Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment

The Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment[lower-alpha 1] (also known as simply Połk Kalinoŭskaha or the Kalinoŭski Regiment,[10] formerly the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Battalion until May 2022[11]) is a group of Belarusian opposition volunteers, which was formed to defend Ukraine against the 2022 Russian invasion.[12]

Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment
Полк Кастуся Калиновського
Полк Кастуся Каліноўскага
ActiveMarch 2022 – present
Country Ukraine
TypeForeign volunteer regiment
RoleTerritorial defence
Sizearound 300 [1]
Part ofArmed Forces of Ukraine
PatronKastuś Kalinoŭski
Motto(s)"First Ukraine, then Belarus"
Engagements
WebsiteOfficial Website of the Regiment
Commanders
Current
commander		Dzianis Prokharaŭ[6]
Notable
commanders		Vadzim Kabanchuk (deputy commander)
Aliaksiej Skoblia † (deputy commander)
Ivan "Brest" Marchuk  † [7][8]
Pavel "Volat" † (company commander)[9]
Insignia
Flag

As of March 2022, it was reported that more than a thousand Belarusians have applied to join the unit.[13] According to its own statements, the battalion is not incorporated into the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine in order to preserve greater autonomy.[14]

The unit is named after the Belarusian and Polish national hero Kastuś Kalinoŭski, who was a leader of the January Uprising in 1863 against the Russian Empire in Belarus and Lithuania.[15]

The regiment is confirmed to have suffered seven killed as of July 2022.[16]

History

Donbas War, 2014–21
Kalinowski Regiment members, among them Dzyanis Urbanowicz, pose for a picture on 8 March 2022.

The first foreign volunteer group in Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian War was the Pahonia detachment, founded in 2014 during the war in Donbas.[17] The following year, the tactical group "Belarus" was formed uniting Belarusian volunteers fighting in different battalions[18] The Monument to the Belarusians who died for Ukraine in Kyiv is dedicated to the Belarusian volunteers who died during the Russian-Ukrainian War.[19]

2022 Russian invasion

On 9 March, the creation of the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Battalion was announced.[20] The battalion is named after Kastuś Kalinoŭski,[lower-alpha 2] a 19th-century Belarusian leader of the 1863 January Uprising against the Russian Empire.[12] It was reported that as of 5 March 2022, about 200 Belarusians had joined the battalion.[21][22] Their motto is ‘First Ukraine, then Belarus’, indicating the volunteers' wish to also liberate Minsk from the Lukashenko regime.[23]

On 13 March, the deputy commander of the battalion, nicknamed "Tur" (real name Aliaksiej Skoblia), was confirmed killed in the Kyiv offensive when his unit was ambushed.[24][25] On 13 April, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy posthumously awarded Skoblia the title of Hero of Ukraine "for personal courage and heroism in defending the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, loyalty to the military oath."[26][27]

On 25 March, it was reported the regiment had taken an oath and has been formally admitted to the Ukrainian Ground Forces.[28] On 29 March, the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Battalion volunteers fought alongside Ukrainian soldiers to recapture Irpin.[29] On 26 March, Dzmitry Apanasovich (call sign "Terror") was killed during fighting in Irpin.[29]

On 1 April, it was reported that thousands of volunteers — many of whom were dissidents who had been arrested following the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests — had applied to be members of the battalion, but that vetting and equipping these volunteers had created a backlog that slowed down their deployment.[30]

On 16 May, a company commander, identified as Pavel "Volat," was reported to have died during the war in Ukraine. The Belarusian newspaper Nasha Niva stated that Volat was the sixth Belarusian fighter killed since the start of the war.[31] "Volat" was killed attempting to rescue four members of the regiment buried under rubble during the Battle of Bakhmut.[9]

On 21 May, battalion commander, Dzianis Prokharaŭ (call sign "Kit") announced that the battalion would become a regiment comprising two separate battalions. This was presented as "a move to the next stage of building a [Belarusian] national military unit" which "tak[es] into account the scale of the tasks facing the Belarusian soldiers".[32] The regiment would consist of three battalions, "Litvin", "Volat", and "Terror." Terror would later split from the Regiment and become an independent unit, the Terror Battalion.[33]

