A recent shootout between the Ukrainian civilian and military security services in the street of Kyiv exposed a relatively little know and dark underbelly of the Russo-Ukrainian war. The shootout was caused by an attempt by the civilian counterintelligence agency (SBU) to arrest a Russian citizen, suspected of spying for Russia while fighting in the ranks of the so-called Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), a military unit under the auspices of the Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR). RDK features prominent members of the Russian extremist scene who at different points after 2014 opted for fighting against Putin’s Russia in the ranks of the Ukrainian army. The unit has famously been used in Ukrainian hit and run attacks in the Russian territory as a deniable force which claimed operational and tactical independence despite being run/handled by HUR.
The fact that RDK, a Ukrainian unit, consists of Russian citizens of whom many are known for their far-right views, often at odds with European values, constitutes a future challenge for Ukraine’s EU ambitions. On one hand, presence of extreme right-wing individuals in the military and their ability to attract likeminded recruits from both Ukraine and abroad amounts to a P/CVE challenge. At the same time, RDK is by no means the only controversial Ukrainian unit which seems to function at the intersection of state control/deniability, and which could be accused of entrepreneurial (read: criminal) activities inside Ukraine allegedly overseen or ordered by their security patrons within the Ukrainian security structure. Such an arrangement, which sees the state and initially anti-state, extremist actors working in tandem towards questionable goals, amounts to an even more profound security challenge for Ukraine and its partners in the EU.
ICCT asked three prominent experts to help disentangle this seeming Gordian knot and decipher the interconnections between conflict, state meddling, extremism and criminality:
Ian Garner, Pilecki Institute, Warsaw
Donald Bowser, independent consultant on Ukraine, co-author of ICCT and GLOBSEC’s report on Russian state terrorism
Dr. Joana de Deus Pereira, RUSI Europe and the EU Knowledge Hub on Prevention of Radicalisation
Moderator: Kacper Rekawek, ICCT.
Join us for a webinar on 15 October 2026, 15:00 CET
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