Financing Extreme Right-Wing Volunteers in Ukraine: Past Lessons for New Risks?

Though a small minority of the foreign nationals who have travelled to Ukraine since 2014 to take up arms, right-wing extremists fighting in Ukraine stand to gain combat experience and deepen networks among fellow battle-hardened ideologues. The risks posed by the return of these individuals to their home countries in Europe possibly reflects concerns over another kind of returnee: those who travelled to Iraq and Syria to join the Islamic State.

In his CRAAFT research briefing entitled “Financing Extreme Right-Wing Volunteers in Ukraine: Past Lessons for New Risks?”, Gonzalo Saiz outlines what is currently known about how extremist volunteers in Ukraine finance their travel and maintenance while in-theatre, contrasting this with the modus operandi of Islamist extremists who travelled to join the Islamic State. Looking to the coordinated CTF measures applied against Islamic State travellers, he considers how similar tactics might be effectively applied in the Ukrainian context.