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Ukrainian volunteer battalions
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Ukrainian volunteer battalions (Ukrainian: Добровольчі батальйони, romanized: Dobrovolchi bataliony, more formally Добровольчі військові формування України, Dobrovolchi viiskovi formuvannia Ukrainy, 'Volunteer military formations of Ukraine', or abbreviated Добробати, Dobrobaty) were militias and paramilitary groups mobilized as a response to the perceived state of weakness and unwillingness of the regular Armed Forces to counter rising separatism in spring 2014.[1] They trace their origins to the "Maidan Self-Defense" militias formed during the Euromaidan in 2013.[2] The earliest of these volunteer units were later formalized into military, special police and paramilitary formations in a response to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine in 2014.[3][4] Most of the formations were formed or placed under command of the Ministry of Internal Affairs — as "Special Tasks Patrol Police" — and Ministry of Defence — as "Territorial defence battalions". A minority of battalions were independent of state control.
Most of the battalions initially didn't receive money from the government and were self-funded; some were backed by Ukrainian oligarchs[5] while others received donations or started internet crowdfunding campaigns.[6][7][8]
As of September 2014, 37 volunteer battalions had taken an active part in the battles of the war in Donbas.[9] Some of the battalion fighters are former Euromaidan activists, but their social background are highly diverse. They included students and military officers.[10] They enjoyed a high level of support in Ukrainian society, ranked second among the most respected institutions in the country. However, their close ties with oligarchs raised fears of the volunteer formations becoming politicized or turning into private armies.[5] Ordered to leave the front lines in 2015, the volunteer battalion phenomenon was largely over within a year of its beginning.[11] Most units continued as fully integrated as units of either the Ukrainian Army or the National Guard of Ukraine.
- ^ Ilmari Käihkö, "The War Between People in Ukraine" Archived 27 January 2022 at the Wayback Machine, The War on the Rocks, 21 March 2018
- ^ Gazeta.ua (7 February 2014). ""Армію" самооборони Майдану збільшать до 30-40 тисяч - Парубій". Gazeta.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 18 April 2022.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:3was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Volunteer battalions in eastern Ukraine: who are they? | UACRISIS.ORG". Ukraine crisis media center. 16 March 2015. Archived from the original on 18 December 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
- ^ a b Margarete Klein. Ukraine’s volunteer battalions – advantages and challenges Archived 11 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine Swedish Defence Research Agency Report, RUFS Briefing No. 27, April 2015
- ^ Weiss, Michael. "Crowdfunding the War in Ukraine -- From Manhattan". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 20 April 2022.
- ^ "Help Donbas Battalion". People’s Project.com. Retrieved 20 April 2022.
- ^ Morgan, Jared (13 November 2015). "Top-10 crowdfunded projects that volunteers gave the Ukrainian militia". Euromaidan Press. Retrieved 20 April 2022.
- ^ "Они воюют за Украину: список батальонов, которые принимают участие в АТО". Слово и Дело (in Russian). Archived from the original on 28 February 2022. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
- ^ Albuquerque, Adriana (2015). "Volunteer Battalions". Ukraine. A Defence Sector Reform Assessment. p. 22. ISSN 1650-1942.
{{cite book}}:|journal=ignored (help) - ^ Käihkö, Ilmari (3 April 2018). "A nation-in-the-making, in arms: control of force, strategy and the Ukrainian Volunteer Battalions". Defence Studies. 18 (2): 147–166. doi:10.1080/14702436.2018.1461013. ISSN 1470-2436.
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