https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusich_Group
The Rusich Group (officially the Sabotage Assault Reconnaissance Group “Rusich”/Диверсионно-штурмовая разведывательная группа «Русич») is a (Pro-Russia) Volunteer Battallion co-founded by Alexey Milchakov and Jan Petrovsky, it was formed with the aid of the Russian Imperial Legion:
According to Milchakov’s own account, he first formed Rusich with Yan Peterovsky in St. Petersburg by volunteering with the Aid Coordination Center of Novorossiya (KTsPN), an Imperial Legion offshoot in June 2014.
(Source:) Alexey Milchakov, “DShRG Rusich - The Beginning,” Dvizhenie Novorossiya Igora Strelkova, (Igor Strelkov’s New Russia Movement) undated blogpost, source ; for more about YanPetrovsky’s career with Rusich see: Nadarajah Sethurupan, “Russian Detained in Norway,” October 20, 2016. source
On the territory of Ukraine, as German intelligence found out, dozens of representatives of Russian neo-Nazi groups are fighting. We are talking about the division of the “Russian Imperial Movement” - “Russian Imperial Legion” and the group “Rusich”. According to a February 24 report, Legion head Denis Gariev wrote on his social media that the organization “certainly advocates the elimination of the separatist entity called Ukraine.”
Reportedly the group was originally aligned with the Luhansk People’s Militia, but later joined the Donetsk People’s Militia instead due to internal disputes:
At the end of March 2015, after being redeployed to the Donetsk People’s Republic due to persecution by the Ministry of State Security of the LPR, the group became part of the Viking battalion, where it took part in the battles in the Volnovakha direction, near the villages of Belokamenki and Novolaspa.
Rusich had ties with another paramilitary unit known as the E.N.O.T. Corp through its leader Alexei Milchakov:
Alexei Milchakov, who had been convicted in his native St Petersburg over the sadistic killing of puppies and calls on fellow neo-Nazis to kill down-and-outs, also went to Donbas on what was called a ‘humanitarian work trip’. He has admitted in a skype interview that he received money for his mercenary services, and also posted photos of himself over the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers he had killed. It looks as though his killing ‘services’ were deemed grounds enough for waiving the criminal charges against him back in his native Russia.
Milchakov and fellow neo-Nazi militant Jan Petrovsky (Veliki Slavian), although themselves not E.N.O.T. Corps members, were valued ‘instructors’ at the 2015 training camp, which took place under the patronage of Alexander Borodai, one of the Russian founders of the so-called ‘Donetsk people’s republic. The training course involved seminars and practice in sniper fire; using a pistol or machine gun; martial arts; field medicine, etc. Kids who looked 13 or 14 at most were taught to shoot, move and take aim without being observed, to move injured comrades, etc. They were also subjected to ‘patriotic’ education of a far-right, imperialist bent.
Rusich is also known to have ties to the PMC Wagner Group, and publicly supported the failed June 2023 mutiny of Wagner forces against the Russian military on social media1.
Interesting Links:
VK - https://vk.com/dshrg_rusich, https://vk.com/dshrg2 Meduza Article - https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/07/15/dying-to-kill Telegram - https://t.me/s/dshrg2
Rusich claims to be one of 6 Right Wing detatchments guarding the “Russian Spring” (a Pro-Russian term for the seperatist groups) alongside the Varyag Battalion, Russian Imperial Legion, Russian National Unity, “Russian All-Military Union” and “Legion of St Stephen” https://m.vk.com/wall-217053505_505?lang=en
The last 2 of these aren’t well sourced enough to warrant pages on this repo:
- The All-Military Union is a group that first emerged on the side of the White Russians during the Russian Civil War, after the Whites lost to the Reds (Communists) they existed in exile, they later returned to Russia after the fall of the USSR, then allegedly then went to fight in the Donbas war, but claims of this are not well sourced, usually referring to the group’s own LiveJournal posts (http://pereklichka.livejournal.com/322035.html), which don’t contain images or videos of their activity
- The St Stephen Legion is allegedly a group of Hungarian far-right nationalists from the Ukrainian region of Transcarpathia, demanding seperation from Ukraine or autonomy and fighting on the seperatist side, however evidence of their existience as combatants is scarce and some have accused the group of being fake (https://pulemjotov.livejournal.com/319486.html), possibly as propaganda to encourage rumours of Ukrainian minorities other than Russians wanting to split from the country, to delegitimise Ukrainian nationhood, the group’s VK page (https://vk.com/szentistvanlegion) includes Pro-Russian propaganda, glorifying of Hungary’s WW2 soldiers, videos from Hungarian politics, and lectures from its apparent spokesperson, but no footage of the group fighting on the ground
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