Donbas Battalion
volunteer unit of the National Guard of Ukraine
The Donbas Battalion (Ukrainian: 2-й батальйон спеціального призначення НГУ "Донбас", romanized: 2-i batalion spetsialnoho pryznachennia NHU "Donbas") is a unit of the National Guard of Ukraine under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and formerly based in Severodonetsk. It was created in 2014 as a volunteer unit (Ukrainian: Батальйон Донбас, romanized: Batalion Donbas) by Semen Semenchenko after the Russian occupation of Crimea and an anticipated invasion of continental Ukraine. The unit was formed in the spring during the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine. The unit was initially formed as an independent force, but has been fully integrated into the National Guard as the 2nd Special Purpose Battalion "Donbas" in the 15th Regiment of the National Guard.
The battalion was initially formed by Russian-speaking Ukrainians from the Donbas who opposed the separatist movement. It is one of the most notable volunteer battalions, recognized as a highly-effective combat unit during the war in Donbas. The battalion was known for its balaclavas to hide their identity from pro-Russian sympathizers and to create a sense of mystery and fear. The balaclavas and (occasionally) black fatigues led to the nicknames "Men in Black" or "Little Black Men", a Ukrainian analogue of the Russian "Little Green Men".
Anatoliy Vynohrodskyi, a veteran of the former volunteer battalion, announced his intention to revive a volunteer battalion outside the National Guard in October 2016. The new volunteer battalion was never created, but Vynohradskyi became a leaders of the trade blockade with the Russian-occupied territories in eastern Ukraine in January 2017.
The public source identifies “Donbas Battalion” as volunteer unit of the National Guard of Ukraine. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Donbas, Battalion and volunteer.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16939440. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2014, 2016 and 2017.
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This entry incorporates text from “Donbas Battalion” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.