Dmytro Anatoliiovych Yarosh (; born 30 September 1971) is a Ukrainian activist, politician, nationalist and military commander who is the main commander of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army. From 2013 to 2015, he led the Right Sector nationalist organisation, Profile: Ukraine's key protest figures, BBC News (27 January 2014) Yarosh quits as Right Sector leader, Interfax Ukraine (11 November 2015) Right Sector chief Yarosh resigns, cedes leadership role of group, Kyiv Post (11 November 2015) and formerly the Right Sector's Ukrainian Volunteer Corps. In late 2015, he withdrew from the Right Sector. From 2014 until 2019, Yarosh served as a People's Deputy of Ukraine. In February 2016, he started a new organisation called Governmental Initiative of Yarosh (Державницька ініціатива Яроша; shortened as ).
In the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election, Yarosh received 127,772 votes (0.7% of the total).
Results election of Ukrainian president, Телеграф (29 May 2014) He was elected to the Verkhovna Rada in the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election from a single-seat constituency in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast by winning 29.76% of the votes.
"Parliament to form leadership and coalition on November 27", UNIAN (26 November 2014)
Ukraine's new parliament sworn in, Kyiv Post (27 November 2014) He lost the seat in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election.
On 25 July 2015, at the request of the Russian authorities, Interpol placed Yarosh on its international wanted list. Since 2 January 2016 this request no longer appears on Interpol's website.
In 1988 Yarosh graduated from High School #24 of Dniprodzerzhynsk. The love story of Dmitry Yarosh: Wife hides and shows children, Bigmir.net (15 May 2014) As almost all pre-teens and young teenagers in the Soviet Union, he was a member of Young Pioneers and later the Komsomol organisations, youth-based sub-organisations of the Communist Party.
In the mid-1980s, Yarosh became interested in politics and according to him the Soviet Union "It became clear that the system was false". 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-blue flag of Ukraine in eastern Ukraine, more precisely in Dneprodzerzhinsk. The flag was sewed by his grandmother and her sister with cloth bought by Yarosh.
Starting in February 1989, Yarosh was a member of People'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.
During the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Yarosh joined Ukrainian nationalist groups. In 1994, he joined the Tryzub organisation, which he has led since 2005.
In 2001, Yarosh graduated from the State University of Education in Drohobych, Ukraine (today the ). On 1 April 2013, Yarosh became an assistant-consultant to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) deputy from the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, they are long-time friends.
Right before the 21 February ouster of Yanukovych, in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, Yarosh claims he and the Right Sector leadership was consulted by Yanukovych on the deal Yanukovych had signed with the opposition to end Euromaidan. Yarosh refused to endorse this agreement and refused to disarm Right Sector.
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 the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine instead, but Yarosh rejected this position as being beneath him. There were discussions of appointing Yarosh deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine, but these discussions quickly petered out for unknown reasons.
On 20 April 2014, Dmytro Yarosh claims he was ordered by acting President Oleksandr Turchinov to lead 20 Right Sector members to sabotage an insurgent-controlled television tower in Sloviansk, leading to the first combat fatalities in the Siege of Sloviansk. Yarosh denied his role in these events until two years later. ДМИТРО ЯРОШ: "ПЕРШИЙ НАСТУПАЛЬНИЙ БІЙ ВІЙНИ ВІДБУВСЯ 20 КВІТНЯ 2014-ГО - ДОБРОВОЛЬЦІ АТАКУВАЛИ БЛОКПОСТ ПІД СЛОВ'ЯНСЬКОМ". Censor.net.ua. 2016-04-22.
Yarosh was a candidate in the 25 May 2014 Ukrainian presidential election. 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. On election day he actually received 0.7% of the votes. In January 2019 Yarosh stated he only took part in the election "not to destroy the revolutionary structures after the revolution". He also stated that he was fully aware it was "virtually impossible" he could win the election and that because he was engaged in military action since the first days of April 2014 he did not campaign.
Yarosh took part in the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election as a Right Sector candidate in single-member district number 39 (first-past-the-post wins a parliament seat) located in Vasylkivka Raion. He won a parliamentary seat by winning this constituency with 29.76% of the votes. Yarosh did not join a faction in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament). Candidates and winner for the seat in constituency 39 in the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election , RBK Ukraine
During the Second Battle of Donetsk Airport, Yarosh was wounded on 21 January 2015 by an exploding Grad rocket in the nearby village of Pisky. 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 chief Viktor Muzhenko and that his Right Sector fighting group would be integrated into the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Poroshenko endorses referendum on federalisation of Ukraine, theguardian.com, 6 April 2015
Yarosh resigned as Right Sector leader on 11 November 2015. 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". Especially since he claimed "my positions were not always the same as the aspirations of some of the leadership". Late December 2015 Yarosh announced he was forming a new political party that would have its founding congress in February 2016. Similarly, Yarosh announced the creation of a new paramilitary volunteer battalion known as the Ukrainian Volunteer Army (UDA). The Volunteer Army would use units of the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps — more specifically the 5th and 8th Battalions, as well the Hospitallers Medical Battalion — as a basis for his new formation.
Yarosh did not participate in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election. In the election he endorsed the candidacy of Ruslan Koshulynskyi.
In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election DIYA joined a united party list with the political parties of Svoboda, Right Sector and National Corps. Yarosh himself was placed 3rd on the party list. But in the election they won not enough votes to clear the 5% election threshold and thus no parliamentary seats. CEC counts 100 percent of vote in Ukraine's parliamentary elections, Ukrinform (26 July 2019) The party did also not win a single-mandate constituency parliamentary seat. CEC counts 100 percent of vote in Ukraine's parliamentary elections, Ukrinform (26 July 2019)
Yarosh was baptized in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, (he claims) because "Then there was no other." In 1994 Yarosh converted to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
On 12 March 2014, an infamous of Moscow has issued an arrest warrant of Yarosh in absentia alleging public calls for terrorism.
In March 2014 Investigative Committee of Russia has launched a criminal case against Yarosh, and some members (including party leader Oleh Tyahnybok) of Svoboda and UNA-UNSO, for "organising an armed gang" that had allegedly fought against Russian 76th Guards Air Assault Division in the First Chechen War and for "public calls for extremism and public calls for terrorism". Yarosh has been placed on an international wanted list by Interpol at the request of the Russian Federation on 25 July 2015. The charge last alleges he "incriminated himself public appeals to terrorism and extremism." These two actions are a crime according to Russian criminal code (205th and 280th articles, respectively). Yarosh has been placed on an international wanted list by the Russian Federation. This initially made him the only person wanted internationally after the beginning of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia in 2014. Wanted by Ukraine, Interpol website accessed 11 November 2015
Since 2 January 2016 Yarosh's name can not be found on the international wanted list that is visible on Interpol's website.
Political activities
2014 revolution
Yarosh's profile, Verkhovna Rada official website He did join the inter-factional group UKROP. Justice Ministry registered the party Kolomoisky, Korrespondent.net (18 June 2015)
Military and withdrawal from Right Sector
Governmental Initiative of Yarosh
Results of the extraordinary elections of the People's Deputies of Ukraine 2019, Ukrayinska Pravda (21 July 2019)
Adviser to Valerii Zaluzhnyi
Awards
Personal life
Political positions and views
Public image
Reactions in Russia
Criminal charges
Notes
External links
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