24th Separate Assault Battalion "Aidar", also known as the Aidar Battalion, is an assault battalion of the

Ukrainian Ground Forces The Ukrainian Ground Forces ( uk, Сухопу́тні військá Збрóйних сил Украї́ни), also known as the Ukrainian Army, are the land forces of Ukraine and one of the five branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They ...

. The unit took part in the war in Eastern Ukraine and had roughly 300-400 members in 2014. It was named after the

Aidar River The Aidar ( uk, Айдар, russian: Айдар) is a river in Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine and Belgorod Oblast, Russia. A left tributary of the Seversky Donets, it is long (with located within Ukraine) and has a basin area of .

in the Luhansk region where it was initially deployed. In 2014, Amnesty International reported that members of the Aidar Battalion had committed war crimes during the War in Donbas. It was disbanded in 2015 and reconstituted as the 24th Separate Assault Battalion of the Ukrainian Army, before being absorbed into the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade in 2016. As of October 2018 the battalion lost 130 soldiers killed in action. The Battalion's founder and former commander is .

History

Created in May 2014, Aidar was the first

Territorial Defense Battalion of Ukraine Territorial defence battalions ( uk, Батальйо́ни територіа́льної оборо́ни, translit=Bataliony terytorialnoi oborony) were volunteer military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine under the auspices of the Ukra ...

- a volunteer military detachment subordinate to the Ministry of Defence. In the

2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election Snap elections to the Verkhovna Rada took place on 26 October 2014. Petro Poroshenko, the President of Ukraine, had pressed for early parliamentary elections since his victory in the presidential election in May.Verkhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Верхо́вна Ра́да Украї́ни, translit=, Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, translation=Supreme Council of Ukraine, Ukrainian abbreviation ''ВРУ''), often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the ...

representing the Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko; he ranked third on the party's election list. The commander of Aidar's second company,

Ihor Lapin Ihor Lapin (born 28 May 1969, in Ivanychi) is a Ukrainian lawyer and politician, who is a former (2014-2019) People's Deputy of Ukraine. During the War in Donbass (eastern Ukraine) he was commander of the 2nd assault squadron "West" of the 24th B ...

, was an MP for People's Front after winning a constituency seat in

Lutsk Lutsk ( uk, Луцьк, translit=Lutsk}, ; pl, Łuck ; yi, לוצק, Lutzk) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Volyn Oblast (province) and the administrative center of the surrounding Lu ...

in the same election. Neither was reelected in the

2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Snap elections to the Ukrainian parliament were held on 21 July 2019. Originally scheduled to be held at the end of October, these elections were brought forward after newly inaugurated President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dissolved parliament on 21 Ma ...

(Melnychuk failed to win a seat in an electoral district in Novomoskovsk with 0.31% of the votes and Lapin was not high enough on the election list (placed 49th) of European Solidarity to get elected). On 8 August 2014 Ukraine's Defense Minister

Valeriy Heletey Valeriy Viktorovych Heletey ( uk, Валерій Вікторович Гелетей) (born on 28 August 1967) is a Ukrainian Colonel General who served as Minister of Defense from 3 July to 14 October 2014.Ukraine Struggles to Control Volunteer Fighter Squads

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was esta ...

through

Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' is an independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking tourists and expatriates su ...

(29 July 2015) The battalion came to spotlight after several dozen of its members were killed in an ambush south of

Shchastia Shchastia ( uk, Ща́стя, lit=Happiness, translit=Shchastia, ; russian: Сча́стье) is a city in the Shchastia Raion of the Luhansk Oblast (province) in Ukraine. Population: The Luhansk power station, a large powerplant built in the 19 ...

after the announcement of the ceasefire on 6 September 2014. Late January and early February 2015 the battalion picketed several government buildings, which escalated into clashes. Aidar was formally disbanded on 2 March 2015 "to prevent illegal actions of some representatives of volunteer units" (according to the

General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ( uk, Генеральний штаб Збройних сил України) is the military staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is the central organ of the Armed Forces Administration and o ...

). After a "careful selection of soldiers", it was then reorganized as the 24th Separate Assault Battalion of the Ukrainian Army. Lieutenant Colonel Yevhen Ptashnik was appointed as commander of the battalion. The 24th Separate Assault Battalion was made part of the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade in January 2016. Later it became a part of the 53rd Mechanized Brigade.Ivan Dediukh killed by landmine explosion near Starohnativka, Donetsk Obl on June 27

Euromaidan Press ''Euromaidan Press'' (EP) is an English-language news website launched in 2014 by contributors from Ukraine, sponsored by reader contributions and the International Renaissance Foundation. It shares its name with the Euromaidan movement in Ukrain ...

via

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

(28 June 2020)

Members and structure

The Aidar Battalion consisted of volunteers from

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...

