Scholars Andreas Umland and Anton Shekhovtsov wrote in 2014 that Right Sector formed as a loose collection of small groups, outside parliament, that were ultraconservative and included a neo-Nazi fringe. In 2021 political scientists Daniel Odin Shaw and Huseyn Aliyev described Right Sector as ultranationalist, and described the paramilitary arm of Right Sector, the UDA, as holding a "generic form of Ukrainian ultranationalism", which allowed the inclusion of ethnic minorities, including Muslim Crimean Tatars and Chechens, and ethnic Jews, Poles, Hungarians, Greeks, and Romani. Descriptions in the press Right Sector has been described in various ways by the media. BBC News describes it as a "Ukrainian nationalist group" and an "umbrella organization of far-right groups", while Time has described it as a "radical right-wing group ... a coalition of militant ultra-nationalists", with an ideology that "borders on fascism". The New York Times has described it as a "nationalist group" and a "coalition of once-fringe Ukrainian nationalist groups". The Guardian has identified it as a "nationalist Ukrainian group", Reuters as a "far-right nationalist group", Agence France Presse as a "far-right" group, and The Wall Street Journal as an "umbrella group for far-right activists and ultranationalists". Die Welt, the New York Times, and Le Monde diplomatique have described some of Right Sector's constituent groups as radical right-wing, neofascist, or neo-Nazi, but also that it distanced itself from antisemitism. According to a publication in The Washington Post, "Operating in Ukraine are several nationalist paramilitary groups, such as the Azov movement and Right Sector, that espouse neo-Nazi ideology. While high-profile, they appear to have little public support. Only one far-right party, Svoboda, is represented in Ukraine’s parliament, and it only holds one seat." Writing for Foreign Policy, Hannah Kozlowska stated that Russian propaganda tried to demonize the Ukraine government and build a case for the annexation of Crimea by depicting Right Sector as a powerful neo-Nazi force bent on taking over the government. During the first half of 2014, Right Sector was the second-most mentioned political group in online Russian mass media. The Associated Press has called it a "radical ultranationalist group ... demonized by Russian state propaganda as fascists". The AP reported that it had found no evidence of hate crimes by the group. The Russian News & Information Agency has portrayed Right Sector as a "radical far right opposition group" and said that "Russian state media have tried to cast the demonstrations