uk, Легіон «Свобода Росії» , image = Patch of the Ukrainian Free Russian Legion.svg , image_size = , alt = , caption = Patch, consisting of a white clenched fist and the text "Freedom of Russia" in Russian , start_date = , disbanded = , country = , allegiance = , branch = Territorial Defence Forces,

Armed Forces of Ukraine , imports = , exports = , history = , ranks = Military ranks of Ukraine , country=Ukraine The Armed Forces of Ukraine ( uk, Збро́йні си́ли Украї́ни), most commonly known ...

, role = , type = Foreign volunteer legion , command_structure = International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine , size = Two battalions (as claimed by the Legion) , garrison = , garrison_label = , nickname = , patron = , motto = For Russia! For freedom! (russian: За Россию! За свободу!) , colors = White,

azure Azure may refer to: Colour * Azure (color), a hue of blue ** Azure (heraldry) ** Shades of azure, shades and variations Arts and media * ''Azure'' (Art Farmer and Fritz Pauer album), 1987 * Azure (Gary Peacock and Marilyn Crispell album), 2013 ...

, colors_label = , march = "

Patrioticheskaya Pesnya "The Patriotic Song" ( rus, Патриотическая песня, r=Patrioticheskaya Pesnya, p=pətrʲɪɐˈtʲitɕɪskəjə ˈpʲesʲnʲə) was the national anthem of Russia from 1991 to 2000. It was previously the regional anthem of the Russ ...

" , mascot = , anniversaries = , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = *

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

** Eastern Ukraine offensive *** Battle of Bakhmut *** Battle of Soledar , battles_label = , decorations = , battle_honours = , battle_honours_label = , flying_hours = , website = https://legionliberty.army/ , current_commander = , commander1 = , commander1_label = , commander2 = , commander2_label = , commander3 = , commander3_label = , commander4 = , commander4_label = , commander5 = , commander5_label = , commander6 = , commander6_label = , commander7 = , commander7_label = , commander8 = , commander8_label = , commander9 = , commander9_label = , notable_commanders = , identification_symbol = Flag of the Freedom of Russia Legion

, identification_symbol_label = Flag , identification_symbol_2 = , identification_symbol_2_label = , identification_symbol_3 = , identification_symbol_3_label = , identification_symbol_4 = , identification_symbol_4_label = , identification_symbol_5 = , identification_symbol_5_label = , identification_symbol_6 = , identification_symbol_6_label = , aircraft_attack = , aircraft_bomber = , aircraft_electronic = , aircraft_fighter = , aircraft_helicopter = , aircraft_helicopter_attack = , aircraft_helicopter_cargo = , aircraft_helicopter_multirole = , aircraft_helicopter_observation = , aircraft_helicopter_trainer = , aircraft_helicopter_utility = , aircraft_interceptor = , aircraft_patrol = , aircraft_recon = , aircraft_trainer = , aircraft_transport = , aircraft_tanker = , aircraft_general = The Freedom of Russia Legion (; ), also translated as the Freedom for Russia Legion, or the Liberty of Russia Legion is a legion of the

, formed in March 2022 to protect Ukraine against the

during the Russo-Ukrainian war. It consists of

defectors In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...

of the

Russian Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (, ), commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military forces of Russia. In terms of active-duty personnel, they are the world's fifth-largest military force, with at least two m ...

, as well as other Russian and Belarusian volunteers who have not previously been members of military formations. According to the Legion, the unit consists of two battalions. Oleksiy Arestovych said that "dozens participate in conflicts, hundreds at training and up to 4000 candidates", and that 250 new members joined the Legion in June 2022.

History

According to UNIAN, the "Freedom of Russia" Legion was formed from a company of the Russian army (over 100 people), who voluntarily defected to the Ukrainian side. According to the company commander, on 27 February 2022, with the help of the Security Service of Ukraine, they joined the Ukrainian side to "protect Ukrainians from real fascists". He also called on his compatriots, soldiers of the Russian army, to join the "Freedom of Russia" Legion, in order to save their own people and the country "from humiliation and destruction". The first volunteers of the "Freedom of Russia" Legion began individual preliminary training in late March 2022. In particular, the personnel of the legion under the guidance of instructors from the Ukrainian Armed Forces studied the peculiarities of the Swedish-British portable anti-tank guided short-range missile NLAW. The commanders of "Freedom of Russia" units got acquainted with the operational situation on the frontlines. The Legion's stated goals are to repel the Russian invasion of Ukraine and ultimately depose the regime of Vladimir Putin. The official Telegram channel was created on March 10th of 2022, and the first post, in which the author calls to join the armed struggle against the "war criminal Putin". On 5th of April, a conference was held in the office of

