The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, reanimated recruitment activities and individual motivations for foreign volunteers to travel to the war zone.Although by far the smallest number of volunteers traveling to Ukraine, foreign violence-oriented extremists traveling to Ukraine represent clear security risks. 

The brief provides a risk assessment of the potential threats posed by violence-oriented extremists in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war once they return to their prior countries of residence/homeland. The brief concludes with policy recommendations to quickly and comprehensive identify and share knowledge on this threat as well as disrupt the travel of violence-oriented extremists to Ukraine.

A few hundred Western individuals with extreme right wing (XRW) or “nationalist” convictions travelled to fight in the conflict in Ukraine. Many had known each other from before the war.

Central-Eastern Europe (CEE) host a variety of paramilitary organisations. Some of these consider themselves anti-systemic, i.e. anti-democratic, anti-liberal, nativist, authoritarian and also, at times, pan-Slavic or pro-Russian (apart from the Ukrainian case).

This webinar aimed to bridge this knowledge gap concerning the travel logistics underpinning the flow of foreign recruits and provides a comparative perspective while looking at the same issues for three sets of foreign (terrorist) fighters: extreme Islamist terrorist foreign fighters, extreme right-wing (heading to Ukraine), and extreme left-wing (heading to Syria) foreign fighters.

In this first English-language book on the Azov movement, journalist and researcher Michael Colborne explains how Azov came to be and how it continues to exploit Ukraine’s fractured social and political situation—including the only ongoing war on European soil—to build one of the most ambitious and dangerous far-right movements in the world.