Dmytro Yarosh | |
|---|---|
Дмитро Ярош | |
1.jpg) Yarosh in 2014 | |
| People's Deputy of Ukraine | |
| In office 27 November 2014 – 29 July 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Yuriy Samoylenko [uk] |
| Succeeded by | Oleksandr Zavitnevych |
| Constituency | Dnipropetrovsk Oblast,No. 39[1] |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1971-09-30)30 September 1971 (age 54) |
| Political party | Right Sector (2013–2015) |
| Other political affiliations | Tryzub (1994–present) People's Movement of Ukraine (1989–1994) |
| Alma mater | Drohobych State University of Education |
| Occupation | Politician, activist |
| Awards | Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky 3rd class |
| Website | Facebook page |
| Nickname | "Yastrub" ("Hawk") |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Soviet Union (historical) Ukraine |
| Branch/service | Soviet Armed Forces Ukrainian volunteer battalions |
| Years of service | 1989–1991 2014–present |
| Unit |  Ukrainian Volunteer Corps(2014–2015) Ukrainian Volunteer Army(2015–present) |
| Commands | Ukrainian Volunteer Corps(2014–2015)Ukrainian Volunteer Army(2015–present) |
| Battles/wars | |
Dmytro Anatoliiovych Yarosh (Ukrainian:Дмитро Анатолійович Ярош; born 30 September 1971)[2] is a Ukrainian activist, politician, nationalist and military commander who is the main commander of theUkrainian Volunteer Army. From 2013 to 2015, he led theRight Sector nationalist organisation,[3][4][5][6] and formerly the Right Sector'sUkrainian Volunteer Corps.[7] In late 2015, he withdrew from the Right Sector.[8] From 2014 until 2019, Yarosh served as aPeople's Deputy of Ukraine. In February 2016, he started a new organisation calledGovernmental Initiative of Yarosh (Державницька ініціатива Яроша; shortened asДІЯ,DIYA).[9]
In the2014 Ukrainian presidential election, Yarosh received 127,772 votes (0.7% of the total).[10] He was elected to theVerkhovna Rada in the2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election from a single-seat constituency in theDnipropetrovsk Oblast by winning 29.76% of the votes.[11][12] He lost the seat in the2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election.
On 25 July 2015, at the request of the Russian authorities,Interpol placed Yarosh on its international wanted list.[13] Since 2 January 2016 this request no longer appears on Interpol's website.[14]
Yarosh was born on 30 September 1971 in Dniprodzerzhynsk (nowKamianske), a town in predominantly Russian-speakingDnipropetrovsk Oblast in central-eastern Ukraine.[15][16] Yarosh grew up in a Russian-speaking family.[17] His mother worked in a car factory and his father an engineer at a machine plant.[17] Yarosh has described his early years as "a happy Soviet childhood."[17] His father refused to join theCommunist Party, although Yarosh claims he was asked to join many times.[17]
In 1988 Yarosh graduated from High School #24 of Dniprodzerzhynsk.[18] As almost all pre-teens and young teenagers in the Soviet Union, he was a member ofYoung Pioneers and later theCountrywide Leninist Communist Youth League organisations, youth-based sub-organisations of the Communist Party.[17]
In the mid-1980s, Yarosh became interested in politics and according to him the Soviet Union "It became clear that the system was false".[17] In 1989, Yarosh, who was 18 at the time, and a group of friends (who were all about twelve years old) were, allegedly, the first people to raise the yellow-blueflag of Ukraine ineastern Ukraine, more precisely in Dneprodzerzhinsk.[17][18] The flag was sewed by his grandmother and her sister with cloth bought by Yarosh.[17]
Starting in February 1989, Yarosh was a member ofPeople's Movement of Ukraine organisation. From October 1989 to November 1991 he was drafted and served two years in the Soviet army as a private.[18]
During thedissolution of the Soviet Union, Yarosh joined Ukrainian nationalist groups. In 1994, he joined theTryzub organisation, which he has led since 2005.[19]
Since October 1988, Yarosh has been active in Ukrainian politics: in February 1989, he became a member of thePeople’s Movement of Ukraine, coinciding with his service in theSoviet Army. In 1994, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Yarosh was one of the founders of the Ukrainian nationalist organisationTryzub. He later became head of Tryzub in 2005. In October 2010, he tried to create a unified Ukrainian nationalist movement.[20]
In 2001, Yarosh graduated from the State University of Education inDrohobych, Ukraine (today theDrohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University [uk]).[16] On 1 April 2013, Yarosh became an assistant-consultant to theVerkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) deputy from theUkrainian Democratic Alliance for ReformValentyn Nalyvaichenko, they are long-time friends.[20]
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During theEuromaidan protests in early 2014, Tryzub became the core of the newly-foundedRight Sector, a coalition of right-wing nationalists.[3] During these protests Yarosh advocated for a "national revolution" and dismissed theViktor Yanukovych administration as an "internal occupational regime".[4] In early February, weeks before the ousting of President Yanukovych, Yarosh stated in an interview that there would be no civil war in Ukraine because 80% of the population did not support Yanukovych.[21]
