Sich Battalion

Member of the Sich Battalion wearing a balaclava with a Wolfsangel.

The Sich Battalion was formed by the far-right Svoboda party in June 2014.[2] The unit is one of several Ukrainian paramilitary volunteer battalions formed at the start of the war in Donbas in 2014, along with the Svyatyi Mykolai Battalion or Donbas Battalion, to fight against pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. The Sich Battalion officially became an active unit of Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs following its oath taking ceremony on 26 August 2014, and is composed of around 50 volunteers, some of whom have prior military service.[3] Like other volunteer units, Sich Battalion members underwent two months of basic training prior to activation and began engaging separatist forces with minimal training or equipment. While the Sich Battalion was much smaller than other volunteer units, it was designed for the specific purpose of combating insurgents in the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine.[4]

Volunteers of the Sich Battalion, behind them is the flag of Svoboda.

On August 26, 2014, about 100 soldiers of the battalion took the Oath of Allegiance to the people of Ukraine, after which about 50 soldiers went to the ATO zone.[5] Solemn farewells took place on Instytutska Street in Kyiv, where the heroes of the Heavenly Hundred died in the winter.[6][7][8]

Together with the soldiers, seven people's deputies of the 7th convocation (2012-2014) from the Svoboda party went to the East: Yuriy Syrotiuk, Oleksiy Kaida, Oleh Osukhovsky, Oleh Gelevey, Oleksandr Myrnyi, Andriy Tyagnybok, and Oleksiy Furman. They took turns accompanying the fighters during their stay in the anti-terrorist operation zone.

On September 27, the battalion's fighters returned from the anti-terrorist operation to their place of deployment.[9] On September 30, after a solemn ceremony, a new special unit of the battalion left for eastern Ukraine.

According to the press service of the battalion, part of the unit is located in the Donetsk region near Kurakhovo, where it performs tasks to protect the dam of Kurakhiv TPP.[10] The battalion's base camp is located in Sloviansk, where special forces guard peace in the city and maintain law and order.[11]

By 2015, the Ministry of Internal Affairs banned people registered in political parties of enlisting in their units. The Sich Battalion cut their official ties with Svoboda[12] and on 21 December 2015, the Sich Battalion was reformed into the 4th Company "Sich" of the Kyiv Regiment, as part of the Kyiv city special police, with Maxim Morozov as its commander.[12]

Arsen Avakov, the head of Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs, said that a member of the Sich Battalion was arrested after a member of the National Guard of Ukraine was killed during rioting in Kyiv on August 31, 2015.[13]

At the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sich Battalion fought against the Russian Kyiv offensive (2022). It later redeployed to combat the Eastern Ukraine offensive, participating in the Battle of Kharkiv (2022).[14]