Russian separatist paramilitary battalion in Donbas
This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: It is unclear if the battalion still exists following the annexation of the Donetsk People's Republic by Russia. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (October 2022)
According to Ukrainian and Russian sources, the unit was formed in August 2014 in Donetsk, based on the previously existing anti-tank/MG troop led by Pavlov which earlier reportedly participated in Battle of Ilovaisk along with Igor Strelkov's "volunteer" forces.[9][10][11]
In 2015, it fought in the Second Battle of Donetsk Airport.[13][12] During this battle, its fighters were filmed capturing Ukrainian soldiers (who were later paraded through Donetsk, where they were attacked by locals), and transporting the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers.[14] Pavlov made Ukrainian POWs carry the bodies of other Ukrainians because, he said, "it's not our job to recover dead bodies, it's our job to make them."[14]
In February 2015, Ukrainian SSU started an investigation into allegations of war crimes committed in January 2015 by the Battalion and its leader Arsen Pavlov, with charges including murder, bullying, torture and forcing people into slave labor.[20][21][22]
In April 2015 Russian deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia Amnesty International, Denis Krivosheev, blamed Pavlov for killing and torturing Ukrainian POWs[23][24] captured at Donetsk airport.[12] According to Krivosheev, Pavlov said in an interview to the Kyiv Post that he killed Ukrainian Branovitsky Igor [ru] who was prisoner of war at the time of his detention and who suffered several facial wounds and was not able to walk.[24][25][26] In an controversial tape which was published on YouTube in April 2015 which features voices of both of the Kyiv Post's journalist and a voice allegedly belonging to Pavlov, with the latter claiming to have killed 15 prisoners when the journalist asked him about Branovitsky, saying “I’ve shot 15 prisoners. I don't give a shit. No comment. I kill whoever I want.”[27][22][12] Amnesty called for thorough investigation of the crime.[24] A surviving Ukrainian POW interviewed by the BBC said he had seen Pavlov shooting Branovitsky.[28] In June it was reported by a Ukraine official that Interpol refused to put Pavlov on their wanted list on the grounds of the "political nature of the Motorola case".[29][30]
In 2016, a Vice News journalist described being told by Sparta members about Ukrainian corpses still at Donetsk airport, which Sparta members had forced Ukrainian POWs to bury in 2014.[17]
Structure
Sparta Battalion fighter near the Donetsk Airport's Old Terminal (November 2014).
2015
Members' names were posted on Facebook on 5 April 2015 by Vyacheslav Abroskin, head of Donetsk Oblast's police. At least 40 names were listed.[22] Its membership reportedly includes foreign fighters from Moldova.[31]
In March 2022, the Battalion's commander Vladimir Zhoga was killed at Volnovakha in the course of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[32][33] He was posthumously awarded the title of "Hero of the Russian Federation" by Russian president Vladimir Putin.[34]
The sub-units of the battalion are approximately following:
1st Company
2nd Reconnaissance Company
The commander was killed during the Battle of Avdiivka on April 21, 2022[35][36]
Ideology and symbols
German anti-extremist news website Belltower described the militia as Russian ultranationalist and irredentist.[37] The battalion flies the black-yellow-white flag of the Russian Empire and, according to the European Eye on Radicalization, the unit "uses a combination of symbols of the Spartan military culture, well-known drivers of the far-right, and from the Tsarist era".[8][38]
Its flag includes a letter M. According to a fighter interviewed by The Independent, this is "because it is dedicated to Motorola, our commander... a DPR hero".[16]
The Ukrainian newspaper Segodnya noted how the stylized red "M" looks identical to the logo of the Sparta Rangers, a fictional faction of elite soldiers from the Metro 2033 videogame.[39]Dmitry Glukhovsky, writer and creator of the Metro series, condemned the use of the name and symbol in a radio interview.[40]
^"Where are they now? Five years ago, the bloodiest European war of the 21st century began in eastern Ukraine. Here's what's become of those early separatist leaders". Meduza. 2019-06-01. Retrieved 2022-04-05. Pavlov arrived in Ukraine in February 2014. According to Igor Strelkov, Pavlov was a member of the so-called "militia" in Crimea and was selected to join a group of soldiers headed for the Donbas... Beginning on April 10, 2014, Pavlov led small units to the most intense combat areas around Slovyansk. During that time, "Motorola" recruited enough fighters to expand his unit from 40 members to 200. During Strelkov's retreat from Slovyansk, Pavlov's subdivision covered the main army's movements. In August 2014, after Strelkov left the Donbas for Russia, Pavlov took charge of the Sparta Battalion and took part in some of the war's most violent battles.
.svg)
Russia
DPR People's Militia (2014-2022)
.svg)
.png)
.jpg)
