For the Kremlin, Exhibit A on this special mission is the far-right Azov movement, part of the military and political landscape in Ukraine for almost a decade. ,
Azov’s military and political wings officially split in 2016, when the far-right National Corps party was formed. The Azov Battalion had by then been integrated into the Ukrainian National Guard.
An effective combat force heavily involved in the current conflict, the battalion has a history of neo-Nazi tendencies, which have not been completely eliminated with its integration into the Ukrainian army. ,
In its heyday as an autonomous militia, the Azov Order was associated with white defenders and neo-Nazi ideology and insignia. He was very active in and around Mariupol in 2014 and 2015. CNN teams in the area at the time reported that Azov was embracing neo-Nazi emblems and tools.
Following its integration into the Ukrainian National Guard, in the midst of discussions in the US Congress on the designation of the Azov Movement as a foreign terrorist organization, the then Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Arsen Avakov, defended the unit. “The shameful information campaign on the alleged spread of Nazi ideology (among Azov members) is a deliberate attempt to discredit the Azov unit and the National Guard of Ukraine,” he told the online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda in 2019.
The battalion continues to operate as a relatively autonomous entity. He has been prominent in the defense of Mariupol in recent weeks.
For Putin, who has falsely claimed that the Ukrainian government is run by “drug addicts and neo-Nazis,” Azov presents an obvious goal. Moscow has given the constitution a major role in the conflict, often accusing it of human rights abuses.
On March 7, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations blamed Azov’s constitution for blocking an evacuation corridor in the besieged port city, saying they were using “citizens as human shields.” This claim is consistently repeated in the Russian media.
The same day, Major General Azov Denis Prokopenko said in a video posted on the constitution’s Twitter account that “attempts to set up a safe corridor for the … movement of civilians … failed due to numerous actions by the enemy (Russian forces) in the area. concentration “.
Following the bombing of a Mariupol theater that housed civilians and had “children” written in Russian on the ground on either side of the building, the Russian Defense Ministry accused “Azov” fighters of carrying out the attack. ,
In the Russian book of misinformation, the Azov movement is a tempting goal – a goal where facts and misinformation can be eliminated.
The existence of a recognizable Azov element within the Ukrainian armed forces – and indeed an effective element – raises uncomfortable questions for the Ukrainian government and its Western allies, who continue to send weapons to the country.
CNN contacted the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine for comments.
In the not-too-distant past, the Azov leadership openly espoused white supremacist views and cultivated ties with like-minded groups and individuals in the West.
In 2010, Andriy Biletsky, now leader of the National Assembly, the political wing of the Azov movement, reportedly said his goal was to “lead the world’s white tribes to a final crusade,” according to the Guardian.
Despite the international reputation of the Azov movement, Ukraine is “not a cesspool for Nazi sympathizers,” according to Alexander Ritzmann, a senior adviser at the Berlin-based Counter Extremism Project (CEP).
He noted that in the last elections in Ukraine in 2019, Azov’s political wing won only 2.15% of the vote and Biletsky lost his seat in parliament.
In addition – says Ritzmann – there are far-right actors prominent in Russia. “There is an extreme right-wing extremist problem on both sides of the conflict, but there seems to be a bias in reporting only on Ukraine’s far-right problem,” he said.
The principles of Azov
The Azov Battalion was formed in 2014, the same year that Russian-backed rebels began occupying territory in the eastern Donbass region of Ukraine, and Russia invaded and occupied Crimea. At that time, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine encouraged volunteer battalions to join the resistance campaign and help its fighting army. The battalion’s role in the recapture of Mariupol in June 2014 by Russian-backed forces brought him “hero status” in Ukraine, Ritzmann said. But this regime came with luggage – the extreme right views of some members and neo-Nazi insignia. These included the black sun, “a pagan symbol adopted by the Nazis for their pseudo-religion,” and the Wolfsangel, “a symbol adopted by far-right extremists,” Ritzmann said. Azov leaders have denied the neo-Nazi alliances, calling Wolfsang “N” and “I mean” a national idea. Although the Azov Order was co-founded by Biletsky, who previously led the radical right-wing Patriot of Ukraine group, the group was state-armed and partly funded by local oligarchs in eastern Ukraine. That funding included money from Jewish tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky, Ritzmann said. The US State Department imposed sanctions on Kolomoisky in March 2021. The previous year, the US Department of Justice placed him under investigation on charges of embezzlement and fraud. , CNN contacted Kolomoisky’s lawyer for comment. In 2016, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights accused armed groups on both sides of the Donbass conflict, including Azov, of human rights abuses.