Right before the 21 February ouster of Yanukovych, in the2014 Ukrainian revolution, Yarosh claims he and the Right Sector leadership was consulted by Yanukovych on thedeal Yanukovych had signed with the opposition to end Euromaidan.[6] Yarosh refused to endorse this agreement and refused to disarm Right Sector.[6]
In the aftermath of the collapse of Yanukovych's regime, Yarosh demanded to be appointed Vice Prime Minister for the law enforcement matters, but his demand was rejected; he was offered a post of the Deputy Secretary of theNational Security and Defense Council of Ukraine instead,[22][23] but Yarosh rejected this position as being beneath him.[24] There were discussions of appointing Yarosh deputy head of theSecurity Service of Ukraine, but these discussions quickly petered out for unknown reasons.[22]
On 20 April 2014, Dmytro Yarosh claims he was ordered by acting PresidentOleksandr Turchinov to lead 20 Right Sector members to sabotage an insurgent-controlled television tower in Sloviansk, leading to the first combat fatalities in theSiege of Sloviansk. Yarosh denied his role in these events until two years later.[25]
Yarosh was a candidate in the25 May 2014 Ukrainian presidential election.[10] A poll conducted by the "Socis" research center (from 25 February – 4 March 2014) predicted that Yarosh's candidacy received the support of 1.6% of the people who were surveyed.[26] On election day he actually received 0.7% of the votes.[10] In January 2019 Yarosh stated he only took part in the election "not to destroy the revolutionary structures after the revolution".[27] He also stated that he was fully aware it was "virtually impossible" he could win the election and that because he was engaged inmilitary action since the first days of April 2014 he did not campaign.[27]
Yarosh took part in the2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election as a Right Sector candidate insingle-member district number 39 (first-past-the-post wins a parliament seat) located inVasylkivka Raion.[11] He won a parliamentary seat by winning thisconstituency with 29.76% of the votes.[11] Yarosh did not join a faction in theVerkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament).[28] He did join the inter-factional groupUKROP.[29]
In July 2014, Yarosh announced the creation of aparamilitary formation known as theUkrainian Volunteer Corps (DUK), avolunteer battalion formed by members of theRight Sector.[7] On July 17, the first orders were given and the official statute was issued, and is considered the official date of formation of the Corps.[30]
During theSecond Battle of Donetsk Airport, Yarosh was wounded on 21 January 2015 by an exploding Grad rocket in the nearby village of Pisky.[31] He was evacuated out of the conflict zone.
In early April 2015, Ukraine's defence ministry announced that MP Dmytro Yarosh was to become an aide to military chiefViktor Muzhenko and that his Right Sector fighting group would be integrated into theArmed Forces of Ukraine.[32]
Yarosh resigned as Right Sector leader on 11 November 2015.[5] After he was wounded on 21 January 2015 he had delegated tasks to others in the organisation and he stated on 11 November 2015 he "did not want to be a wedding general".[5] Especially since he claimed "my positions were not always the same as the aspirations of some of the leadership".[6] Late December 2015 Yarosh announced he was forming a new political party that would have its founding congress in February 2016.[8] Similarly, Yarosh announced the creation of a newparamilitaryvolunteer battalion known as theUkrainian Volunteer Army (UDA). The Volunteer Army would use units of the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps — more specifically the 5th and 8th Battalions, as well theHospitallers Medical Battalion — as a basis for his new formation.[33]
In February 2016 Yarosh started a new organisation calledGovernmental Initiative of Yarosh (DIYA).[9] The departure of Yarosh resulted in at least 20% of Right Sector members leaving with him.[34] According to Yarosh DIYA will be a public movement likePeople's Movement of Ukraine was in its early days.[35][36]
Yarosh did not participate in the2019 Ukrainian presidential election.[27] In the election he endorsed the candidacy ofRuslan Koshulynskyi.[27]
In the2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election DIYA joined a united party list with the political parties ofSvoboda,Right Sector andNational Corps.[37] Yarosh himself was placed 3rd on the party list.[37] But in the election they won not enough votes to clear the 5% election threshold and thus no parliamentary seats.[38] The party did also not win a single-mandate constituency parliamentary seat.[39]
