Would the subject of volunteers battalions ever stop being so popular? As soon as we start to forget about volunteers movement, in a good sense of that word, there is a reminder right away, we are here, we haven’t gone anywhere, and they usually happens in a bad sense. As soon as we started to forget about scandals related to “Aidar”, we had to organize ATO in Mukacheve, after that there was a story with “Tornado” Company and now there is “Sych”, but this time near Ukrainian Parliament.
Here is a little history and prehistory
Volunteers battalion took part in almost all know military conflicts in all times. Professional military and people who were not related to army in any way were becoming volunteers. A good example is Swedish volunteer battalion that fought on the side of Finland during the Finnish-Russian war. Swedish military didn’t want to stay away from the conflict and addressed with a request to Finnish embassy. Authorities of Sweden and Finland agreed about simplified procedure of border crossing for Swedish volunteers, after those volunteers via Finnish recruitment centers were getting into Battalion. I describe that in detains because the creating of Swedish battalion was done according to particular pattern, this is how volunteers groups get organized.
They are different from regular units only by a way they get recruited to the military service, in the 1st case that is mobilization and in the 2nd case voluntary. There is also another type of volunteers units – partisan groups. Such units get formed from volunteers, but without government involvement that use recruitment centers. Partisan groups take part in military actions deeps inside enemy territory and they coordinate with military authorities of the country only when it’s possible.
And the 3rd type of volunteers groups is people’s militia. It is formed on occupied territories or territories close to contact line in order to resist the enemy. Militia groups get created spontaneously as usually the laws of the state don’t work on those territories or military authorities have no control over those territories. So volunteer battalions formally can be also called people’s militia at least on the 1st stage of their existence.
The interesting fact is that Ukrainian militia was formed not on captured territories and not on the territories close to the contact line, but on the territories controlled by military. Why so? That happened because the government was not ready at all for such situation. All Ukrainian law enforcement authorities were confused. There were not many combat-ready units in Ukraine at that time, so the society reacted to that and got organized into volunteer battalions.
The second stage was legalizations of those structures. Somebody went to Armed Forces of Ukraine, somebody joined Nationa Guard, volunteers went to units of Ministry of Internal Affairs and Security Service of Ukraine. So far there are only few armed groups that haven’t formally legalized yet, including Volunteer Ukrainian Corpse “Right Sector” and UNA-UNSO and also international peacemaking battalions named after Dzhokhar Dudaev and Sheikh Mansur. But despite formal subordination to military authorities most of those battalions are still people’s militia…
АТО The role of volunteer battalions in ATO
It’s almost impossible to value the role of volunteer battalions in the current conflict. Not because everything is so bad, but because it’s hard to evaluate actions of some unit. At the very beginning of the conflict when separatist movement only started to form “black men” (some volunteers called themselves like that) made a lot of trouble for those marginal. But later when groups of trained insurgents started to come from Russia, operations of separate battalions lost any sense and it was time for planned joined operations with Armed Forces of Ukraine, National Guard of Ukraine and Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Volunteer battalions liberated Shchastya city, that was done by “Aidar” battalion together with Armed Forces of Ukraine. Popasna, Severodonetsk, Lysychansk were liberated by “Donbass” battalion together with Armed Forces of Ukraine, Mariupol was liberated by “Azov” together with National Guard and Armed Forces of Ukraine. Volunteer battalions “Donbass” and “Shakhtyorsk” were taking part in attempt to storm Ilovaisk. “Krivbass”, “Kievskaya Rus”, “St. Maria”, 1st battalion of National Guard were taking part in holding Debaltseve.
Those were major operations together volunteer battalions, it’s impossible to tell about all military actions. Not all operations were successful, but the contribution of volunteer battalions is huge. The most important is that volunteer battalions in ATO zone helped to win time needed to create more or less efficient army.
Problems
There are a lot of serious problems in Ukrainian volunteer movement. The biggest problem is personalities of the leaders, low level of discipline, bad training, and sure human factor.
The truth is that many, I hope not all, but many battalions were created with the aim not to resist the aggressor, but in order to make some profit, political and financial.
I personally know battalion commander and the deputy Semen Semenchenko. I can characterize him as a selfish guy, cunning, opportunist, he feels what is trending now, he’s a good image maker, populist and spin doctor. He needed battalion in order to achieve his goals, and he probably got what he needed after he became a Deputy of the Parliament. Many times he said that he will be the leader of “Donbass” battalion and will be protecting Ukraine until the victory and as we found out later he was talking about status of Parliament Deputy.
I can’t know thoughts and can’t know motives of those who were creating volunteer battalion, but there are commanders in the Parliament now of almost all most famous volunteer battalions. Those people left their men in most difficult time in ATO zone in autumn 2014, but basically in summer, when election campaign started. This is rhetorical question what was more important to them, the Motherland that they were protecting and men who trusted them or Deputy status?
Lack of discipline is very typical characteristic of volunteer battalions, even legalized, in general the main thesis of fighters is “I came to protect my Motherland, not to listen to young lieutenants!” It may look like they are right, but in reality a big group of armed men without discipline, without following statute and sometimes drunk, such men can be real threat not only for terrorists of LPR-DPR.
Another big and serious problem is the lack of training. This problem is being solved, but only partly. I can say about training in three battalions, “Donbass”, “Aidar”, “Golden Gates”. After getting to the unit location, fighters of “Donbass” battalion were just laying on the beds, and chaotically moving around the territory where the unit was located. After that they started to get together in different groups based on similar interests, veterans of Afghanistan war started contact fighting training, teach tactics of warfare in mountainous terrain (there was no other in Afghanistan)… Young, healthy and fast got into “Alfa” group and sure “Bravo” groups. And there were not enough healthy and young men for “Foxtrot” group. Those fighters got special training, that was running and overcoming obstacles (running is probably a necessary skill on a war). Only in the last two weeks before going to ATO zone they started to have regular shooting training. But two weeks is nothing.