Interfax-Ukraine The Interfax-Ukraine ( uk, Інтерфакс-Україна) is a Kyiv-based Ukraine, Ukrainian independent news agency founded in 1992. The company does not belong to the Russian news corporation Interfax Information Services. The company pub ...

, during which the masked men in uniforms who introduced themselves as members of the legion and said that they got into the legion after being in Ukrainian captivity. They refused to call their names ("for security"), to answer whether or not the legion reports to the Ukrainian General Staff, and to give any explanations about the interaction with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and they didn't specify information about the Russian units in which they served. They also said that they had already completed tasks of detaining sabotage groups of the Russian army, although later the Telegram channel stated that the Legion advanced to the war zone only on April 29. The Freedom of Russia Legion has reportedly fought alongside

in the

Donbas The Donbas or Donbass (, ; uk, Донба́с ; russian: Донба́сс ) is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine. Parts of the Donbas are controlled by Russian separatist groups as a result of the Russo-Ukrai ...

during the Eastern Ukraine offensive. The unit allegedly also organizes arson and sabotage acts inside Russia. On 11 June 2022, it became known that Igor Volobuyev, Ukrainian-born ex-vice-chairman of Gazprombank, who left Russia during the outbreak of the invasion, had joined the Freedom of Russia Legion. On 1 June 2022, the Legion's official Telegram (and YouTube) channel posted a video of a Russian tank ostensibly being captured by the Legion. On 29 June, they wrote that they have captured a Russian POW in the Lysychansk area. Around early July, the Legion allegedly made a statement that it has withdrawn from active fighting, stating on 13 July that they had withdrawn from fighting in order to "restore combat capability". Since then, the official "Freedom of Russia" Legion's YouTube channel has made multiple videos of the legion's soldiers exercising. On 31 August, the "Freedom of Russia" Legion, alongside the National Republican Army and the Russian Volunteer Corps signed a declaration of cooperation in Irpin called the "Irpin Declaration". The organizations also agreed to create a political center, the purpose of which is to represent their interests before the state authorities of different countries and organize a joint information policy.

Ilya Ponomarev Ilya Vladimirovich Ponomarev (russian: Илья́ Влади́мирович Пономарёв; born 6 August 1975) is a Russian politician who was a member of the State Duma from 2007 to 2016. He was the only member of the State Duma not to ...

will lead the political center. In late December a spokesman, alias Caesar, gave an interview. Putting the numbers of the legion at “several hundred”. He said that: "I am not fighting my motherland. I am fighting against Putin's regime, against evil…I'm not a traitor. I'm a true Russian patriot who thinks about the future of my country." He outlined the unit’s selection of members includes “several rounds of interviews, psychological tests and even a polygraph” to ensure the loyalty of the recruits. They then went through two months of training before being sent to the Donbas. Operating under Ukrainian command they primarily are involved in artillery and propaganda. ‘Caesar’ joined as he married a Ukrainian woman. Some are fighting in

Bakhmut Bakhmut ( uk, Ба́хмут, ) is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is located on the Bakhmutka River, about 89 km north of Donetsk city, the administrative center of the o ...

and are viewed as part of the wider international volunteers in the Ukrainian forces.

