It was created in 2014 as a volunteer unit (Ukrainian: Батальйон Донбас, romanized: Batalion Donbas) by Semen Semenchenko after the Russian occupation of Crimea and an anticipated invasion of continental Ukraine.

The Donbas self-defense forces asked the leadership of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and the military commissariat to create a territorial defense battalion.

Within a few days, about 600 volunteers signed up for the Donbas Battalion; by the end of April, the unit began operation in Donetsk Oblast.

Battalion members provided assistance in moving activists who were in danger and collected information about coordinators of pro-Russian rallies and checkpoints.

[22] On 21 May, battalion commander Semen Semenchenko referred to Donetsk State Automobile Inspection of Ukraine employees who defected to the DPR side as "traitors".

Semenchenko demanded that they hand over their arms and leave Donetsk Oblast by noon the following day, threatening to "eliminate" them if they continued to cooperate with the DPR.

Semenchenko reported that four members of the Donbas Battalion were killed; one died from injuries, about 20 were wounded, and an undisclosed number were captured.

[26] After the battle near Karlivka, the battalion leadership learned that Russian fighters had obtained heavy weapons in addition to small arms.

[28][29] On 1 June, battalion commander Semen Semenchenko spoke at a veche (a popular assembly) in Kyiv's Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square).

About 600 people arrived at the Novy Petrovtsy training range, a base of Ukrainian Army Unit 3027, on the first day of recruitment.

The meeting was attended by Verkhovna Rada chair Oleksandr Turchynov, Minister of Internal Affairs Arseniy Avakov, by representatives of law-enforcement agencies, and commanders of both battalions.

[36] Battalion fighters in Artemivsk took an active role in liberating the city from DPR forces, responding to night-time attacks, building checkpoints, and conducting operations to clear the region.

According to the Verkhovna Rada Temporary Investigative Commission interim report, At 5 am on 17 August, General Yarovyi arrived at the assembly point as well as the Donbas battalion, which immediately began to fulfill the task.

[44] On 29 August, leaving Ilovaysk via the Green Corridor, a Ukrainian military group was ambushed and shelled by the Russian rmy.

[47] A large number of volunteers joined the battalion in September, which then deployed to the training camp of the 93rd Separate Mechanized brigade in Cherkaske (which had about 300 recruits).

[48] At the end of October, battalion personnel (including the new recruits) were relocated to Kyiv Oblast for a combat coordination exercise.

The battalion cleared sabotage reconnaissance groups of Russian mercenaries, and supported the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade on the Bakhmut route.

From 15 to 25 December 2014, the battalion organized a blockade of Akhmetov humanitarian convoys going to Lugansk People's Republic-occupied territories to push for the exchange of its members held prisoner by Russian troops.

[51] The battalion marched to Kyiv on 11 January 2015, demanding to be sent into combat, and a column surrounded to the Ministry of Internal Affairs building.

Semenchenko said, "We ask Arsen Avakov, Minister of Internal Affairs, to support the Donbas Battalion fighters and send them to the ATO zone, where we can effectively fight sabotage and reconnaissance groups".

[63] During the 15–16 February battle of Shyrokyne, over 100 separatist troops were killed and 10 armoured vehicles were destroyed by Donbas, Azov and AFU units.

[64] In the late evening of 16 February, the Ukrainian military drove armed men who were not identified as AFU soldiers out of one of two heights near Shyrokyne.

[67] A separatist barracks was destroyed in Shyrokyne on 9 April by the Azov Regiment and the Donbas Battalion during their response to a Russian mercenary attack.

[78] When most of the battalion, Semenchenko and second commander Anatoliy Vinogrodskiy were demobilized into the reserve in 2016, it became a non-governmental organization to protect Ukrainian citizens and fight corruption.

[79] The battalion began to combat illegal construction and the unauthorized development of green space in Kyiv and its suburbs,[80][81] expose criminal activity by the police,[82] and provide legal and media support to political prisoners in July 2016.

It blocked rail freight traffic to occupied territories during the Blockade of Trade with Occupants and protected a protest camp on Hrushevskyi Street during the Rally for Political Reform.

[84] The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that in August and September 2014, eight or ten members of the Donbas and Azov Battalions sexually assaulted a man with a mental disability.

[87][88] A UN monitoring mission in Ukraine reported that during the 2014 Battle of Ilovaisk in 2014, the battalion participated in the mistreatment and torture of 13 male residents who were locked in school No.

After the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the city, three bodies of local civilians were exhumed from a grave behind the school where the battalion had been stationed.

[89][90] According to the OHCHR, five battalion soldiers were accused of banditry, abduction, armed robbery, extortion, hooliganism and illegal possession of weapons against civilians in 2016 and released.