[8] Arsen Pavlov's Sparta unit was initially part to the 1st Slavyansk Brigade before being separated into its own reconnaissance battalion subordinate to the 1st Army Corps.

[9] According to Ukrainian and Russian sources, the battalion was formed in August 2014 in Donetsk, based on the previously existing anti-tank/MG troop led by Pavlov which earlier reportedly participated in Battle of Ilovaisk along with Igor Strelkov's "volunteer" forces.

[21][22][23] In April 2015 Russian deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia Amnesty International, Denis Krivosheev, blamed Pavlov for killing and torturing Ukrainian POWs[24][25] captured at Donetsk airport.

[13] According to Krivosheev, Pavlov said in an interview to the Kyiv Post that he killed Ukrainian Branovitsky Igor [ru] who was prisoner of war at the time of his detention and who suffered several facial wounds and was not able to walk.

[29] In June it was reported by a Ukraine official that Interpol refused to put Pavlov on their wanted list on the grounds of the "political nature of the Motorola case".

[35] The sub-units of the battalion are approximately following: German anti-extremist news website Belltower described the militia as Russian ultranationalist and irredentist.

[38] The battalion flies the black-yellow-white flag of the Russian Empire and, according to the European Eye on Radicalization, the unit "uses a combination of symbols of the Spartan military culture, well-known drivers of the far-right, and from the Tsarist era".

[17] The Ukrainian newspaper Segodnya noted how the stylized red "M" looks identical to the logo of the Sparta Rangers, a fictional faction of elite soldiers from the Metro 2033 videogame.