Dmytro Yarosh

Dmytro Yarosh (Ukrainian: Дмитро Ярош; born 30 September 1971) is a Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine. He was a leading figure in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and is the leader of the far-right militant Right Sector organization.

He was born in Dniprodzerzhynsk, a town in the predominantly Russian-speaking central eastern Ukraine. In 1988 graduated from High School # 24 of Dniprodzerzhynsk. As all kids of certain age of Soviet Union he was a member of Soviet Pioneers and later Soviet All-Union Leninist Young Communist League organizations, subsidiaries of the Communist Party of the USSR.

Since February 1989 he was a member of People's Movement of Ukraine organization. From October 1989 to November 1991 he was drafted and served 2 year service in the Soviet Army, as a private.

During the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he joined radical Ukrainian nationalist groups. In 1994, he joined, and since 2005 led, the right-wing Stepan Bandera Treezoob organization. During the EuroMaidan protests in the early 2014, Treezoob became the core of the newly founded Right Sector, a coalition of right-wing ultra-nationalist radicals. During these protests he advocated for a "national revolution" and dismissed the Viktor Yanukovych administration as an "internal occupational regime".

On March 1, 2014 Dmytro Yarosh asked Dokka Umarov, a Chechen militant guerilla leader associated with Al-Qaeda, for support of Ukraine:

Ukranian nation and nations of [Northern] Caucasus region have been united by mutual bloodshed. Many Ukranians supported a freedom fight of Chechen and other Caucausian nations with guns in their hands. Now is the time to support Ukraine!
As the leader of the "Right Sector", I beg you to intensify your fight. Russia is not as strong as it seems. You have a unique chance to win. Take it!"

Right Sector denied the information about this appeal to Umarov and stated that the call on the group's VK page appeared due to the page and one its administrators account hacking. The social network page, on which the appeal of Yarosh to Umarov was posted, is now blocked in Russian network at a request of the Attorney General of Russia.

Yarosh calls for a ban on a Party of Regions of Ukraine, as well as on a Communist Party of Ukraine. He considers Russia as a main adversary of Ukraine, although he also has little patience for Western influence on Ukraine.

According to Yarosh, he never had a job in his life. He is married to wife Olga and has three children: Anastasia, Irina, and Dmitr.

Quotes of Dmytro Yarosh

“For all the years of Ukraine’s independence, Russia has pursued a systematic, targeted policy of subjugation toward Ukraine, ... So of course we will prepare for a conflict with them, ...If they stick their faces here like they did in Georgia in 2008, they’ll get it in the teeth.”.