Militsiya (Ukraine)
Ukraine
The Militsiya (Ukrainian: міліція, pronounced [miˈl⁽ʲ⁾its⁽ʲ⁾ijɐ] ) was a type of domestic law enforcement agency (militsiya) that existed in various forms in Ukraine from 1917 until 2015. The Militsiya was originally formed in March 1917, following the February Revolution, and was later put under control of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union. Militsiya continued to serve as the national police service in post-Soviet Ukraine until it was replaced by the National Police of Ukraine on 7 November 2015.
The Militsiya was under the direct control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (known by the Ukrainian acronym MVS and by the Russian acronym MVD), and it was widely seen as corrupt and inconsiderable to the demands of the Ukrainian public. During Euromaidan, the Militsiya was accused of brutality against protestors as well as kidnapping Automaidan activists, leading to the reputation of the Militsiya being irreversibly damaged. This resulted in its replacement under the post-Maidan Poroshenko presidency.
History
Formation
Militsiya emerged in lands of the former Russian Empire after the abolition of the police in the aftermath of the February Revolution in March 1917. Unlike the police, which had been subject to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire, Militsiya squads were subordinated to local authorities. Militsiya continued to exist in this form during the first months of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR), but in March 1918 was subordinated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Under the Hetmanate Militsiya was renamed into State Guard (Державна Варта).
“Militsiya (Ukraine)” enters the record as ukraine. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Militsiya and Ukraine can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q20738952. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1917, 2015 and 1918.
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This entry incorporates text from “Militsiya (Ukraine)” 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.