Written by: Nino Natroshvili

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a complex system of resistance took shape across the region. Alongside the Ukrainian military and territorial defense units, a lesser-known front emerged: an informal constellation of anarchist and anti-authoritarian fighters, medics, and support crews, some Ukrainian, others exiled Russians and Belarusians, who found themselves drawn together not by allegiance to any state, but by a shared refusal of empire, militarism, and dictatorship.

They framed the war as a struggle against imperial domination, authoritarianism, and genocide. In the words of the Resistance Committee (Ukrainian: Комітет Спротиву), an anarchist group fighting on the Ukrainian side: “We are the enemies of imperial rule, which is present now in Ukraine by the brutal Putinist army. We fight for the sake of Ukrainian society, against destruction and death which Russian occupiers make for it.”[1]

As Belarusian anarchists in exile argued, it is misleading to reduce the conflict to a “proxy war” between NATO and Russia. In their words, such a view erases the agency of Ukrainians, whose resistance in the first days of the invasion upended Western leaders’ expectations of Russia’s quick victory. For them, the war is first and foremost “the Ukrainian people’s war against the invasion of Russia,” grounded in a collective refusal to return to dictatorship.[2]

Their stance resonates with that of a Kropotkin[3] expressed in the beginning of WW1: “An anti-militarist ought never to join the anti-militarist agitation without taking in his inner self a solemn vow that in case a war breaks out, notwithstanding all efforts to prevent it, he will give the full support of his action to the country that will be invaded by a neighbor, whosoever the neighbor may be. Because, if the anti-militarists remain mere onlookers on the war, they support by their inaction the invaders; they help them to make slaves of the conquered populations; they aid them to become still stronger, and thus to be a still stronger obstacle to the Social Revolution in the future.”[4]

This is not a story about mass mobilization or partisan dominance, but about a small, ideologically fractured, but committed networks acting across borders and often in the margins. This anarchist presence does not represent a unified ideology or a coherent movement. Disagreements abound – over armed struggle, over nationalism, over cooperation with state structures. But that messiness is also part of the picture.

The First Sparks: Sabotage in Belarus

Belarusian anarchists’ direct involvement in the Ukraine war remains less visible but symbolically important. While fewer in number, Belarusian militants have supported Ukrainian resistance politically and logistically, including through exile organizing and solidarity actions. The first visible signs of anarchist resistance to the war began in Belarus – the quiet rear base for Russia’s northern assault on Kyiv. While President Lukashenko offered up Belarusian territory for Russian military logistics, a series of sabotage actions quickly disrupted the smooth flow of troops and equipment.

Just days after the war began, Belarusian activists, many affiliated with loosely connected anarchist and anti-authoritarian circles, began targeting railway infrastructure. Relay cabinets and signal control boxes were burned or destroyed in several regions, forcing military trains to slow or reroute entirely. The group “Busły liaciać” (“Storks Are Flying”), which had emerged after the 2020 Belarus protests, claimed several actions, while the hacker collective Cyber Partisans disabled portions of the Belarusian Railway’s IT systems.

By mid-March 2022, the scale of disruption had grown so significant that Russian logistics via Belarus had become a liability. Belarusian state authorities responded with severe crackdowns: dozens were arrested, several sentenced under newly expanded “terrorism” statutes. A few, like Siarhei Hlebka[5] and Siarhei Kanavalau,[6] received double-digit prison terms, and 6 people associated with Busły laciać sentenced 8.5 to 15 years to prison.[7] Others faced beatings and torture during interrogations. The rail partisans, many of them anonymous or pseudonymous, had opened the first clandestine front of the war.

As The Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) Belarus noted, the repression that crushed the 2020 uprising had already paved the way for Belarus to become a launchpad for Russia’s war. Lists of anarchist prisoners are published on their page, ranging from underage detainees for spreading leaflets to charges of terrorism involving state sanctioned torture during interrogations and 20-year prison sentences.[8] Without Moscow’s backing, they argued, Lukashenko’s regime could not have survived, and the weakness of post-2020 resistance made sabotage all the more urgent.

Sabotage Spreads to Russia

Within weeks, similar tactics began surfacing inside Russia itself. As the war continued, Russian anarchists and other militant anti-war activists picked up where their Belarusian counterparts had started. The Combat Organization of Anarcho-Communists (BOAK),[9] a decentralized group operating largely underground, began claiming responsibility for attacks on railway infrastructure, military enlistment offices, and communications towers.[10]

The first known action, taking place already in March 2022 was throwing Molotov cocktails to military enlistment office in Yekaterinburg. Similar arson attacks were repeated in other cities. In parallel, the group calling itself “Stop the Wagons” (Russian: Останови вагоны) encouraged coordinated rail sabotage, sharing practical guidance on disabling tracks without causing harm to civilians. The explicit goal: to slow or halt the transport of military equipment toward the front.

