Combatants of the war in Donbas
[8] In Horlivka, police who defected were commanded by a retired Lieutenant Colonel of the Russian Army,[9] later identified as Igor Bezler.
[14] The Army of the South-East (Russian: Армия Юго-Востока, Armiya Yugo-Vostoka) was a pro-Russian militant group that occupied various buildings in Luhansk Oblast.
[19] Members swore allegiance to Igor Girkin ("Strelkov"), insurgent and Minister of Defence of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic.
[25] A BBC News report said that the battalion was composed largely of untrained locals from eastern Ukraine, with a smattering of Russian volunteers.
[32] In October 2014, Internal Affairs minister Arsen Avakov told journalists that about 15,000 Ukrainian policemen in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts had defected to the separatists.
[39][40] Prominent fighters include Alexander "Boogeyman" Mozhaev (a Russian military veteran from Belorechensk) and the unit's commander, Evgeny Ponomarev.
"[40] Mozhaev also stated that some of the more extreme views of the Cossacks include destroying "the Jew-Masons," who they claim have been "fomenting disorder all over the world" and "causing us, the common Orthodox Christian folk, to suffer.
[45] To date, reports and interviews have shown the presence of Chechen, Ossetian, Tajik, Afghan, Armenian, and various Russian paramilitary forces operating in Ukraine.
[61] As of May 2015, majority of previously pro-Russian Chechen paramilitaries exited the conflict, because of the two known incidents with Zakharchenko and his people, according to Akhmed Zakayev.
[45] Head of the State Border Guard of Ukraine Mykola Lytvyn said that officials reports indicated the presence of Abkhaz militants as well.
At that time, they had their own combat unit, named after Jovan Šević, including 45 members of the Chetnik movement,[66] led by Bratislav Živković.
In May 2020 his appeal against extradition was denied by a court in Rostov-on-Don based on the fact that Chirich does not have Russian citizenship and so called "DPR passports" are not recognised even in Russia.
[70] There are reports that volunteers from other countries, including France, Germany, the United States, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, and Turkey have fought on the insurgent side.
[74][75][76] Commenting on other foreign fighters, the suspects said that "They were paid neither travel expenses nor a salary, but they were received with open arms [...] We all want the same: social justice and the liberation of Russia from the Ukrainian invasion.
[79] In February 2016, Moldova stated that pro-Russian forces in Ukraine had recruited dozens of its citizens with the offer of money, with one individual saying he had been promised $3,000 a month.
Russian forces still occupy most command positions as well as operate advanced weapons, such as electronic warfare units.
[citation needed] OSCE monitors periodically record convoys of military trucks crossing through unmarked locations along the Russian-controlled border, usually overnight.
[89] OSCE has on numerous occasions reported presence of Russian electronic warfare equipment in the separatist-controlled areas[90][91][92] including specifically anti-UAV Repellent-1 systems.
[93] After the full-scale invasion on Ukraine in 2022 a number of prominent LDPR activists started openly talking about involvement of Russian regular armed forces and GRU units described as "private military companies" since 2014.
[94] In 2023 interview Aleksander Khodakovsky described how in 2014 the Russian forces saved the separatist units from losing to Ukrainian army, noting that "it was not politically correct to discuss that involvement at that time" and helped expand their zone of control to Novoazovsk, Starobilsk, Telmanove and other regions.
Over the years preceding the start of hostilities in Donbas, the Armed Forces were systematically downsized, and became largely dilapidated.
[100] Soviet weaponry was not replaced or upgraded, leaving the Armed Forces with outdated and poorly maintained equipment.
[100] As an example, the Soviet military units never utilised ballistic vests, and hence, when the war in Donbas started, the Armed Forces of Ukraine had none.
[100] Amidst the annexation of Crimea by Russia on 11 March 2014, then Defence Minister Ihor Tenyukh said that "de facto only 6,000 [soldiers] are in combat readiness".
Teams of volunteers established crowdfunding centres that provide the soldiers with diverse support: from food and medicines to equipment like bulletproof vests, spaced armour, thermographic cameras and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Such volunteer centres work in all large cities and many small settlements of Ukraine, except those which aren't controlled by government.
It is led by the Internal Affairs Minister, Arsen Avakov, a key figure in leading the counter-insurgency operations in the Donbas.
[116] Foreign fighters mainly from Belarus, Georgia and Russia (about 100 men from each country) have joined the volunteer battalions,[117][118][119][120] as well as volunteers from the United States, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Georgia, Poland, Spain, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Croatia, Italy and Canada.
[117] The Foreign Ministry of Russia asked the governments of Sweden, Finland, the Baltic states, and France to conduct a thorough investigation into reports of mercenaries from their countries serving Ukrainian forces, following a story in the Italian newspaper Il Giornale.
It lists the names of Mykhailo Zhyznevsky, who died during the Euromaidan events, as well as Ales Cherkashin and Vitaly Tilizhenko, the dead volunteers of the Tactical group "Belarus".
