NEWSWATCH: “The Far Right in Ukraine During the ‘Euromaidan’ and the War in Donbas September 2016” – Ivan Katchanovski

Abstract

This paper analyzes the role of far right in the Ukrainian politics during the ‘Euromaidan’ and the war in Donbas. The issue of the involvement of Ukrainian far right organizations in the “Euromaidan” and the war in Donbas have been politicized and polarized. Russian and separatist politicians and the media often presented the “Euromaidan” as a “fascist coup” and the Maidan government as a “fascist junta.” … governments and the mainstream media in Western countries tended to present the role of the far right in the ‘Euromaidan’ and in post-Maidan Ukraine, specifically in the conflict in Donbas, as marginal. Previous academic studies generally reached similar conclusions. … However, the number of academic studies of the contemporary far right in Ukraine is generally limited.

The research question is as follows: What is the role of the far right in … Ukrainian politics during and after the ‘Euromaidan’? This study analyzes the involvement of specific Ukrainian radical nationalist and neo-Nazi organizations in the ‘Euromaidan,’ the Odesa massacre, and the war in Donbas, their performance in the presidential and parliamentary elections … and … local elections …. analysis focuses on major Ukrainian far right organizations … and paramilitary formations or special police and National Guard units organized and controlled to various extent by them, such as the Azov regiment, Dnipro, Donbas, Aidar, Sich, and St. Mary’s battalions, and the Volunteer Ukrainian Corps. It uses various sources of data …

The study shows that the far right organizations had significant but minority representation among the Maidan leadership and protesters, the post-Maidan governments, and in the presidential, parliamentary, and local elections. However, the analysis also shows that the far right organizations and football ultras played a key role during violent attacks …. This paper also shows that the far right organizations and their volunteer battalions and paramilitary units had a significant role in the civil war in Donbas but a comparably minor role in fighting with several regular Russian military units during direct military interventions by Russia ….

Click here for Ivan Katchanovski: “The Far Right in Ukraine During the ‘Euromaidan’ and the War in Donbas September 2016”

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