These actions were always selective, targeting logistics and infrastructure tied to the war. BOAK emphasized non-lethal tactics and ideological clarity. They framed sabotage not as terrorism, but as partisan warfare – a direct inheritance, they argued, from the historical resistance against authoritarian regimes.

Despite this careful framing, Russian authorities treated such actions as serious national security threats. Arrests and lengthy sentences followed. Activist Dmitry Ivanov were sentenced for symbolic anti-war statements, while others faced charges for participating in supposed “terrorist communities” with no evidence beyond online activity. Nikita Oleynik who founded Anarchist library in his hometown in 2011 is charged with organizing a terrorist group, which might lead to life imprisonment.[11] He was also reportedly tortured during interrogations.[12] Full list of political prisoners persecuted for anti-war stance (286 at present) can be viewed at Memorial’s website.[13]

As the historian Aleksander Łaniewski observed, Russia itself is rapidly becoming a neo-fascist state, where the cult of violence and militarism is instilled “from kindergarten to politics of memory.”[14] For anarchists like BOAK, sabotage is thus not abstract militancy but a practical response to a state that recognizes only the language of force.

Russian anarchists also maintain active resistance abroad, organizing protests against Russia’s “foreign agent” laws and supporting underground networks back home. In March 2023, Russian anarchists gathered in Tbilisi to protest legislation tightening state control over civil society.[15] Such activities highlight the transnational dimension of anarchist resistance, as exiles sustain the struggle despite geographic displacement.

Fighters without a State

Not all anarchists chose sabotage. Some chose to fight.

The ABC Belarus, anarchist political organization, emphasized that anarchists fighting within Ukrainian military structures were not abandoning their ideals but adapting them. An unregistered autonomous force, they noted, would likely have been destroyed in the chaos of the war’s first weeks. Integration into Territorial Defense was a “forced and inevitable truce,” a temporary alliance with the state against a worse enemy,[16] echoing earlier anarchist precedents from Spain to Makhno.

Among the first Russian anarchists to take up arms for Ukraine was Dmitry Petrov, also known as Leshiy. An academic and longtime anti-authoritarian activist, Petrov had helped found BOAK, but due to repressions he moved to Ukraine. After starting of the war, he joined the Territorial Defense and later the 95th Air Assault Brigade. In March 2023, he was killed near Bakhmut.

In his final public statement, which was supposed to be published in case of his death, Petrov explained his choice with disarming clarity: “As an anarchist, a revolutionary and a Russian, I considered it necessary to take part in the armed resistance that the Ukrainian people are putting up against Putin’s occupiers. I did it for the sake of justice, the defense of Ukrainian society and the liberation of my country, Russia, from oppression. For the sake of all the people who are deprived of dignity and the opportunity to breathe freely by the vile totalitarian system created in Russia and Belarus.”[17]

Russian anarchists, some previously imprisoned or exiled joined volunteer battalions under Ukrainian command. Fighters like Aleksey “Shved” Makarov framed their choice not as support for the Ukrainian state, but as participation in a broader revolutionary war against Russian imperialism: “I believe that taking part in this war contributes to the revolution’s emergence in Russia and the opportunity to realize our social project.”[18]

For Ukrainian anarchists, the full-scale invasion was not a dilemma of principle. In the words of Anton, a coordinator with Solidarity Collectives, a network of Ukrainian Anarchists: “There is no alternative to fighting. If the Russian army surrenders, the war ends. If Ukrainian soldiers lay down their weapons, Ukraine will be occupied, and thousands more will be tortured and killed. These are the only two possible outcomes. (…) These aren’t people who just follow orders blindly. They think critically about what they’re doing. They don’t fight because the state tells them to fight. They fight because they know what is at stake if they don’t.”[19]

Many had already been active in mutual aid networks or defense-related efforts since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and the Donbas conflict began. In Ukraine, anarchist groups have joined the armed struggle directly, fighting alongside volunteer battalions. Groups like Solidarity Collectives and Assembly Kharkiv helped deliver food, medicine, body armor, and power generators to frontlines and liberated villages. They refused to work with oligarch-backed NGOs or foreign governments. Their organizing principle was simple: horizontal solidarity, not charity. Mutual aid, not humanitarian spectacle.