On November 2, 2021, Yarosh said on social media he had been appointed Adviser to theCommander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of UkraineValerii Zaluzhnyi.[citation needed] In response to a (December 2021) request byUkrayinska Pravda theGeneral Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine refused to disclose details of its alleged cooperation with Yarosh citing the confidentiality of the information requested.[40] Prior to this request the (army) post of public advisers had been dissolved and Yarosh had thus been dismissed from his post.[40]
Yarosh met his wife Olha,[20] who Yarosh claims was his first love, inelementary school.[17] The couple married in 1993[27] and has three children: daughters Anastasya and Jarina and son Dmytro.[20] On 11 March 2014, grandson Nazar was born.[20]
Yarosh was baptized in theUkrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, (he claims) because "Then there was no other."[27] In 1994 Yarosh converted to theUkrainian Greek Catholic Church.[27]
Yarosh is a controversial figure. In Russia's state-run media he has been described as a "radical nationalist".[47] Mainstream Western media has generally called him a radical or extreme nationalist. Some mainstream[48] and far-left sources have denounced him as a "fascist".[49]
On 12 March 2014, an editor of privately ownedLenta.ru website,Galina Timchenko, was fired by the company's ownerAlexander Mamut for publishing a link to an interview with Yarosh he gave two days earlier, after Russian media regulatory agencyRoskomnadzor formally warned the Lenta.ru website for publishing this link. In this interview Yarosh said: "Sooner or later, we are doomed to fight a war with [the] Moscow empire".[50]
On 1 March 2014, Right Sector's page on Russian online social networking serviceVKontakte showed an entry with Dmytro Yarosh's alleged appeal toDoku Umarov, aChechen militant guerrilla leader associated withAl-Qaeda, for support of Ukraine.[51] On 2 March 2014, Right Sector's spokesman Art Skoropadskyi denied the message was posted and approved by Yarosh. According to the spokesman, this alleged appeal to Umarov appeared on Right Sector'sVKontakte webpage after one of its administrator's accounts was hacked.[52] VKontakte blocks the page at a request of an Attorney General of Russia. On 11 March 2014, RussianState Duma deputyValery Rashkin urged Russian special services to "followMossad examples" andassassinate leaders of Right sector Dmytro Yarosh andOleksandr Muzychko.[53]
On 12 March 2014, an infamousBasmanny court [ru] of Moscow has issued an arrest warrant of Yarosh in absentia alleging public calls forterrorism.[54]
In March 2014Investigative Committee of Russia has launched a criminal case against Yarosh, and some members (including party leaderOleh Tyahnybok) ofSvoboda andUNA-UNSO, for "organising an armed gang" that had allegedly fought against Russian76th Guards Air Assault Division in theFirst Chechen War and for "public calls for extremism and public calls for terrorism".[55] Yarosh has been placed on an international wanted list byInterpol at the request of the Russian Federation on 25 July 2015.[13][56] The charge last alleges he "incriminated [himself by making] public appeals to terrorism and extremism." These two actions are a crime according to Russian criminal code (205th and 280th articles, respectively).[57] Yarosh has been placed on an international wanted list by the Russian Federation.[56] This initially made him the only person wanted internationally after the beginning of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia in 2014.[58]
Since 2 January 2016 Yarosh's name can not be found on the international wanted list that is visible on Interpol's website.[14]
Сам Дмитро Ярош нібито вимагав для себе посади віце-прем'єра з питань силового блоку з одночасним підпорядкуванням йому внутрішніх військ. Вимогу відхилили, запропонувавши йому посаду заступника секретаря РНБОУ. ... Ще три тижні тому у владних коридорах обережно обговорювався також варіант призначення лідера Правого сектору заступником голови СБУ, але згодом з невідомих причин ці обговорення припинились.
Andriy Parubiy, a lawmaker who served as commander of the protest movement's guards, was chosen to serve as chair of the national security and defence council. Victoria Siumar, a civil society activist, and Dmytro Yarosh, head of Right Sector, a militant protest group, were proposed as his deputies.
Shkiryak, a revolutionary lawmaker involved in the negotiations over Yarosh's role in the government, says the right-wing militant … was offered the role of deputy head of the National Security Council, but rejected it as beneath him.
Мінський формат — і я про це говорю постійно — це можливість затягувати час, озброювати ЗСУ, переходити на найкращі світові стандарти в системі національної безпеки і оборони. Це можливість для маневру. Але не більше. Реалізація "Мінських домовленостей" — це загибель нашої держави. (...) Порошенко грав на "Мінську" — і гарно грав. Факт. Він тягнув час. (...) Зеленський у своїй інавгураційній промові говорив, що готовий втратити рейтинги, популярність, посаду… Ні, він втратить життя. Висітиме на якомусь дереві на Хрещатику — якщо зрадить Україну і отих людей, які на Революції та війні загинули.
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