Right Sector Ukrainian Corps

## About

The **Right Sector** **Ukrainian Volunteer Corps** (Ukrainian: Добровольчий український корпус «Пра́вий се́ктор», ДУК ПС, romanized: *Dobrovolʹchyi ukrainsʹkyi korpus "Právyi séktor", DUK PS*) or simply the **Ukrainian Volunteer Corps** (Ukrainian: Добровольчий український корпус, ДУК, romanized: *Dobrovolʹchyi ukrainsʹkyi korpus, DUK*), was the paramilitary arm of right-wing Ukrainian nationalist party Right Sector. The Ukrainian Volunteer Corps was founded on July 17, 2014, as one of the "volunteer battalions", created as a response to the rise of pro-Russian separatism and the Russian intervention in the war in Donbas.

They officially defined themselves as a "voluntary formation of Ukrainian citizens, Ukrainians from abroad and non-Ukrainians - citizens of other countries who share the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism and have expressed a desire to participate in the Ukrainian people's armed struggle against external and internal enemies." The Ukrainian Volunteer Corps was mostly made up of members of Right Sector, but also accepts volunteers without any party affiliations, as well as foreigners. The DUK was founded by Dmytro Yarosh—nom-de-guerre "Yastrub" ("Hawk")—who was also the leader of Right Sector, from an irregular militia that the Right Sector formed during the Euromaidan, which patrolled the streets after the fall of the Yanukovych government. In 2015, after Yarosh's resignation, he announced the creation of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army, a new paramilitary unit made up of former units of the DUK.

In July 2014, the DUK claimed to have 5,000 troops. The group was involved in combat during the war in Donbas and later in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Most of the Ukrainian volunteer battalions were later integrated by the Ukrainian government into either the Ukrainian Ground Forces or the Ukrainian National Guard, but the DUK was one of the few that remained autonomous. This changed with the 2022 invasion, when they were formally absorbed in the Ground Forces as a special operations unit. In November 2022, the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps was reformed as the 67th Separate Mechanized Brigade "DUK", and were training in the United Kingdom.

## Organization

The Ukrainian Volunteer Corps first commander (and also its founder) was Dmytro Yarosh ("Yastrub") who was also the founder and Party leader of Right Sector. He led the DUK until November 2015 when he resigned as president of the Right Sector. After his resignation, he announced to the creation of the **Ukrainian Volunteer Army** (Ukrainian: Українська добровольча армія, УДА, romanized: *Ukrayinsʹka dobrovolʹcha armiya, UDA*), a separate paramilitary group which would have close relations to the DUK. The UDA was formed using some former battalions of the DUK as a basis.

Differently from many of the Ukrainian volunteer battalions and Territorial defence battalions, the Right Sector Ukrainian Volunteer Corps is not part of either the Ministry of Internal Affairs or Ministry of Defence. It operates independently, as such, the government does not provide weapons, only ammunitions, and the UVC has to rely on either captured or independently funded equipment. It does cooperate with Ukrainian authorities, but it has in past made declarations that they would refuse certain orders: it said it would respect the Minsk agreements cease-fire but reserves the right not to comply with the ceasefire orders of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and reserves the right to continue active hostilities in accordance with its own plans. Similarly, it refused to pull out its troops during the Shyrokyne standoff in 2015.

With the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine the DUK were absorbed and integrated under the chain-of-command of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, officially designated as the **Center for Special Operations "Ukrainian Volunteer Corps"** (Ukrainian: Центр спеціальних операцій «Добровольчий український корпус», romanized: *Tsentr spetsialʹnykh operatsiy «Dobrovolʹchyy ukrayinsʹkyy korpus»*). Ever since the invasion the DUK was tasked with operations harassing the advancing Russians. With the integration to the Army, they can have better access to materiel and equipment. However, the DUK still enjoys significant autonomy within chain-of-command and maintains its older, more looser internal command structure which has been described by journalist Aris Roussinos as "Unlike the regular army, DUK has an anarchic, democratic atmosphere in which soldiers discuss orders with their commanders and feel free to add their own suggestions [...] Most have joined DUK for the chance to see combat as soon as possible, without the petty regulations of regular army life."

The independence of the unit has always been a point of contention and has caused controversy. In 2015 there were plans to fully integrate it into the Ukrainian Ground Forces. They refused to join the Armed Forces. In April 2015 the UVC was ordered to move back into the rearguard by the Ukrainian military forces. The combat units of the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps retreated to the rear to their training base in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The base was surrounded by checkpoints of the 95th and 25th Air assault brigades. There were rumors that the "Right Sector" units were ordered either to disarm for refusing to go over to the subordination of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, or simply subjected to intimidation in order to "maintain order". In December 2015, it was announced that the 5th and 8th battalions, and the medical battalion of the Volunteer Corps were integrated into the Army. In 2016, the Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine Anatolii Matios stated in a radio interview stated that the Right Sector Ukrainian Volunteer Corps is an illegal armed formation in all legal grounds and in accordance with the Ukrainian Constitution. The military prosecutor spoke out against weapons in the rear "under the slogans of patriotism" and noted that if "we start turning a blind eye to this, then chaos will come in Ukraine" At the same time, he added that many of the dead fighters of the Right Sector are heroes who defended the country.

In 2014, the structure of the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps was composed by mobilization, training and intelligence centers, and battalions, which are divided into combat (directly participating in hostilities) and reserve. The UVC also has a medical battalion (the Hospitallers Medical Battalion) and a "Field Gendarmerie".

As of 2015 the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps allows the recruitment of foreigners. It had two battalions composed exclusively by foreigners: the Sheikh Mansur Battalion, formed by anti-Russian Muslim Chechens, and Tactical group "Belarus", composed by anti-Lukashenko Belarusians.

In 2021 political scientists Daniel Odin Shaw and Huseyn Aliyev described the UDA as holding a "generic form of Ukrainian ultranationalism", which allowed the inclusion of ethnic minorities, including Muslim Crimean Tatars and Chechens, and ethnic Jews, Poles, Hungarians, Greeks, and Romani.