Kiev's Elite Vigilante Group Is Still Ready to Fight

The Iron Hundred pay tribute to fallen fellow protesters. All photos by the author

The protesters who occcupied Kiev's Independence Square may have deposed hated president Viktor Yanukovych, but they don't believe that the fight is over. In particular, the “Iron Hundred” (or Zalizna Sotnia), the self-­declared elite of Euromaidan’s volunteer defense force, are still ready to battle Yanukovych supporters or even the Russians if need be.

Members of the Iron Hundred were involved with the protests since the very first clashes on Hrushevskoho Street in January. “We were all in different squads, but we recognized each other by face,” a young fighter told me. “Eventually we veterans came together in this unit. Some of our comrades were killed from February 18 to 20, and a few more are still missing.”

Kiev was in mourning when I joined the Iron Hundred on their way to pay their respects to the fallen. Just about every spot where protesters had fallen in the fight against government forces was covered by flowers, candles, religious icons, and pictures of the dead, who have been dubbed the “Heavenly Hundred.” At one of site on Hrushevskoho Street that saw some of the fiercest battles, a woman broke into a distraught rant: “Where were all of you when these kids got killed? What were all of you doing?” She was met with an awkward silence. A few girls in the crowd tried to fight back tears. The squad leader, a man named Sergei, prayed with his men. They laid flowers down and moved on to the next site.

One of the many memorials to fallen Euromaidan protesters

The mood in Kiev in the days immediately after Yanukovych fled was not the post-revolution party that you might expect. If anything, the atmosphere had become more tense and somber. The revolutionary pop rock playing from radios was gone, replaced by broadcasts from Parliament on the latest votes and ministerial appointments. Few faces in the crowd seemed happy with the results. For many activists, the changes amounted to a reshuffling of participants in a system that should be completely purged.

I met with the Iron Hundred when they had just returned from the city of Dnipropetrovsk, where they had been on a mission with an outfit called AutoSich. “It’s kind of like Automaidan [a group of drivers involved in the Euromaidan protests], but more radical,” the young fighter said. “We managed to make some contacts with local militants who will join us in our fight.”

The Iron Hundred have lately been riding in columns of cars to combat the titushki—thugs, originally hired by the Yanukovych regime to beat up and terrorize protesters, who have now gone freelance. “They’re not even following their original orders anymore and have joined forces with local gangsters,” Sergei said. “Just terrorizing people, robbing, and looting. Though Yanukovych’s government has fallen apart, they are still paid by some [pro-Russian] Party of Regions members of parliament—and possibly Russia, but we can’t confirm this yet.”

Many law-enforcement officers have neglected their duties since Yanukovych fled the country, allowing these bandits to roam the eastern cities of Ukraine. “Maybe Odessa is next,” Sergei speculated. “We don’t know where we’re going for sure yet, but we’ll be where we’re needed most.”

A masked member of the Iron Hundred

The Iron Hundred’s banner is the red-and-­black flag of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a paramilitary force that fought against the Soviet Union during World War II. The flag has generated controversy—Russian state media has seized on the association to brand Euromaidan as a neo­-Nazi uprising, since the UPA collaborated with Nazi Germany at times. (They also fought against the Germans and anyone else who stood in the way of Ukrainian nationalism.)

Sergei said that the Euromaidan’s Iron Hundred adopted the name of a legendary UPA squad that was never defeated. “Even when the UPA was losing in 1949, they fought their way through the Russians, Poles, Slovaks, and Hungarians into western Germany and were eventually taken in by the Americans,” he said. Despite this sense of nationalism uniting them, the Iron Hundred has divided itself into two separate squads. “They brought in all these new guys from Lviv, and many of us didn’t feel like being the Iron Hundred of Lviv," Sergei told me. "So we split up, and now we share the same floor here in the City Hall.”

Sergei showed me around the other floors of Kiev’s occupied City Hall. Swastikas and other right­-wing imagery had been erased from the walls, except on the seventh floor, where the Right Sector, credited with giving Yanukovych the ultimatum on February 21 that is said to have prompted his flight the following day, has set up shop. A giant swastika and the number 1488 (which is associated with white supremacy) adorned their area. “We don’t talk with the Right Sector anymore at all,” Sergei said. “We just can’t agree on our ideas. They are too radical.”

Sergei explained that the Iron Hundred isn't politically unified; its members support varying parties. He is a supporter of Yulia Tymoshenko, who was embraced by the Euromaidan movement after being released from prison, where she spent three years. “Some say she is also corrupt, but her party (Fatherland) has a good program for economic, political, and social reform,” he said. “I think she can bring change to our country.”

Another memorial to a protester killed in the violence

Later, we stood outside City Hall, and Sergei pointed to a collection box with a sign that read, “for weapons.” According to Sergei, they are trying to raise some serious firepower. “Many young guys here are ready to fight. I too want to fight. The Ukrainian people are strong and brave, and we have a long history of guerrilla warfare.” I personally witnessed how resistance fighters charged up the hill on Instytutska Street on February 20—the deadliest day of Euromaidan—into a rain of shotgun pellets and sniper fire, against which their metal shields were about as useful as cardboard. It didn’t prevent them from recovering ground that in previous days had been lost to Berkut special forces and building new, bigger barricades while still under fire.

With a Russian occupation of Crimea currently underway, the thought of a civil war doesn’t seem far-­fetched. “Throughout our history, we have always been fighting for independence,” Sergei said. “Now we might have to fight again.” If Russian forces persist in invading Ukraine, these fighters could end up in many situations in which they would be outnumbered and outgunned.

Katya

Amid the posturing and talk of war stood Katya, who was helping the Iron Hundred and other Euromaidan activists as a medic. Although she sounded tough when talking or joking with the others, the violence had clearly taken its toll on her. The 19-year-old student joined the movement during the earliest protests, in November. Since then, she’s seen many people shot, wounded, and killed. A man saved her life and lost his eye as a result. “I was crying for hours after that,” she recalled. “I can’t sleep at home, because when I close my eyes I keep seeing the dead people.”

She tries to spend as much time as she can in Independence Square, because it’s where she feels most comfortable. “I’ve missed my exams, but hopefully I can retake them sometime,” she said. She was not alone among those who have suffered from the violence. Some of the fighters in the Iron Hundred looked barely out of their teens, but exhaustion was visible on their faces. Like Katya, they occupy a space between their previous lives and the post-revolutionary Ukraine they want to see develop. Talking to them, it became clear to me that the revolution is far from over.