ABSTRACT
This chapter will introduce the (para)military units which hosted the foreign fighters in general and the far–right foreign fighters in particular on both sides of the war in Ukraine. It will underscore the fact that only a few of the Ukrainian so-called volunteer battalions accepted such recruits (and the Azov Battalion, often seen as the key conduit in this regard, had not been the most successful recruiter) and that the situation was not entirely different on the pro-“separatist” side. All these units acted as recruitment hubs and allowed some of the fighters to prolong their stays on the front line or to return there at a later date. The latter was happening against the backdrop of professionalization of the armed units on both sides of the conflict which severely, albeit not completely, limited the recruitment of foreign fighters for this war.