Symbols and ideology

The Legion uses the

white-blue-white flag The white-blue-white flag () is a symbol of opposition to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine that has been used by Russian anti-war protesters. It has also been used as a symbol of opposition to the current government of Vladimir Putin, b ...

which is being used by the Russian opposition on the sleeve insignia instead of the official white-blue-red flag of Russia. According to the manifesto of the Legion, published in their Telegram channel in April, they "carry the values of the Free Man of New Russia – freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom to choose your future", and their main goals are the overthrowing of Putin's regime and "struggle for the New Russia". The letter ''L'', the first letter of the words ''Legion'' and ''Liberty'', is also used by the Legion as one of its symbols. On the right sleeve, the Legion wears the flag of Ukraine (like other Ukrainian foreign legions). On July 20th, the official Telegram channel posted two messages, in which the authors quoted the Tsarist official

Pyotr Stolypin Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin ( rus, Пётр Арка́дьевич Столы́пин, p=pʲɵtr ɐrˈkadʲjɪvʲɪtɕ stɐˈlɨpʲɪn; – ) was a Russian politician and statesman. He served as the third prime minister and the interior minist ...

and wrote that the Legion sees "the preservation of a united and indivisible Russia within the borders of 1991" as one of its goals and opposes separatism, and that "the most humiliated and disenfranchised among all the peoples of the Russian Federation is the Russian people".

Reactions

The Russian government has probably noticed the news about the Legion. On 22 June, Nikolay Okhlopkov, a local anti-war activist from Yakutsk, was arrested: the authorities alleged him of 'wanting to join the Legion'. The Legion denies its connection with Okhlopkov. On 14 July, Putin enacted a new law (along with 99 more), under which Russian citizens can be imprisoned for up to 20 years if they "defect to the side of the enemy during an armed conflict or hostilities." Russian state media rarely mentions "Freedom of Russia". For example, RT has only one video which mentions the Legion. Several claims have been made that the "Freedom of Russia" Legion is not an actually existing formation, but a Ukrainian PR project (this version is also being spread by state-controlled Russian media and pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, which call the Legion a fake or alleging it was created by Ukrainian intelligence), mostly because of the lack of information.

Illia Ponomarenko Illia Ponomarenko (; born 25 February 1992) is a Ukrainian journalist, war reporter and defense analyst writing for '' The Kyiv Independent''. In January 2023, given his prominent role in reporting from the conflict, he was described by ''Der Spi ...

, defense and security reporter at '' The Kyiv Independent'', commented to '' The Moscow Times'': "There might be some ussianfighters, but whether it is organized in the way it is presented remains an open question... It's clearer with the International Legion — there is a large number f foreign soldiersand they did take part in combat, for example, in Irpin, Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. But little is known about the reedom of Russialegion." ''The Moscow Times'' also cited the report in ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

'' which "described how Ukraine did not have the capacity to process and deploy foreign fighters who flocked to the country in the weeks after the invasion, and suggested foreign units were more PR than reality." According to Kholod, an independent Russian media, founded by journalists of ''

Meduza ''Meduza'' ( rus, Медуза, t=jellyfish) is a Russian- and English-language independent news website, headquartered in Riga. It was founded in 2014 by a group of former employees of the then-independent ''Lenta.ru'' news website. Free mob ...

'', supporters of this claim use the following arguments: * Lack of information about the participation of legionnaires in real hostilities and statements by Ukrainian officials; * Difficulty to verify photos and videos, the "small-scaleness" of video materials is criticized – the fighters of the legion practically do not interact with other units of the Ukrainian army (there are exceptions: for example, the most popular post on the channel of the legion of all time is a photo that depicts a legionnaire from Freedom of Russia, Ukrainian soldier and member of a volunteer unit from Belarus); * "Linguistic features", according to which, as some of the internet users think, Russian is not the native language for the authors of texts on video messages; * Individual inconsistencies in the actions of the Ukrainian leadership: for example, five days before the first announcement of the creation of the Legion, the portal of the President of Ukraine announced the launch of a website with detailed instructions for foreigners who want to defend Ukraine. At the bottom of the site there are cells with the names of countries, by clicking on which you can get useful information for communication. However, when choosing Russia, instead of contact details, there is still an inscription: " Russian warship, go fuck yourself".

Civilian Movement of the Freedom of Russia Legion

The Civilian Movement of the Freedom of Russia Legion is a

Partisan Partisan may refer to: Military * Partisan (weapon), a pole weapon * Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line Films * ''Partisan'' (film), a 2015 Australian film * ''Hell River'', a 1974 Yugoslavian film also know ...

organization against the

Russian Government The Government of Russia exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister, the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers. It has its legal basis in the Constitution of the Russia ...

consisting of supporters of the Freedom of Russia Legion inside of Russia. ) , module = , module2 = , module3 = , module4 = , module5 = , module6 =

References

External links