kyiv recently announced the creation of a new military formation made up of Russian volunteers. Integrated into the Ukrainian armed forces, this “Siberian battalion” is an assembly of heterogeneous elements.
They came to Ukraine to fight their fellow citizens. Several dozen Russians opposed to Vladimir Putin have joined a new unit of the Ukrainian army called the “Siberian battalion”, reported in an article by the American media Bloomberg on October 24.
The information was confirmed the next day by a military intelligence official in the Ukrainian media Kyiv Post. The latter specifies that this battalion is incorporated into the International Legion, the unit of thousands of foreigners who have joined Ukraine. Within this training, volunteers are assigned to groups whose members have the same nationality.
While the fighting is concentrated around the town of Avdiivka, a new hot spot on the front, this young unit of the armed forces continues its military training outside Kiev before a future deployment. Composition, motivations of the recruits… Franceinfo takes a close look at this “Siberian battalion”.
1 Who are the fighters who make up this battalion?
According to AFP, the “Siberian battalion” has around fifty recruits of varied origins in its ranks. The unit is made up of political opponents of Vladimir Putin, both Caucasian Russians and members of ethnic minority groups, such as Yakuts and Buryats, who mostly live in the Russian Far East.
A spokesperson for the International Legion told AFP that the unit is not open to prisoners of war. All are volunteers and under military contract with the Ukrainian armed forces. Before joining Ukraine and the “Siberian battalion”, future recruits generally passed through a third country before being enlisted.
Questioned by AFP, a former medical assistant nicknamed “Gretcha” (“buckwheat” in Russian) explains that he left Russia in 2022. After several stays in countries without visas for Russians, he discovered an organization in Warsaw (Poland) whose website recruited for the “Siberian battalion”, and was able to join. engage.
2 Why did Russians choose to fight for kyiv?
Motivations vary from one volunteer to another. But opposition to Vladimir Putin and his regime is among the reasons given to justify the enlistment of fighters in this unit. “What we must do now is to achieve the defeat of Putin’s Russia”another fighter nicknamed “Chved” tells AFP (“the Swedish” in French).
Some recruits, particularly those from indigenous peoples, say they want to defend their culture against Russian imperialism. This is the case of Gennadiy, a Buryat interviewed by the Reuters news agency. “Since Tsarist Russia, when they colonized us, [les Russes] destroyed our culture, language and traditions. This is Russification, pure and simple.”he explains.
The “partial” mobilization decreed by Moscow in September 2022 affected ethnic minority groups more, pushing many men into exile. “We do not remember such a massive emigration of Buryats. (…) Buryatia recruited 2.5 to 3 times more soldiers per capita than the Russian average.explained on February 29 on X (formerly Twitter) the Free Buryatia Foundation, a non-governmental organization opposed to the war in Ukraine.
3 Is this the first time that Ukraine has integrated Russians into its army?
The “Siberian battalion” is not the only Russian rebel unit to fight the Kremlin troops alongside the Ukrainians, but it is the only one to be incorporated into the International Legion, which brings together foreign volunteers.
There are other formations deployed on the front, such as the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), which has links to the nationalist far-right, and the Russian Freedom Legion. These two units have distinguished themselves since spring 2023 by carrying out several raids in the Belgorod border region. As the newspaper states The world, the two rebel groups based in kyiv also work within the Ukrainian army.
“The two units are integrated and form part of the territorial defense. They are required to respect the injunctions of the Ukrainian general staff, but sometimes its leaders demonstrate a certain autonomy, as was the case in Belgorod”, explains researcher Adrien Nonjon, specialist in far-right and nationalist movements in Ukraine, to franceinfo. According to him, the “Siberian battalion” differs from other Russian units by its political coloring: “Lunity is part of a decolonial logic of fighting Russian imperialism. Not just the one which operates on the outer margins of the territory of the Federation [de Russie], but also inside.