Most so-called White émigrés initially fled from Southern Russia and Ukraine to Turkey and then moved to other Slavic countries in Europe (the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland).

[2][6] In April 1942, Semenov was tasked by the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) to form a battalion, based on the Russian White émigrés, living in Yugoslavia and neighboring countries, with added contingent of local Serbian volunteers.

In summer 1943, he and selected group of Russian White émigrés were assigned to the Operation Zeppelin for conducting sabotage and long-range reconnaissance missions behind the frontlines, inside the Soviet Union.

During this time, the regiment was formally transferred fully under the Russian Liberation Army's group under Anton Vasilyevich Turkul [ru], but was in reality still under full German control.

Some of the British-captured regimental men were then transferred to the Red Army (Operation Keelhaul), while others (non-Soviet citizens) were allowed to remain in Europe or emigrate to South America.