As Zosia Brom observed, this practice-based solidarity distinguished Eastern European anarchists from some Western counterparts, where debates often became bogged down in abstract “Westplaining.”[20] For many Ukrainian and Belarusian anarchists, survival work on the ground matters more than ideological purity.

A Triangle of Resistance

Though decentralized and ideologically diverse, the anarchist movements in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine share more than just labels. They share tactics, histories, and often personnel. Telegram channels and encrypted chats link organizers across borders. Lessons from Belarusian sabotage circulate in Russian activist circles. Fighters on the Ukrainian frontlines include both Ukrainian anti-authoritarians and Russian exiles, sometimes fighting side by side.

It is a resistance born of necessity and held together by shared opposition to both imperial war and statist repression. Each point of the triangle reflects its own conditions: in Belarus, severe repression and early innovation in sabotage; in Russia, an expanding underground of decentralized sabotage and political trials; in Ukraine, a fusion of combat and care, where anarchists fight not only Russian troops but also erasure by liberal and nationalist narratives.

Ukrainian anarchist historian Anatoly Dubovik has argued that the war may catalyze a deeper division within global anarchism: between those who recognize the necessity of armed resistance to imperial aggression, and those who cling to abstract pacifism or repeat Russian state narratives. For him, the unity of Ukrainian anarchists around self-defense contrasts sharply with the paralysis he sees among anarchists abroad.[21]

In Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, we see different stages of authoritarian consolidation and different responses to it. The story of anarchist involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war complicates dominant narratives of nationalism and state sovereignty. These activists resist not only Putin’s authoritarianism and imperial aggression but also challenge the legitimacy of all hierarchical power structures. Their fight is inherently political and visionary, grounded in a desire for social justice. And while their scale may be limited, the meaning isn’t. They may be among the clearest signs that even under the empire and war, a different politics is still possible.

These are not the heroes of some ideological fable. The costs of this stance are written in blood: at least twenty-three anarchists and antifascists, among them most recently the artist and soldier David Chichkan[22] have died in Ukraine since 2022.[23] Their lives and deaths underscore that anarchist resistance to the war is not an abstraction but grounded in direct practice and sacrifice.

References:

ArtReview. “David Chichkan, Ukrainian Artist Whose Anarchist Beliefs Informed His Work, 1986–2025.” August 11, 2025. https://artreview.com/david-chichkan-ukrainian-artist-whose-anarchist-beliefs-informed-his-work-1986-2025/?fbclid=IwY2xjawMOzfVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHugy2AVKWkH2thNxJAEQhU0pErtxtOQlCjh_1hCf4R8wIbMXNtNny1wAA1xC_aem_KMsxYmMBuu5uA5EvC_iLGQ.

Brom, Zosia. Inquiry: Anarchists and the War in Ukraine. n.d. https://kontradikce.flu.cas.cz/en/online-content/156.

Committee, Комітет Спротиву /// Resistance. “Manifesto of Resistance Committee.” Medium, May 20, 2022. https://medium.com/@rescom/manifesto-of-resistance-committee-261e01769dac.

Dubovik, Anatoly. Inquiry: Anarchists and the War in Ukraine. n.d. https://kontradikce.flu.cas.cz/en/online-content/156.

Fassier, Ella. “Russian Anarchists Are Sabotaging Railways to Stop Putin’s War on Ukraine.” Vice, August 31, 2022. https://www.vice.com/en/article/russian-anarchists-are-sabotaging-railways-to-stop-putins-war-on-ukraine/.

Francis, Robert. “Ukrainian Anarchists Fighting Imperialism and Building Mutual Aid in Wartime.” Tempest, April 3, 2025. https://tempestmag.org/2025/04/ukrainian-anarchists-fighting-imperialism-and-building-mutual-aid-in-wartime/.

Kravchuk, Vira. “Russian Anarchist Fights alongside Ukrainian Forces with Hope of Bringing Revolution to Russia.” Euromaidan Press, June 6, 2024. https://euromaidanpress.com/2024/06/06/russian-anarchist-fights-alongside-ukrainian-forces-with-hope-of-bringing-revolution-to-russia/.

Kropotkin, Pyotr. “Anti-Militarism: Was It Properly Understood?” Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism XXVIII, no. 307 (1914). https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-anti-militarism-was-it-properly-understood.

Łaniewski, Aleksander. Inquiry: Anarchists and the War in Ukraine. n.d. https://kontradikce.flu.cas.cz/en/online-content/156.