On 17 June, it was announced that volunteers of the Regiment received state Ukrainian decorations "For Battle Merit" and "Ukraine Above All".[34]

On 25-26 June 2022, in Lysychansk, the commander of the Volat battalion, callsign Brest, was killed in action and several other Belarusian fighters were captured or missing.[4]

On 11 July 2022, KKR volunteer soldiers Yan Dyurbeiko (call sign "Trombli") and Sergey Degtev ("Kleshch") were put on the POW exchange list.[16]

In September 2022, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus recognized the Internet resources of the regiment as an extremist group.[35]

In December 2022, the regiment received a BMP-2 armored vehicle, and in January 2023 a captured T-72 tank. The regiment announced the formation of the first mechanized unit.

On June 9, 2023, the regiment met with the Verkhovna Rada committee "For a Democratic Belarus" to begin cooperating with Ukrainian officials on toppling the current government of Belarus and establishing a free and democratic republic friendly to Ukraine.[33]

On 24 June, 2023, shortly after the Wagner Group rebellion ended, the Regiment announced that they have "a large number of reserves in Belarus" and urged the Belarusian population to join them in an unspecified future operation to take control of Belarus.[36][37] Later that day, in a joint statement with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the regiment urged the Belarusian population to "Wait for the signal" for the commencement of an operation to liberate Belarus.[38]

On 15 September, the unit published a video of them walking freely and unopposed through the front-line settlement of Klishchiivka stating that all Russian forces had been pushed out of the settlement as part of the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive prior to any official statement of the village's liberation.[39]

Structure

As of 2023 the brigade's structure is as follows:[40]

  • Regimental HQ and HQ Company
  • 1st Infantry Battalion "Litvin"
  • 2nd Infantry Battalion "Volat"
  • "Western" Battalion
  • Training company
  • Curfew service
  • UAV Group named Nikita Kryvtsov
  • Engineering platoon
  • Medical service
  • Technical support platoon
  • Financial service

Former units include:[1]

Reactions

The battalion has been featured on public posters in Kyiv to illustrate Ukrainian-Belarusian military ties.[41]

White-red-white flag with Columns of Gediminas in the form of a trident of the Belarusian diaspora in Ukraine, which is also used by the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment[42][43]

The creation of the battalion was endorsed by Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who noted that "more and more people from Belarus join to help Ukrainians defend their country".[44][45] President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin, called the volunteers "crazed citizens".[24]

On 26 March, Deputy Head of the GUBOPiK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus Mikhail Bedunkevich stated that a criminal case had been instituted in Belarus against 50 people from the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Battalion for participating in an armed conflict in a foreign state.[46]

In November 2022, the European Parliament adopted a resolution expressing its support for the Kastus Kalinouski Regiment.[47]

Commemoration

In Rivne, a street was named after Kastuś Kalinoŭski in honor of the Belarusian volunteers.[48]

Notable members

See also

Notes
  1. Ukrainian: Полк імені Кастуся Калиновського, romanized: Polk imeni Kastusia Kalynovs'koho; Belarusian: Полк імя Кастуся Каліноўскага, romanized: Połk imia Kastusia Kalinoŭskaha
  2. Polish: Wincenty Konstanty Kalinowski

References
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  2. "Ва Украіне ваюе некалькі груп беларускіх добраахвотнікаў". PolskieRadio.pl. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  3. "Бойцы батальона «Волат» полка имени Калиновского защищали Северодонецк". charter97.org. 25 June 2022. Archived from the original on 1 August 2022.
  4. "З-пад Лісічанска не вярнуліся шэсць беларусаў-каліноўцаў. Апошнім паведамленнем было: «На нас едзе танк. Адпрацаваў па ім»" (in Ukrainian). nashaniva.com. 6 July 2022. Archived from the original on 6 July 2022.
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  6. "Камандзір палка Каліноўскага пра бой у Бучы". Archived from the original on 27 June 2022. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
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