Ukrainian volunteer battalions
Ukrainian volunteer battalions were militias and paramilitary formations mobilized as a response to the perceived state of weakness and unwillingness of the regular Armed Forces to counter rising separatism in spring 2014.
They trace their origins to the "Maidan Self-Defense" militias formed during the Euromaidan in 2013 to confront Yanukovych Government and the pro-Russian Anti-Maidan movement, and many of its first volunteers were activists or sympathizers of the Euromaidan movement. 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. With the main Armed Forces in disaray, with poor equipment, organization and inept leadership, the volunteer battalions and the National Guard took the brunt of the fighting in the first months of the war. Most of the battalions initially didn't receive money from the government and were self-funded; some were backed by Ukrainian oligarchs while others received donations or started internet crowdfunding campaigns. 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.
As of September 2014, 37 volunteer battalions had taken an active part in the battles of the war in Donbas. Some of the battalion fighters are former Euromaidan activists, but their social background are highly diverse, including mostly students and military officers. Ideologically, they held a broad form of Ukrainian patriotism and opposition to separatism, with some specific units holding radical far-right ideas. 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 and some political organizations raised fears of the volunteer formations becoming politicized or turning into private armies. The Volunteer Battalions were also frequent target of Russian propaganda, characterized by Russian media as "fascist", "neo-nazi" or "Banderite" formations, and frequently accused of atrocities against civilians in the Donbas region. In 2023, a number of former volunteer battalions were designated as a terrorist organization by Russia.
Ordered to leave the front lines in 2015, the volunteer battalion phenomenon was largely over within a year of its beginning. Most units continued as fully integrated as units of either the Ukrainian Army or the National Guard of Ukraine.
Volunteer formations
Ministry of Defence
Since spring 2014, Ministry of Defence had formed 32 volunteer battalions. The ones under the Ministry of Defence command were officially named the "Territorial Defence Battalions". At the end of 2014, territorial defence battalions were reorganized as motorized infantry battalions. The idea of the territorial defence battalions, however, remained and in 2021 the Territorial Defense Forces were later created as a more formal and structured version of the territorial defence battalions.Besides territorial defence battalions, several regular units of Armed Forces of Ukraine were formed from volunteers, such as 3rd Airmobile Battalion "Phoenix" or 54th Reconnaissance Battalion "UNSO". In 2015 the 46th Spetsnaz Battalion "Donbas Ukraine" was created from volunteers of Donbas Battalion who decided to switch from National Guard of Ukraine to Armed Forces.
Ministry of Internal Affairs
According to Interior Minister Avakov, by mid-April 2016 205 service personnel of the ministry's volunteer battalions had been killed in action, National Guardsmen included.File:2014-08-26. «Сичь» отправляется на войну 035.JPG|thumb|Volunteer of the "Sich" Special Tasks Patrol Police battalion in 2014.
Special Tasks Patrol Police
had established 56 special tasks patrol police units sized from company to battalion. After several reorganizations, this number shrunk to 33 units.Notable Units formed between 2014 and 2015 include:
- Dnipro-1 Regiment
- Kharkiv Police Battalion
- Poltava Battalion
- Sich Battalion
- Svyatyi Mykolai Battalion
National Guard of Ukraine
Notable Units formed between 2014 and 2015 include:
- Serhii Kulchytskyi Battalion
- Azov Battalion
- Donbas Battalion
Independent battalions
Ukrainian Volunteer Corps
had formed several battalions that are known as Ukrainian Volunteer Corps. In spring 2015 there were attempts to integrate Ukrainian Volunteer Corps into the Ukrainian Army or National Guard.Battalion OUN
Battalion of "Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists" was operating in the area of Pisky, Donetsk. The battalion was disbanded in September 2019; as one of the last units composed purely of volunteer soldiers.Aerorozvidka
A unit specialized in aerial reconnaissance and drone warfare. Aerorozvidka was nicknamed a "war startup" by some observers, it began as a group of volunteer drone and IT enthusiasts. It used commercial drones to help the Ukrainian military forces. It was later integrated into the Ukrainian Ground Forces.Noman Çelebicihan Battalion
The Noman Çelebicihan Battalion was one of the three reported battalions with majority Muslim membership.It was composed mostly of ethnic Crimean Tatars and was based in the Kherson region bordering Crimea. It did not participate in any combat operations. The battalion was formed and disbanded in 2016. Many of its members later joined other volunteer battalions or enlisted in the Ukrainian army. The battalion reportedly received assistance from Turkey.
Foreign fighters
The foreign fighter movement in 2014 was largely short-lived, with researcher Kacper Rekawek writing, "fighters arrived throughout the summer of 2014, and most of them were gone from Ukraine at some point in 2015, although some returned later, with a small group settling in Ukraine permanently." By the end of 2015, Rekawek notes, "both sides took steps to professionalise their forces and incorporate the bottom-up organised volunteer battalions into e.g. the Ukrainian National Guard or, in the case of the 'separatists,' into the 'army corps.' This effectively meant an end to foreign fighter recruitment for this conflict and very few foreigners joined either side after the end of 2015."On 6 October 2014 the Ukrainian parliament voted to allow foreign fighters to join the Ukrainian military. That December, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko promised that foreign fighters who join the Ukrainian military will receive citizenship. However, the Kyiv Post reported that by October 2015, only one foreign fighter from Russia had been granted citizenship. The same month, 30 foreign fighters rallied in Kyiv for Ukrainian citizenship.
An analysis of foreign fighters by Arkadiusz Legieć, a Senior Analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs, estimated that about 17,241 foreign fighters fought in Ukraine between 2014 and 2019. 3,879 of those foreign fighters supported Ukraine and joined foreign volunteer battalions. The largest group of foreign fighters in Ukraine was approximately 3,000 Russian citizen volunteers. The second-largest group consisted of approximately 300 Belarusians. The third-largest group consisted of approximately 120 Georgians. The only other country to exceed 50 foreign fighters was Croatia, with approximately 60 fighters. Other countries whose nationals supported Ukraine included Albania, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Kosovo, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
File:MamukaMamuashvilli.jpg|thumb|Mamuka Mamulashvili, the commander of the Georgian National Legion. Mamulashvili is Georgian national and a veteran of the Abkhazia War, First Chechen War and Russo-Georgian War who joined Ukraine at the outbreak of the Donbas war.