Memorial. “Persecuted for Anti-War Stance.” Поддержка Политзаключённых. Мемориал, n.d. Accessed August 17, 2025. https://memopzk.org/en/list-persecuted/persecuted-for-anti-war-stance/.

Prisoners – Anarchist Black Cross Belarus. n.d. Accessed August 17, 2025. https://abc-belarus.org/en/prisoners/.

Square. “22 anarchists and antifascists who died in Ukraine during the war. Who were they?” blackploshad.org, September 14, 2024. https://blackploshad.org/memorial/.

“Statement of the ABC Belarus on the War in Ukraine – Anarchist Black Cross Belarus.” Abc-Belarus.Org, April 17, 2024. https://abc-belarus.org/en/2022/06/10/statement-of-the-abc-belarus-on-the-war-in-ukraine/.

The Final Straw Radio. “Ongoing Sabotage and Resistance to War in Russia and Ukraine | The Final Straw Radio Podcast.” Thefinalstrawradio.Noblogs.Org, July 17, 2022. https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2022/07/17/ongoing-sabotage-and-resistance-to-war-in-russia-and-ukraine/.

Viasna Human Rights Center. “Siarhei Hlebka — Political Prisoners in Belarus.” Prisoners.Spring96.Org. Accessed August 17, 2025. https://prisoners.spring96.org/en/person/sjarhei-hlebka.

Viasna Human Rights Center. “Siarhei Kanavalau — Political Prisoners in Belarus.” Prisoners.Spring96.Org. Accessed August 17, 2025. https://prisoners.spring96.org/en/person/sjarhei-kanavalau.

Настоящее Время. “В Беларуси обвиняемые по делу ‘Буслы ляцяць’ получили от 8,5 до 15 лет колонии.” Настоящее Время, September 28, 2022. https://www.currenttime.tv/a/vyneseny-prigovory-shesti-figurantam-dela-initsiativy-busly-lyatsyats/32056314.html.

Павлова, Анна. “Девять жизней анархиста Петрова. История активиста из России, который воевал за Украину и погиб под Бахмутом.” Медиазона, June 5, 2023. https://zona.media/article/2023/06/05/petrov.

Прамень. “The Position of the Group of Belarusian Anarchists in Warsaw on the War in Ukraine.” Pramen, July 1, 2022. https://pramen.io/en/2022/07/the-position-of-the-group-of-belarusian-anarchists-in-warsaw-on-the-war-in-ukraine/.

Раутиайнен, Антти. “Anarchist and Anti-Fascist Prisoners in Russia – Αναρχικοί Και Αντιφασίστες Στις Ρωσικές Φυλακές.” Text. Автономное Действие, July 6, 2025. https://avtonom.org/en/author_columns/anarchist-and-anti-fascist-prisoners-russia-anarhikoi-kai-antifasistes-stis-rosikes.

Редакция. “Анархисты из России на протестах против закона об иноагентах в Тбилиси 8 марта.” Text. Автономное Действие, March 9, 2023. https://avtonom.org/news/anarhisty-iz-rossii-na-protestah-protiv-zakona-ob-inoagentah-v-tbilisi-8-marta.

Фонд Поддержки Левых Политзаключённых. “Никита Олейник.” November 27, 2024. https://libertyleft.org/nikita-oleynik/.

[1] Комітет Спротиву /// Resistance Committee, “Manifesto of Resistance Committee,” Medium, May 20, 2022, https://medium.com/@rescom/manifesto-of-resistance-committee-261e01769dac.

[2] Прамень, “The Position of the Group of Belarusian Anarchists in Warsaw on the War in Ukraine,” Pramen, July 1, 2022, https://pramen.io/en/2022/07/the-position-of-the-group-of-belarusian-anarchists-in-warsaw-on-the-war-in-ukraine/.

[3] Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (1841-1921): Russian anarchist and revolutionary. Prominent theorist of the anarchist movement.

[4] Pyotr Kropotkin, “Anti-Militarism: Was It Properly Understood?,” Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism XXVIII, no. 307 (1914), https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-anti-militarism-was-it-properly-understood.

[5] Viasna Human Rights Center, “Siarhei Hlebka — Political Prisoners in Belarus,” Prisoners.Spring96.Org, accessed August 17, 2025, https://prisoners.spring96.org/en/person/sjarhei-hlebka.

[6] Viasna Human Rights Center, “Siarhei Kanavalau — Political Prisoners in Belarus,” Prisoners.Spring96.Org, accessed August 17, 2025, https://prisoners.spring96.org/en/person/sjarhei-kanavalau.