International approach
When the Azov Battalion came under the command of the Interior Ministry as a regiment in 2014, “politically motivated fighters like (Andry) Biletsky left and founded the Azov movement to do their supranational, far-right work. “They were not allowed to do in the Ukrainian army,” Ritzman said. The political party formed by Bilecki, the National Assembly, which the US State Department described in 2018 as a nationalist hate group, “is essentially the backbone of what we now call the Azov movement,” said Kacper Rekawek, a researcher at the Center for According to CNN, research on extremism (C-REX) at the University of Oslo. “The Azov movement is a dangerous key player in the transnational far-right and has served as a network hub for several years, with strong links to far-right extremists in many European Union countries and the United States,” Ritzman said. Olena Semenyaka, the head of the international section of the National Assembly, attended a festival in 2018 organized by German neo-Nazis. and in 2019 he spoke at the far-right Scanza forum in Sweden alongside British neo-Nazi Mark Collett. Since its inception in 2014, the Azov movement has grown to include militia, summer camps for children, and paramilitary training centers. It organizes activities, including music festivals, political events and mixed martial arts tournaments, as it has been promoted internationally on the far right. The National Assembly has repeatedly demonstrated its contempt for liberal values in the treatment of minority groups – with few repercussions. A 2018 State Department report found that the movement’s militia “attacked and destroyed a Roma camp in Kyiv after its residents did not respond to their ultimatum to leave the area within 24 hours,” before local police.
The ‘Star of Death’
While the far-right worldview of the Azov movement is clear, there has been intense debate over whether the Azov Order should be designated a “foreign terrorist organization” by the State Department.
“People always assume that (the Azov constitution and the Azov movement) is a star of death,” Rekawek said. “Year after year, the links (between the constitution and the movement) are looser,” he said, explaining that the order now includes Ukrainians who have nothing to do with its neo-Nazi past.
Ritzmann says the far-right element in the Ukrainian army is no different from that found in other armies, such as Germany and the United States.
“Most likely, far-right extremists are serving in the Ukrainian army as in all other armies – valid data on the exact numbers are not available,” he said.
“Back in 2015, Azov’s own constitution claimed to have had between 10% and 20% of far-right extremists in its ranks,” but those numbers are probably lower today, he said.
But the constitution still uses the Wolfsangel symbol, and the leaders of the Azov movement, who commanded the unit, continue to visit it, said Oleksiy Kuzmenko, a Ukrainian-American investigative journalist who focuses on the Ukrainian far right.
“The current leader of the Azov Constitution, Dennis” Redis “Prokopenko, has been part of the core of the Azov movement since 2014 and served under the commanders who continued to lead the political and road wings of the Azov movement,” Kuzmenko told CN .
Prokopenko’s deputy, Sviatoslav “Kalina” Palamar, explicitly praised the movement’s founder, Bilecki, as “a leader who” finds sponsors who invest real money “in the constitution,” Kuzmenko said.
Kuzmenko points out that since 2021, the constitution has “actively participated in the training of the movement’s youth leaders” and its website has a link to the movement’s YouTube channel.
“The inaction of Ukraine and (the) West on these issues has paved the way for Putin to literally arm them against Ukraine in an attempt to justify its aggression,” Kuzmenko said.
“While it is fair to point out that the Ukrainian far right has little electoral support, they (Azov) enjoyed almost impunity for violence targeting minorities, were out of control in their attempts to build influence over the military and security forces, and normalized “Ukraine’s leaders,” he said.
Foreign fighters
Since its inception, the Azov movement has recruited …
