Right Sector

Right Sector (Ukrainian: Пра́вий се́ктор, Pravyi sektor) is a loosely defined coalition of right-wing to far-right Ukrainian nationalist organizations. It originated in November 2013 as a right-wing, paramilitary confederation of several ultranationalist organizations at the Euromaidan revolt in Kyiv, where its street fighters participated in clashes with riot police. The coalition became a political party on 22 March 2014, at which time it claimed to have roughly 10,000 members. Founding groups included the Trident (Tryzub), led by Dmytro Yarosh and Andriy Tarasenko, and the Ukrainian National Assembly–Ukrainian National Self-Defense (UNA–UNSO), a political and paramilitary organization. Other founding groups included the Social-National Assembly, and its Patriot of Ukraine paramilitary wing, White Hammer, and the Sich Battalion. White Hammer was expelled in March 2014, and Patriot of Ukraine left the organization, along with many UNA–UNSO members, in the following months.

Right Sector has been described as a right-wing or far right nationalist political party and movement. Right Sector was the second-most mentioned political group in Russian media during the first half of 2014, and Russian state TV depicted it as neo-Nazi. In March 2014, Associated Press declared that it has found no evidence that the group had committed hate crimes.

In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Yarosh won a parliament seat as a Right Sector candidate by winning a single-member district with 29.8% of the votes. Right Sector spokesperson Boryslav Bereza also won a seat as an independent candidate and district with 29.4% of the votes. In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Right Sector took part on a united radical right nationwide-party list with the Governmental Initiative of Yarosh, National Corps, and Svoboda, winning no seats.

The Right Sector fought in the Donbas war with its own paramilitary wing, the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps. In April 2015, Yarosh was appointed an advisor to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In November, Yarosh formally stepped down as the group's leader. In December, he announced that he and his team would be withdrawing from the group entirely, declaring that Right Sector had fulfilled its purpose "as a revolutionary structure" and was no longer needed. He stated that he and his faction were against pseudo-revolutionary activity that threatens the state, fringe radicalism, and were against violent revolts against the government. In a statement issued in response to Yarosh's departure, Right Sector said the schism was due to its continuing a "revolutionary path". The departure of Yarosh resulted in at least 20% of Right Sector members leaving with him. In February 2016, Yarosh started a new organisation called the Governmental Initiative of Yarosh. Since 19 March 2016, Tarasenko has been the new chairman of Right Sector.

In November 2022, the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps was reformed as the 67th Separate Mechanized Brigade and became part of the Ukrainian Ground Forces.