Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu is a Russian politician and military officer who has served as Minister of Defence of Russia since 2012. Shoigu has served as the chairman of the Council of Ministers of Defense of the Commonwealth of Independent States since 2012.
The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine is the military intelligence service of the Ukrainian government. It is an agency of the Ministry of Defence, not the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
South Korea–Ukraine relations are foreign relations between South Korea and Ukraine. Diplomatic Relations were established on February 10, 1992. South Korea has an embassy in Kyiv. Ukraine has an embassy in Seoul.
There is a population of ethnic Koreans or Korean nationals in Ukraine. A significant group among them are ethnic Koreans called Koryo-saram: these people arrived in the former Soviet Union during the Japanese colonial period and spread throughout the region especially after their forced migration in 1937. Another group is the Sakhalin Koreans, who lived on the island of Sakhalin and are often considered culturally distinct from other Koryo-saram. There are also South Korean expatriates in Ukraine.
Arsen Borysovych Avakov is a Ukrainian statesman and politician of Armenian origin. Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in 2014–2021. Member of Parliament of Ukraine (2012–2014), Chairman of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration (2005–2010), Member of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Member of Euro 2012 Organizing Committee (2007). Member of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine. Honored Economist of Ukraine (2007).
The Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland, popularly called Wojsko Polskie in Poland are the national armed forces of the Republic of Poland. The name has been used since the early 19th century, but can also be applied to earlier periods. The Polish Legions and the Blue Army, composed of Polish volunteers from America and those who switched sides from the Central Powers, were formed during World War I. In the war's aftermath, the Polish Army was reformed from the remnants of the partitioning powers' forces and expanded significantly during the Polish–Soviet War of 1920.
Russian separatist forces in Ukraine, primarily the People's Militias of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), were pro-Russian paramilitaries in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. They were under the overall control of the Russian Federation, and were also referred to as Russian proxy forces. They were active during the war in Donbas (2014–2022), the first stage of the Russo-Ukrainian War. They then supported the Russian Armed Forces against the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the 2022 Russian invasion. In September 2022, Russia annexed the DPR and LPR, and began integrating the paramilitaries into its armed forces. They are designated as terrorist groups by the government of Ukraine.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine are the military forces of Ukraine. All military and security forces, including the Armed Forces, are under the command of the President of Ukraine and subject to oversight by a permanent Verkhovna Rada parliamentary commission. They trace their lineage to 1917, while the modern armed forces were formed after Ukrainian independence in 1991.
Ukrainian volunteer battalions were militias and paramilitary groups mobilized as a response to the perceived state of weakness and unwillingness of the regular Armed Forces to counter rising separatism in spring 2014. They trace their origins to the "Maidan Self-Defense" militias formed during the Euromaidan in 2013. The earliest of these volunteer units were later formalized into military, special police and paramilitary formations in a response to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine. Most of the formations were formed or placed under command of the Ministry of Internal Affairs — as "Special Tasks Patrol Police" — and Ministry of Defence — as "Territorial defence battalions". A minority of battalions were independent of state control.
The Territorial Defence Forces are the military reserve component of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Wagner Group, officially known as PMC Wagner is a Russian state-funded private military company (PMC) controlled until 2023 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russia's president Vladimir Putin. The Wagner Group has used infrastructure of the Russian Armed Forces. Evidence suggests that Wagner has been used as a proxy by the Russian government, allowing it to have plausible deniability for military operations abroad, and hiding the true casualties of Russia's foreign interventions.
The Georgian National Legion or Georgian Legion is a military unit formed by mostly ethnic Georgian volunteers fighting on the side of Ukraine in the war in Donbas and the Russo-Ukrainian War. The unit was organized in 2014, and in 2016 it was made part of the Ukrainian Army, under the 25th Mechanized Infantry Battalion "Kyiv Rus".
The International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine, or the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, is a military unit of the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine composed of foreign volunteers. It was created on 27 February 2022 by the Ukrainian government at the request of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to fight against the Russian invasion of the country.
The Russo-Ukrainian War has seen foreign volunteers participate on both sides of the conflict. Most foreign fighters joined the conflict during one of two waves. The first wave happened from 2014 to 2019 during the War in the Donbas and consisted of approximately 17,241 foreign fighters. The second wave is considered by researchers to have been much larger and began in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Freedom of Russia Legion, also called the Free Russia Legion, is a Ukrainian-based paramilitary unit of Russian citizens, which opposes the Russian regime of Vladimir Putin and its invasion of Ukraine. It was formed in March 2022 and is reportedly part of Ukraine's International Legion. It consists of defectors from the Russian Armed Forces, and other Russian volunteers, some of whom had emigrated to Ukraine. It is one of several such units participating in the Russo-Ukrainian War on behalf of Ukraine.
On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and Articles 31 and 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation is a group of federal laws promulgated by the Russian government during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These laws establish administrative and criminal punishments for "discrediting" or dissemination of "unreliable information" about the Russian Armed Forces, other Russian state bodies and their operations, and the activity of volunteers aiding the Russian Armed Forces, and for calls to impose sanctions against Russia, Russian organizations and citizens. These laws are an extension of Russian fake news laws and are sometimes referred to as the fakes laws.
The Norman Brigade is a foreign unit composed of foreign volunteers that was formed in early 2022. The unit is formed by veterans and volunteers from Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Germany, Spain, France, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Portugal, Italy, Jordan, Egypt and Norway, in addition to the United States, Canada and Britain.
The general mobilization in the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic began on 19 February 2022, 5 days before the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Tens of thousands of local residents were forcibly mobilized for the war.
The Separate Special Purpose Battalion of the Ministry of Defense of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, also known as OBON, is a military commando formation of Chechen volunteers, functioning as part of the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine. It is one of several Chechen armed volunteer formations on the side of Ukraine. It was created by Akhmed Zakayev on July 29, 2022, on the basis of a Chechen formation that has been fighting on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Russo-Ukrainian War:
