Changes await Right Sector's 67th Brigade after losing positions in Chasiv Yar

After losing some positions on the Chasiv Yar front in Donetsk Oblast, where heavy fighting has been ongoing since the beginning of 2024, the 67th Separate Mechanised Brigade of the Right Sector Ukrainian Volunteer Corps is being investigated and the military personnel who served as the brigade’s backbone are being transferred to other units.

Source: official statement of the 67th Separate Mechanised Brigade of the Right Sector Ukrainian Volunteer Corps; Ukrainska Pravda sources in the military management of the front on which the 67th Brigade operated; a former Ukrainian Volunteer Corps soldier in a comment to Ukrainska Pravda

Quote: "We inform you that the high command of Ukraine's Armed Forces has begun the process of transferring all commanders and fighters from the Right Sector Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, who formed the brigade and serve as its combat backbone. The motivation for such actions are unknown to us. All attempts to halt this process and determine the reasons have been unsuccessful.

Perhaps someone believes that scattering the Right Sector fighters into various Armed Forces units will result in the destruction of the Right Sector Ukrainian Volunteer Corps. Now, the brigade has a number of commissions."

Details: According to Ukrainska Pravda, military leadership at various levels was curious about why such a motivated unit as the Right Sector was failing on this front. 

One of the factors revealed by the audit was issues within the brigade. The leadership allegedly separated the soldiers from the Right Sector and those who were transferred from other parts during the recent replenishment (they were referred to as "pixels", in reference to the pattern on the Ukrainian military uniform). The attitude toward the "pixels" was even worse; they were the first to be sent into combat, and their lack of experience made them lose territory.

According to a source of Ukrainska Pravda, this was not the only reason for the brigade's combat capacity deficiencies, as revealed by the audit.

According to a former Ukrainian Volunteer Corps fighter who served in the unit during the 2014-2018 anti-terrorist operation in Ukraine's east and the first year of the full-scale invasion, the current problem stems from the inability to reform the former volunteer unit into a regular brigade of the Armed Forces.

Following the reformatting of the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps into the 67th Brigade, volunteers were forced to live "according to military tenets", as determined by the newly formed army command. The former Ukrainian Volunteer Corps leaders lacked the military experience necessary for high positions.

During the tenure of former Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the backbone of the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, particularly Andrii Stempitskyi, was able to maintain some autonomy in the brigade while receiving assistance from the General Staff.

Quote: "And when Sirskyi was appointed, they were confronted with the fact that they must only do activities that are appropriate for their official position. They saw it as political persecution. For highly ideological Ukrainian Volunteer Corps combatants, this appears to be the end of a movement, but it is actually the system bringing its combat units up to standard."

Background: The Right Sector Ukrainian Volunteer Corps joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces as the full-scale invasion began.

In 2023, the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps was split into two parts: one joined the Special Operations Forces and the other formed the 67th Separate Mechanised Brigade. In February 2024, a portion of the Da Vinci Wolves Unit transferred from the 67th Brigade to the 59th Separate Motorised Infantry Brigade.

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