The Far Right in Ukraine During the “Euromaidan” and Beyond

• May 2015

• Conference: Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of Slavists
• At: Ottawa

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280114848_The_Far_Right_in_Ukraine_During_the_Euromaidan_and_Beyond

"...However, the analysis also shows that the far right organizations and football ultras played a key role during violent attacks, such as attempts to storm the presidential administration on December 1, 2013 and the parliament of Ukraine in January and on February 18, 2014.
The Right Sector, Svoboda and smaller organizations had a crucial role in the violent overthrow of the Viktor Yanukovych government, in particular, the Maidan massacre of the protesters and the police on February 20, 2014.

The study also demonstrates that the Right Sector, the Social-National Assembly/Patriot of Ukraine, and groups of football ultras were involved in the Odesa massacre on May 2, 2014. This paper shows that the far right organizations had significant role in the civil war in Donbas.

The Right Sector, the Social-National Assembly/Patriot of Ukraine, the OUN, the White Hammer, UNA-UNSO, Bratstvo, and C-14 affiliated with Svoboda, had their own paramilitary formations or various degree of control over special police and army units organized with their involvement, such as the Azov regiment, and Dnipro, Donbas, Aidar, Sich, and St. Mary’s battalions.

The study concludes that during and since the “Euromaidan” the radical nationalist and to a much lesser extent neo-Nazi organizations, as result of their reliance on violence and alliance with oligarchic Maidan parties, have achieved unparalleled but not dominant influence in the politics of Ukraine, compared to contemporary politics of other post-communist countries and to political history of Ukraine since the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during World War II."