As a result there were a lot of casualties caused by friendly fire and in general a lot of fighters of “Donbass” got killed because of bad training…
Everything was much easier in “Aidar”, they were accepting everybody, gave them AK and send in a battle, you learn everything during the combat. When Shchastya was stormed officially battalion lost 40 men, unofficially fighters says there were 100-150 killed. “Aidar” probably had biggest casualties among other volunteer battalions maybe because that was most combat, most fearless battalion, and also because of terrible training. Fighters of “Aidar” even for such skeptic and cynic like me, but there are nuances.
There is not much not to say about “Golden Gates”, there was no combat training at least at the beginning, they had some training on detention of criminals, this is special forces police unit basically.
But fighters of battalion were going to ATO zone and took part in several battles near Shchastya city.
There are two other units. “Azov” Regiment and Volunteer Ukrainian Corpse “Right Sector”. They have good training. “Azov” took part in battles near Mariupol, in Novoazovsk and Shyrokyne. “Right Sector” took part in many operation. Most famous was defense of Donetsk Airport and Pisky.
Scandals
One of the biggest events of the past from my point of view was an attempt to create so-called General Staff of Volunteer Battalions by Semen Semenchenko and Yarosh. This event was almost not noticed, luckily that initiative came to naught. But the precedent is important. Two men without military education were going to create alternative General Staff. As Semenchenko said during the press-conference, that General Staff was not going to be replacement of General Staff of the Ministry of Defense, but as coordination center of volunteer units. But those units don’t have formal status, they are part of Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Defense and they have their General Staff. I share point of view of Semenchenko when he says that the leaders of General Staff should be replaced as they are absolutely incompetent.
Another accident that happened with Semenchenko was in July 2014. “Donbass” battalion was based on the territory of National Guard of Ukraine unit 30/27. The battalion was there in Novy Petrovtsy for a long time, over 2 months. By the end of July sponsors and volunteers started to have some doubts about activity of the battalion, but the most important it became harder for Semen to get through the media, “Aidar”, “Kievskaya Rus”, “Azov” were mentioned more often. Semenchenko decided that they needed to go to ATO zone immediately, despite the arguments and the fact that people were not ready. In order to speed up the process Semen started demonstration in front of the office of President’s Administration, but most interesting was happening in Petrovtsy. Everybody who were there got an order to get ready for defense and they got weapon in case there is assault from the side of Armed Forces of Ukraine. It was not clear why would military start to storm volunteers, but this was the fact, Semenchenko who was commander of volunteer battalion orders to shoot Ukrainian soldiers in case of attack. Fighters got their weapon and went to sleep to their tents, and decided not to resist in case of storming.
I want to say one important thing here, don’t blame all volunteers. In every incident there are certain personalities who are guilty, and not everybody from a battalion, and this should be taken into consideration, when we say our opinion about volunteer battalions in general.
And finally the 3rd incident, a crime to be more precise, related to Semenchenko when the Deputy Commander of General Staff Aleksandr Kalashnikov was kidnapped. There was a dispute between Kalashikov and Semenchenko because of battalion fighters who were not registered, formally they became members of illegal armed groups as they had no right to have weapon and there were manipulations with volunteers help. In September 2014 “Kalash” disappeared and was released only 3 months later. Several fighters of “Donbass” battalion, including Deputy Commander of battalion with nickname “Professor” were detained during investigation of that case.
All those and other scandals are not related to fighters of battalions much, they are more related to the personality of former battalion commander Konstantin Grishyn.
And the most combat Ukrainian volunteer battalion became most scandalous. There are 30 criminal cases started against fighters of “Aidar” battalion for abuse of civilians, stealing, looting. There are talks about big manipulations with volunteer help, because of that many volunteer organizations stopped helping fighters of the battalion. Fighters of other units who were located in Shchastya said that “Aidar” fighters took the city under their total control, where even old grannies could sell sunflower seeds without their permission. I can’t say if that’s true or not, but because of many rumors and inappropriate behavior of some “Aidar” fighters in Kiev, I can believe that. But again, I must repeat that it’s very important that nor all battalion fighters are involved in crimes, you can’t blame everybody who has “Aidar” insignia on their uniform!
There is special place for so far illegal armed group “Right Sector”. This militaristic movement is doing biggest crime against statehood, and I mean not only Ukraine as it is. Members of Right Sector decided on their own who is guilty, they can pass judgment and execute. They try to impellent their own moral, their ideology, their interpretation of law, they try to perform functions of the state. But you can’t make people to follow laws using illegal methods, but this is what “Right Sector” is doing. I understand that people got to the edge and can’t look at officials who were taking bribes and continue to take bribes, but such crimes should be investigated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Prosecutor’s Office and journalists. The philosophy of Right Sector is the philosophy of lumpen who got power and now breaks skulls of those who offended him in past. Unfortunately, primitive post soviet way of thinking is still strong in Ukraine and masses applaud to «crime fighters».
P.S.
So there are certain problems and we need to solve them and the government found a solution in assimilating volunteer battalions. Almost all commanders of volunteer battalions are professional military now, mobilized men are sent not only to Ministry of Defense units or National Guard of Ukraine, but also to “Aidar”, “Kievskaya Rus”, “Donbass” and this strategy brings results, discipline gets better, fighters get trained, the coordination between units gets better.
Callsign “Romashka”, former fighter of “Donbass” battalion for Informator.lg.ua