Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian People's Self-Defence

The Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian People's Self-Defence ( uk, Українська Національна Асамблея-Українська Народна Самооборона , УНА-УНСО, UNA-UNSO) is a Ukrainian nationalist organisation. It was composed by a political wing (the Ukrainian National Assembly - UNA) and a paramilitary wing (Ukrainian People's Self-Defence - UNSO).

According to Andreas Umland and Anton Shekhovtsov, the UNA-UNSO was created in 1991 as a "formation manned by UNA members who had served in the Soviet armed forces ... to confront the State Committee on the State of Emergency". The UNA-UNSO has been described by International-security expert Andrew McGregor as a "influential but fringe movement", which deeply influenced far-right politics in Ukraine due its visibility and militancy, although it still had small numbers. Although the Ukrainian National Assembly ( uk, УНА, UNA) was the organisation's political wing, on 22 May 2014 it merged with Right Sector;Right Sector registered as official party
Interfax-Ukraine (22 May 2014) the UNA-UNSO continues to operate independently.

The UNSO has participated in multiple international conflicts by sending volunteers to support various belligerents. Including the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, Transnistria War, the War in Abkhazia, First Chechen War, the Yugoslav Wars and the Russo-Ukrainian War.

History

Early years

The UNA was created on 30 June 1990 in Lviv as the Ukrainian Interparty Assembly (UMA), led by maverick politician and nationalist writer Dmytro Korchynsky. On 3–4 November 1990, a congress of the Ukrainian National Association (UNS) was held in Kyiv. On 11 January 1991, UNS squads headed by Yuriy Tyma guarded the Seimas Palace during the January Events in Lithuania. On 30 June 1991, about 200 UNS members held a torchlight parade in Lviv commemorating the 1941 declaration of Ukrainian independence.

During the first days of the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, a UNS squad led by Vietnam War veteran Valeriy Bobrovych left for Moscow; the squad later laid the foundations for the Argo battalion. On 19 August 1991, during the struggle against the State Committee on the State of Emergency, the UNS created squads of the Ukrainian People's Self-Defense (UNSO) in Kyiv. The squads were formed around a small group of ethnic-Ukrainian Soviet army veterans of the war in Afghanistan. In December 1990 Yuriy Shukhevych, the son of Roman Shukhevych, was elected as the first leader of the UNS. Because of the 8 September 1991 Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, the sixth session of the UMA was renamed the Ukrainian National Assembly; it became known as the UNA-UNSO, due to the UNSO's close association with the UNA.

Since its 1991 independence, Ukraine has had separatist movements aiming to reunite portions of Ukraine with Russia and other neighbouring countries. UNA-UNSO stopped People's Deputy Goncharov of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union from reestablishing the Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic and the Donetsk National Guard in the Donbass. In Kyiv, the Patriotic Forum (''Otyechestvyennyi forum'') was abolished. In November 1991 the UNSO held a rally, and due to a brawl involving UNSO fighters the government made the first mass arrests of UNSO activists. In Odessa UNSO halted an initiative to create a Novorossiysk Republic, influencing separatist movements in Bukovina and Zakarpattia. On 7 June 1992, an UNSO group from Lviv broke up a Romanian congress in Chernivtsi which advocated the unification of northern Bukovina and Romania. In early 1993, the UNSO had a reported 4,000 members.

Since 1994

The UNA was registered as a political party in December 1994, and in the 1994 Ukrainian parliamentary election three UNA-UNSO members were elected as deputies to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament). In September 1995, its registration was suspended until 1997.

UNSO was registered as a public organization in Lviv, Ternopil, Rivne and Poltava Oblasts only. In practise, however, there was no distinction between the membership of both organizations.

From 1994 to 1997, UNA-UNSO members became prominent in Ukraine through a number of anti-Russian activities. UNA-UNSO deputies destroyed a Russian flag in the Verkhovna Rada, UNA-UNSO fighters joined Chechen rebels in the First Chechen War and activists organised demonstrations against Russian pop singers visiting Ukraine. UNA-UNSO took sides in Ukrainian church affairs and clashed with police during the July 1995 funeral of Patriarch Volodomyr, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate. The organisations supported Patriarch Filaret Denysenko, who was excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church, and participated in violent attempts to seize property for the new church (particularly in Rivne and Volyn Oblasts). Membership peaked at around 10,000 members, about 90 percent of whom were between 18 and 35 years old. The organisation was depicted in Georgiy Gongadze's 1994 documentary film, ''Shadows of War''.

In 1997, the government of Leonid Kuchma banned the Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian National Self Defence. UNA-UNSO members responded with violent street protests, resulting in over 250 arrests. Dmytro Korchynsky, one of those arrested, soon left the organisation.

In 1998, UNA-UNSO's new leaders were Andriy Shkil, the son of Ukrainian nationalist Roman Shukhevych. In the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the organisation received 0.39 percent of the vote.Українська національна Ассамблея
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Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian Nationalistic Self Defense members participated in the 2000–01 Ukraine without Kuchma protest campaign. In the 2002 parliamentary elections Andriy Shkil won an electoral district in Lviv Oblast and a seat in the Verkhovna Rada, the party itself won 0.04% of the votes. In 2003 Shkil left the party, and he has become an aide to Yulia Tymoshenko