Radical nationalist UKR militias were formed by hooligans and criminals and recruited among those subcultures. Started off as irregular “damage control” goon squads during the first stages of the civil war. Joining them was initially frowned upon. They often disrespected the official UKR chain of command during the pre-2022 conflict to the point of being openly antagonistic to Zelensky. After generous funding from UKR oligarchs such as Avakov, Kolomoyskyi and Akhmetov, they rose politically and militarily to maintain a solid presence in the most volatile areas in the nation. Now they’re fully merged into UKR armed forces and carry an even greater political (thus criminal and cultural) weight.