Belarusian Volunteer Corps

The Belarusian Volunteer Corps (Belarusian: Беларускі добраахвотніцкі корпус, romanized: Byelaruski dobraakhvotnitski korpus) is a military formation of Belarusian volunteers working for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, formed in 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

History

On December 25, 2022, Belarusian volunteers Ihor "Yanki" Yankov, Andriy "Bezsmertnyi" Trotsevsky and Rodion "Gena" Batulin announced the creation of the Belarusian Volunteer Corps, made up of several different Belarusian units that have been fighting the Russian Army in Ukraine.

Previously, the leaders of the new formation were members of various volunteer units. Thus, "Yanki" gathered the commander of the Belarusian unit in the Ukrainian volunteer battalion "Brotherhood", the machine gunner of the Ukrainian group "Tradition and Order", the commander of the international battalion "Titan". Before the start of the full-scale war, Rodion Batulin was known as one of the closest associates of Serhii "Botsman" Korotkyh, later he became a representative of the "Terror" battalion. This formation split from the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment in the summer of 2022 and operated as an independent unit before joining the Belarusian Volunteer Corps.

The unit took part in the 2023 Belgorod Oblast incursions through the Terror Battalion alongside the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Polish Volunteer Corps. The unit took part in the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive, fighting along the Donetsk front where the unit has suffered at least one fatality.

In December 2023, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus designated the unit as an extremist group.

See also

• International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine
• Russian Volunteer Corps
• Polish Volunteer Corps

References

External links

• Media related to Belarusian Volunteer Corps at Wikimedia Commons