Chernihiv Chernihiv ( uk, Черні́гів, , russian: Черни́гов, ; pl, Czernihów, ; la, Czernihovia), is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within ...

Luhansk Luhansk (, ; uk, Луганськ, ), also known as Lugansk (, ; russian: Луганск, ), is a city in what is internationally recognised as Ukraine, although it is administered by Russia as capital of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). A ...

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

, Ivano-Frankivsk and

Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; uk, Донецьк, translit=Donets'k ; russian: Донецк ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin and Stalino (see also: cities' alternative names), is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine loca ...

regions. It included a member of the Luhansk Oblast's legislature, a former mayor of

Oleksandrivsk Oleksandrivsk ( uk, Олекса́ндрівськ ) or Aleksandrovsk (russian: Алекса́ндровск ) is a small city in Luhansk Municipality, Luhansk Oblast (region) of Ukraine. Population: Demographics Native language as of the Uk ...

, and self-defense activists from the Euromaidan protests in Kyiv. In June 2014, it had around 400 members. The battalion had several subdivisions: * Kholodnyi Yar * Company "West" * Afgan company * Volyn company * Autorota * Golden company * Gregory Makles Company The Battalion has gained notoriety due to its members' far-right views. Two Swedish neo-Nazis from the Svenskarnas parti joined Aidar in 2013 and 2014 and made headlines in the Swedish and German media, since one of the Nazis was running for a local council in elections, and the same media heavily criticized the Nazi mercenaries. According to Huseyn Aliyev, a political scientist at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

, by 2015 the battalion's radical right-wing ideology had "toned down", and the ideology of it along with other volunteer battalions in Ukraine was best described as "nationalist-patriotic".

Allegations of human rights violations and war crimes

In July 2014, Russia began a criminal investigation of Aidar's commander, Serhiy Melnychuk, for "organizing the killing of civilians". Its volunteer pilot,

Nadiya Savchenko Nadiya Viktorivna Savchenko ( uk, Надія Вікторівна Савченко; born 11 May 1981) is a Ukrainian politician, former Army aviation pilot in the Ukrainian Ground Forces and former People's Deputy of Ukraine. During the 2014 ...

, was captured by pro-Russian separatists near

, transported to Russia and charged with killing two Russian journalists. On 8 September 2014 Amnesty International claimed that the battalion had committed war crimes, including abductions, unlawful detention, ill-treatment, theft, extortion, and possible executions. On 24 December 2014, Amnesty International reported that the unit was blocking humanitarian aid from Ukraine reaching the population of the separatist-controlled areas. Over half the population in these areas depended on food aid. According to Amnesty International, the Aidar, Donbas and

Dnipro-1 The "Dnipro-1" Regiment ( uk, Полк «Дніпро-1») is a Special Tasks Patrol Police regiment subordinated to Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. The regiment is based in Dnipro. History The unit was first established as "Dnipro-1 ...

battalions said they are blocking the aid because they "believe food and clothing are ending up in the wrong hands and may be sold instead of being given as humanitarian aid".Amnesty International
''Eastern Ukraine: Humanitarian disaster looms as food aid blocked'', 24 December 2014. Denis Krivosheev, acting Director of Europe and Central Asia for Amnesty International, stated that starving civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime. In April 2015, the Ukrainian government-appointed Governor of Luhansk

Hennadiy Moskal Hennadiy Hennadiyovych Moskal ( uk, Геннадій Геннадійович Москаль; born 11 December 1950) is a Ukrainian politician and the former governor of Zakarpattia Oblast, serving from 2015 to 2019.

stated that Aidar battalion was "terrorizing the region" and asked Ukrainian Defense Ministry to rein in its members after a series of thefts, including ambulances and the takeover of a bread factory.

Gallery

File:March of Ukraine's Defenders on Independence Day in Kyiv, 2019 219.jpg File:March of Ukraine's Defenders on Independence Day in Kyiv, 2019 316.jpg File:March of Ukraine's Defenders on Independence Day in Kyiv, 2019 318.jpg File:March of Ukraine's Defenders on Independence Day in Kyiv, 2019 345.jpg Veterans of the Battalion on the March of Defenders. Independence Day,

, 24 July 2019

References

External links

{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Territorial defence battalions of Ukraine History of Luhansk Oblast Military units and formations established in 2014 2014 establishments in Ukraine Far-right politics in Ukraine