Ukrainian National Assembly
Українська Національна Асамблея |
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Founded | 3/4 November 1990 |
Dissolved | 22 May 2014(Political wing only.) |
Merged into | Right Sector(Political wing only.) |
Headquarters | Kiev |
Paramilitary Wing | Ukrainian National Self Defense |
Membership (2006) | 8,000 |
Ideology | Ukrainian nationalism |
Political position | Far-right |
International affiliation | None |
Colours | Red, black |
Party flag | |
Website | |
una-unso |
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The Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian People's Self-Defence (Ukrainian: Українська Національна Асамблея-Українська Народна Самооборона , УНА-УНСО, UNA-UNSO) is a Ukrainian political organisation seen as far-right in Ukraine and abroad. Although the Ukrainian National Assembly (Ukrainian: УНА, UNA) was the organisation's political wing, on 22 May 2014 it merged with Right Sector; the UNA-UNSO continues to operate independently. According to Andreas Umland and Anton Shekhovtsov, the UNSD was created in 1991 as a "formation manned by UNA members who had served in the Soviet armed forces ... to confront the State Committee for the State of Emergency".
The UNA was created on 30 June 1990 in Lviv as the Ukrainian Interparty Assembly (UMA), led by maverick politician and nationalist writer Dmytro Korchynsky. On 3–4 November 1990, a congress of the Ukrainian National Association (UNS) was held in Kiev. On 11 January 1991, UNS squads headed by Yuriy Tyma guarded the Seimas Palace during the January Events in Lithuania. On 30 June 1991, about 200 UNS members held a torchlight parade in Lviv commemorating the 1941 declaration of Ukrainian independence.
During the first days of the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, a UNS squad led by Vietnam War veteran Valeriy Bobrovych left for Moscow; the squad later laid the foundations for the Argo battalion. On 19 August 1991, during the struggle against the State Committee on the State of Emergency, the UNS created squads of the Ukrainian People's Self-Defense (UNSO) in Kiev. The squads were formed around a small group of ethnic-Ukrainian Soviet army veterans of the war in Afghanistan. In December 1990 Yuriy Shukhevych, the son of Roman Shukhevych, was elected as the first leader of the UNS. Because of the 8 September 1991 Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, the sixth session of the UMA was renamed the Ukrainian National Assembly; it became known as the UNA-UNSO, due to the UNSO's close association with the UNA.