Dmytro Anatoliyovych Yarosh is a Ukrainian activist, politician, nationalist and military commander who is the main commander of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army.
29 Facts About Dmytro Yarosh
From 2014 until 2019, Yarosh served as a People's Deputy of Ukraine.
Dmytro Yarosh lost the seat in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election.
Dmytro Yarosh was born on 30 September 1971 in Dniprodzerzhynsk, a town in predominantly Russian-speaking Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in central-eastern Ukraine.
Dmytro Yarosh's mother worked in a car factory and his father an engineer at a machine plant.
In 1989, Dmytro Yarosh, who was 18 at the time, and a group of friends were, allegedly, the first people to raise the yellow-blue flag of Ukraine in eastern Ukraine, more precisely in Dneprodzerzhinsk.
Since October 1988, Dmytro Yarosh has been active in Ukrainian politics: in February 1989, he became a member of the People's Movement of Ukraine, coinciding with his service in the Soviet Army.
In 1994, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Dmytro Yarosh was one of the founders of the Ukrainian nationalist organisation Tryzub.
In 2001, Dmytro Yarosh graduated from the State University of Education in Drohobych, Ukraine.
On 1 April 2013, Dmytro Yarosh became an assistant-consultant to the Verkhovna Rada deputy from the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, they are long-time friends.
Dmytro Yarosh refused to endorse this agreement and refused to disarm Right Sector.
Dmytro Yarosh denied his role in these events until two years later.
Dmytro Yarosh was a candidate in the 25 May 2014 Ukrainian presidential election.
In January 2019 Dmytro Yarosh stated he only took part in the election "not to destroy the revolutionary structures after the revolution".
Dmytro Yarosh stated that he was fully aware it was "virtually impossible" he could win the election and that because he was engaged in military action since the first days of April 2014 he did not campaign.
Dmytro Yarosh took part in the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election as a Right Sector candidate in single-member district number 39 located in Vasylkivka Raion.
Dmytro Yarosh did not join a faction in the Verkhovna Rada.
In July 2015, Dmytro Yarosh announced the creation of a paramilitary formation known as the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, a volunteer battalion formed by members of the Right Sector.
In early April 2015, Ukraine's defence ministry announced that MP Dmytro Yarosh was to become an aide to military chief Viktor Muzhenko and that his Right Sector fighting group would be integrated into the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Dmytro Yarosh resigned as Right Sector leader on 11 November 2015.
Late December 2015 Dmytro Yarosh announced he was forming a new political party that would have its founding congress in February 2016.
Similarly, Dmytro Yarosh announced the creation of a new paramilitary volunteer battalion known as the Ukrainian Volunteer Army.
In February 2016 Dmytro Yarosh started a new organisation called Governmental Initiative of Dmytro Yarosh.
Dmytro Yarosh did not participate in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election.
On November 2,2021, Dmytro Yarosh said on social media he had been appointed Adviser to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
Dmytro Yarosh met his wife Olha, who Dmytro Yarosh claims was his first love, in elementary school.
On 1 March 2014 Right Sector's page on Russian online social networking service VKontakte showed an entry with Dmytro Yarosh's alleged appeal to Doku Umarov, a Chechen militant guerrilla leader associated with Al-Qaeda, for support of Ukraine.
Dmytro Yarosh has been placed on an international wanted list by Interpol at the request of the Russian Federation on 25 July 2015.
Dmytro Yarosh has been placed on an international wanted list by the Russian Federation.