Irregular militias and radical nationalism in post-Euromaydan Ukraine: the prehistory and emergence of the “Azov” battalionin 2014

During and after Ukraine’s celebrated Euromaydan (literally: European Square) Revolution of 2013-2014, a whole number of novel Ukrainian political and societal phenomena emerged. One of the most intriguing was the relatively spontaneous and government-supported emergence of volunteer armed units fro...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Umland, Andreas 1967- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2019
In: Terrorism and political violence
Year: 2019, Volume: 31, Issue: 1, Pages: 105-131
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Summary:During and after Ukraine’s celebrated Euromaydan (literally: European Square) Revolution of 2013-2014, a whole number of novel Ukrainian political and societal phenomena emerged. One of the most intriguing was the relatively spontaneous and government-supported emergence of volunteer armed units from late spring 2014 onwards, in connection with the start of Russia’s covert paramilitary intervention in Eastern Ukraine. Among the most widely noted of these initially irregular detachments was the “Azov” battalion or regiment, named after the Azov Sea, created, in May 2014, by an obscure lunatic fringe group of racist activists. This paper briefly sketches the origins of Azov, biographies of some of its founders, and particulars of its creation, without touching upon such issues as Azov’s military performance, later integration into the National Guard under Ukraine’s Ministry of Interior, and political development after 2014.
Item Description:Gesehen am 16.11.2023
Published online: 26 Feb 2019
Physical Description:Illustration
ISSN:1556-1836
DOI:10.1080/09546553.2018.1555974