[7] Настоящее Время, “В Беларуси обвиняемые по делу ‘Буслы ляцяць’ получили от 8,5 до 15 лет колонии,” Настоящее Время, September 28, 2022, https://www.currenttime.tv/a/vyneseny-prigovory-shesti-figurantam-dela-initsiativy-busly-lyatsyats/32056314.html.

[8] Prisoners – Anarchist Black Cross Belarus, n.d., accessed August 17, 2025, https://abc-belarus.org/en/prisoners/.

[9] The Final Straw Radio, “Ongoing Sabotage and Resistance to War in Russia and Ukraine | The Final Straw Radio Podcast,” Thefinalstrawradio.Noblogs.Org, July 17, 2022, https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2022/07/17/ongoing-sabotage-and-resistance-to-war-in-russia-and-ukraine/.

[10] Ella Fassier, “Russian Anarchists Are Sabotaging Railways to Stop Putin’s War on Ukraine,” Vice, August 31, 2022, https://www.vice.com/en/article/russian-anarchists-are-sabotaging-railways-to-stop-putins-war-on-ukraine/.

[11] Антти Раутиайнен, “Anarchist and Anti-Fascist Prisoners in Russia – Αναρχικοί Και Αντιφασίστες Στις Ρωσικές Φυλακές,” Text, Автономное Действие, July 6, 2025, https://avtonom.org/en/author_columns/anarchist-and-anti-fascist-prisoners-russia-anarhikoi-kai-antifasistes-stis-rosikes.

[12] “Никита Олейник,” Фонд Поддержки Левых Политзаключённых, November 27, 2024, https://libertyleft.org/nikita-oleynik/.

[13] Memorial, “Persecuted for Anti-War Stance,” Поддержка Политзаключённых. Мемориал, n.d., accessed August 17, 2025, https://memopzk.org/en/list-persecuted/persecuted-for-anti-war-stance/.

[14] Aleksander Łaniewski, Inquiry: Anarchists and the War in Ukraine, n.d., https://kontradikce.flu.cas.cz/en/online-content/156.

[15] Редакция, “Анархисты из России на протестах против закона об иноагентах в Тбилиси 8 марта,” Text, Автономное Действие, March 9, 2023, https://avtonom.org/news/anarhisty-iz-rossii-na-protestah-protiv-zakona-ob-inoagentah-v-tbilisi-8-marta.

[16] “Statement of the ABC Belarus on the War in Ukraine – Anarchist Black Cross Belarus,” Abc-Belarus.Org, April 17, 2024, https://abc-belarus.org/en/2022/06/10/statement-of-the-abc-belarus-on-the-war-in-ukraine/.

[17] Анна Павлова, “Девять жизней анархиста Петрова. История активиста из России, который воевал за Украину и погиб под Бахмутом,” Медиазона, June 5, 2023, https://zona.media/article/2023/06/05/petrov.

[18] Vira Kravchuk, “Russian Anarchist Fights alongside Ukrainian Forces with Hope of Bringing Revolution to Russia,” Euromaidan Press, June 6, 2024, https://euromaidanpress.com/2024/06/06/russian-anarchist-fights-alongside-ukrainian-forces-with-hope-of-bringing-revolution-to-russia/.

[19] Robert Francis, “Ukrainian Anarchists Fighting Imperialism and Building Mutual Aid in Wartime,” Tempest, April 3, 2025, https://tempestmag.org/2025/04/ukrainian-anarchists-fighting-imperialism-and-building-mutual-aid-in-wartime/.

[20] Zosia Brom, Inquiry: Anarchists and the War in Ukraine, n.d., https://kontradikce.flu.cas.cz/en/online-content/156.

[21] Anatoly Dubovik, Inquiry: Anarchists and the War in Ukraine, n.d., https://kontradikce.flu.cas.cz/en/online-content/156.

[22] “David Chichkan, Ukrainian Artist Whose Anarchist Beliefs Informed His Work, 1986–2025,” ArtReview, August 11, 2025, https://artreview.com/david-chichkan-ukrainian-artist-whose-anarchist-beliefs-informed-his-work-1986-2025/?fbclid=IwY2xjawMOzfVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHugy2AVKWkH2thNxJAEQhU0pErtxtOQlCjh_1hCf4R8wIbMXNtNny1wAA1xC_aem_KMsxYmMBuu5uA5EvC_iLGQ.

[23] Square, “22 anarchists and antifascists who died in Ukraine during the war. Who were they?,” blackploshad.org, September 14, 2024, https://blackploshad.org/memorial/.