Rusich Unit

The Sabotage Assault Reconnaissance Group (DShRG) "Rusich" (russian: Диверсионно-штурмовая разведывательная группа «Русич», Diversionno-shturmovaya razvedyvatel'naya gruppa «Rusich») is a combat detachment of a pro-Russian Neo-Nazi right-wing group that took part in the Russo-Ukrainian War both in the War in Donbas from June 2014 to July 2015 on the side of the self-proclaimed republics, and in the Russian invasion of Ukraine as part of Russian troops.

The beginning of the history of the Rusich group was laid in 2009, when a training base for military training was founded. The founder Alexey Milchakov is a neo-Nazi from Saint Petersburg, who had the nickname "Fritz" before being sent to the Donbas (there he changed to the call sign "Serb"). He took part in the Partizan paramilitary training program at the Novorossiya Aid Coordination Center (KCPN) run by the Imperial Legion, a combat arm of the Russian Imperial Movement.

According to Milchakov, "Rusich" consists of "nationalist Rodnovers, volunteers from Russia and Europe", operates as a "closed collective" and is a unit in which Russian nationalists receive combat training. The units turned out to be staffed by members of the GROM special unit, which is part of the Federal Drug Control Service (drug control), for example, the brothers Konstantin and Boris Voevodin. Both are Russian nationalists and natives of St. Petersburg.

The following are used as symbols of the group: runes, in particular Tiwaz (ᛏ) (meaning the god of military prowess Týr), eight-rayed Kolovrat, Valknut, and code slogans. Like many nationalists in Russia, they also use the "imperial" (black-yellow-white) flag flipped upside down.

It was reported about the possible close connection of the Rusich DShRG with the Wagner group. Both the leader of the "Rusich" Alexey Milchakov, and the nominal commander of the Wagner group Dmitry Utkin served in the 76th Guards Air Assault Division of the Airborne Forces.

In 2022, the detachment and its commanders Alexey Milchakov and Yan Petrovsky were included in the US sanctions list for their "special cruelty" in the battles in the Kharkiv Oblast.

Participation in military operations

Conflict in Donbass

The group has been fighting since June 2014, conducting reconnaissance and sabotage operations behind Ukrainian lines, and also played a significant role in several key battles at the beginning of the conflict in Donbass.

2014

In the summer of 2014, "Rusich" fought alongside the Russian separatist commander Lieutenant Colonel Alexander "Batman" Bednov and participated in the battles for the Luhansk Airport, near Novosvitlivka: the Armed Forces of Ukraine cut the highway there, and Luhansk was under blockade. They also took part in the battles near the city of Shchastia, Stanytsia Luhanska, in the assault on the village of Khryashchuvate, in the occupation of the villages of Heorhiivka, Velyka Verhunka, Lutuhyne.

At least one of the members of the Polish neo-Nazi group "Zadruga" fought as part of this unit.

One of the most well known operations of "Rusich" was the destruction of the column of the Ukrainian Aidar Battalion near the villages of Metalist and Tsvitni Pisky in the Luhansk Oblast on 5 September 2014, after a truce was suppose to go into effect. Andriy Khvedchak, coordinator of the Volyn Maidan Self-Defense, said that on 5 September 2014, a part of the company of the Aidar battalion was ambushed in the same place where Nadiya Savchenko was taken prisoner. Detachments of "Rusich" and RRT "Batman" set up an ambush on the highway and attacked the retreating "Aidar". Part of the second company of "Aydar" (Volyn) was ambushed by Russian special forces. According to him, those fighters who were in an ambush died. On 6 September, Semen Semenchenko reported that 11 soldiers were killed in an ambush "arranged by Russian special forces". On the same day, information appeared that from 20 to 29 fighters of the battalion were killed in an ambush.

In the fall of 2014, Rusich took part in the battles at the Donetsk International Airport along with the Sparta and Somali battalions.

2015

The most famous losses are the death of Alexander Bednov's personal guards in an ambush on January 1, 2015. And a lesser-known story about this DShRG getting into the counter-base, during which the former Kyiv anti-fascist "Whiskas" died. In January 2015, Milchakov announced that his unit was no longer subordinate to the leadership of the Luhansk People's Republic. Thus, Milchakov reacted to the information about the destruction of the former commander of the Batman group, Alexander Bednov. The commander called the Head of the Luhansk People's Republic Igor Plotnitsky and the government of the LPR “whore children” and said that his unit would fight “against them and against the Ukrainians”.

In 2015, together with the commanders of other groups, Milchakov and Petrovsky received a certificate of membership of the Union of Donbass Volunteers. Upon returning to Ukraine, the group was transferred to the Prizrak Brigade of Aleksey Mozgovoy. 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. In mid-2015, the group was completely withdrawn from the Donbass.

Period from mid 2015 to early 2022

Upon his return from the Donbass, Milchakov engaged in combat training of teenagers in special camps in Russia. This was done in conjunction with right-wing radicals from the E.N.O.T ''(racoon)'' Corp. private military company. The online edition "Belarusian Partizan" calls the "raccoons" a group of Russian militants who took part in the war in Donbass from its very beginning, and that they are close friends with Milchakov. As the publication notes, since 2015, raccoon began its legalization in Russia. They received the status of a public organization and the full support of the state, regularly holding military-patriotic games-gatherings. The chief instructor of the organization, Roman Telenkevich, simultaneously headed the Union of Donbass Volunteers.

In 2017, Rusich militants showed up in Syria guarding the strategically important oil and gas infrastructure owned by Russian companies. On their (now inaccessible) Instagram account, the militants posted photos from Palmyra in central Syria, where one of them poses in front of ancient ruins, raising his hand in a Nazi salute.

At the end of 2020, Alexey Milchakov said in an interview that the number of Rusich DShRG at that time was several dozen people, but “a lot of people come and they have to be weeded out”.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

Some investigative journalists assumed at the end of October 2021 that the group would return to Ukraine, which indeed happened in the beginning of April 2022. Rusich's fighters were transferred to the Kharkiv Oblast of Ukraine, where they were photographed near the village of Pletenevka.

Opinions

February 16, 2015 Alexey Milchakov was included in the EU sanctions list.

In 2016, Milchakov, as a member of the "Union of Volunteers of Donbass", may have been presented with an award by the head of the Republic of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov in the presence of the then assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Vladislav Surkov. Milchakov himself, however, was not shy in terms, criticizing the leadership of the LPR for this ostentatious “anti-fascism” on his VK page.

Milchakov's deputy, Jan Petrovsky, is a former citizen of Norway, where he lived and worked with a Norwegian associated with the far-right group Soldiers of Odin. The peculiar glory of the Russian in the conflict in Donbass, apparently, was the last straw for the Norwegian authorities, and he was finally recognized as a threat to national security. In October 2016, Norwegian police arrested Petrovsky and deported him to Russia.

The group was one of the most mentioned in the negative connotation among the Ukrainian media and bloggers because of the photos of the killed soldiers of Ukraine and the stories that the group does not take prisoners. In 2017, the military prosecutor's office of Ukraine accused Milchakov of involvement in the murder of 40 Ukrainian soldiers.

Milchakov became an influential figure among the neo-fascist youth in Russia. He is also one of the few who were not affected by arrests upon his return to Russia. According to Milchakov himself, his group does not even try to get into politics, no matter how insulting it is for decisions from above.

See also

* Azov Regiment
* Wagner Group

References

External link

{{Commonscatinline

War in Donbas
Russian nationalist organizations
Neo-Nazism in Russia