |
| Headquarters | Kyiv, Ukraine |
| Slogan | "God! Ukraine! Freedom!" |
| Interests | Anti-Terrorist-Operation |
| Subpage | •Right Sector/Paramilitary wing |
| A coalition of "far-right" groups which sent members to participate in the Anti-Terrorist-Operation in the Donbas. | |
Right Sector (or Pravyi sektor) is a right-wing, extremist organization which has attributes that would be identified as "neo-Nazi" in the western world, if they showed them there.[2] It's paramilitary wing has been integrated into the regular armed forces of Ukraine. The Independent, in an utmost sympathetic 2022 article notes:[3]
Pravy Sektor was initially formed as a confederation of radical nationalist groups. Some of these, including one called White Hammer, were expelled. Others, like Patriot of Ukraine, the paramilitary wing of the country’s Social-National Assembly, left the group after it supposedly watered down its militancy.
Some of the more hardline former Pravy Sektor members have found a home in the Azov Battalion, which does little to hide its far-right credentials. At a recent training exercise for citizen volunteers in Kiev, its members wore uniforms with Nazi symbols like the Totenkopf (death’s head), the Sonnenrad (black sun), and the Wolfsangel, or wolf’s trap.
Contents
History
Right Sector emerged during the Euromaidan protests in 2013 where it's street fighters participated in clashes with riot police. It merged Trident (Tryzub) and the Ukrainian National Assembly - Ukrainian National Self-Defense (UNA–UNSO) and others under it's umbrella.[4]
Paramilitary operations
Right Sector seized military weaponry from an Interior Ministry arsenal in western Ukraine, near Lviv, towards the end of the Maidan revolution. Right Sector delivered some weapons to Ukrainian authorities in the aftermath of the revolution, and kept others.[5] Following the collapse of the Yanukovych government, with police having largely abandoned the streets of Kyiv, groups of young men, including members of Right Sector, patrolled them armed mostly with baseball bats and sometimes with guns.[6] According to Yarosh, Right Sector has recruited retired officers of the interior ministry and the security agencies. He told Newsweek that, "as in any army", it has specialists who are trained to use S-300 antiaircraft missiles.[7]
In an interview with Deutsche Welle in late 2015, Petro Poroshenko stated that Right Sector was going to be disarmed and taken out of operations in Donbas.[8]
Ukrainian Volunteer Corps
Right Sector has its own volunteer battalion that is fighting in the war in Donbas, the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps.[9] It was formed late April 2014; on 19 July 2014 Right Sector said it was ready to contribute 5,000 people to fight, if the military provided suitable combat equipment.[10] On 17 August 2014 Right Sector accused the Interior Ministry of harbouring counterrevolutionary forces seeking to destroy the Ukrainian volunteer movement.[11] It said that Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Yevdokimov's followers among the police had illegally searched or detained dozens of Right Sector volunteers and confiscated weapons they had taken in combat.[12] In December 2015, group leader Dmytro Yarosh announced that the 5th and 8th battalions, and the medical battalion, would be incorporated into the Armed Forces of Ukraine following his departure from Right Sector.[13] The Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, if possible, would become part of the National Guard of Ukraine and will in the near future report to the Ministry of Internal Affairs or would be incorporated into the Ukrainian Ground Forces.
When Yarosh left the Right Sector in December 2015, he took part of the fighters with him, forming the Ukrainian Volunteer Army .[14]
In the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Right Sector volunteers fought in the Siege of Mariupol and Eastern Ukraine offensive.[15] They were officially absorbed in the Ground Forces as special operations unit. In November 2022, the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps was reformed as the 67th Separate Mechanized Brigade, and were training in the United Kingdom.[16][17][18]
Related Document
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:My Encounter with Ukrainian-American Nazi Mark Paslawsky.pdf | article | 2 September 2014 | George Eliason | The encounter that G. Eliason had with Mark Paslawsky and what it means for him. |
References
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_Ukrainian_Insurgent_Army
- ↑ Truthout (2014) - Pravy Sector: The Radical Force of Ukrainian Maidan
- ↑ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-pravy-sektor-extremism-b2011598.html
- ↑ Global Security - Pravy Sektor / Praviy Sector (Right Sector)
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/world/europe/ukraine-sets-deadline-for-militias-to-surrender-illegal-guns.html, "It's not normal to ask people to hand in their weapons in the situation we have now, Dmytro Yarosh, the leader of a right-wing paramilitary group, Right Sector, said in an interview."
- ↑ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26394980
- ↑ http://mag.newsweek.com/2014/03/28/dmitry-yarosh-ukraine-russia-crimea.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20170405223228/http://www.dw.com/en/petro-poroshenko-im-sure-about-the-unity-of-the-eu-and-its-solidarity-with-ukraine/a-18832626
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20140817184359/http://www.ukrinform.ua/eng/news/donbas_battalion_loses_4_in_ilovaisk_assault_325120
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20140808104309/http://www.ukrinform.ua/eng/news/right_sector_ready_to_send_5000_people_to_east_323991
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20180721080235/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28825307
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20140818004717/http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/08/17/letter-to-the-president-of-ukraine-from-the-right-sector-military-political-movement
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160307121248/http://ps-zahid.info/news/yarosh-oholoshuje-pro-zasnuvannya-novoho-ruhu-ta-vyhodyt-z-nvr-ps/
- ↑ https://lb.ua/news/2018/08/01/404102_cherven_andriy_gergert_mi.html
- ↑ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61089043
- ↑ https://unherd.com/2022/06/on-the-frontline-with-the-right-sector-militia/
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20220610135053/https://www.pravda.com.ua/articles/2022/06/10/7351747/
- ↑ https://novynarnia.com/2022/12/12/duk-pravyj-sektor-stav-67-yu-mehanizovanoyu-brygadoyu-zsu/
