Azov Brigade



The Azov Battalion (Ukrainian: Полк Азов), more recently known as the Azov Regiment or Azov Brigade, is a volunteer military unit in Ukraine. While it is officially part of Ukraine's National Guard (i.e., gendarmerie), it also has paramilitary and political elements. Since its founding as an ultranationalist militia in 2014, the group has been something of a magnet for neo-Nazi figures such as Olena Semenyaka, who has spoken with American wingnuts Kevin MacDonald and Jared Taylor. (Needless to say, Katie Hopkins loves her.) Additionally, the unit has long used various Nazi-era symbols, such as the Sonnenrad. While Azov (officially) abandoned the Sonnenrad in 2015, it kept using its more famous ꑭ logo, a mirrored version of the well into 2022. Azov's spokespeople claim that the ꑭ represents the phrase "Idea of the Nation" ("Ідея Нації," or ideya natsiyi), but the similarities are undeniable.

Despite the fact that the battalion, at the time of Russia's invasion, numbered only 900 to 1500 people (many of them foreign volunteers) while the entire Ukrainian armed forces had 245,000 personnel, and despite the fact that Russia has its own neo-Nazi military groups which are also much larger, such as the infamous Wagner Group (about 6000 mercenaries as of 2017),  the mere existence of the Azov Battalion is a wet dream for pro-Russian propaganda groups, who frequently bring it up as evidence that Ukraine is a neo-Nazi state and that all Ukrainian nationalists are

If one thought the CIA had a monopoly on training Nazis, one would be disappointed: a major European security firm trained them too. Popular critics of Russian propaganda would gain a lot more credibility if they pointed out how military interventions are well known to exacerbate problems with extremist groups rather than solve them, instead of insisting on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's (Jewish) ancestry (when some Azov members falsely believe that Putin is a Jew) and dismissing the problem with election results, when the scary part is their military power and international connections, not popular support. Ukraine actually saw a rise in crimes against Romani people in 2017-2018, which are regularly ignored when the original Nazis are mentioned and are clearly also not high in Putin's list of priorities. Oh, and the original Nazis weren't too fond of Slavs either, which means that Slavic Neo-Nazis are for all intents and purposes suicidal and don't even realize it.

Prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US Congress banned funding of weapons and training to the group due to the its far right ties, while the United Nations and Amnesty International accused the group of human rights abuses. In spite of this, Azov members received training from the Canadian military in as late as 2020.

Putin's "denazification" pretext
The Azov Battalion was obliquely used as a pretext by Putin for Russia's war of extermination against Ukraine, claiming that it would "de-Nazify" Ukraine. The claim of de-Nazification flies in the face of Ukraine being led by Zelenskyy, who is both democratically-elected and Jewish. But furthermore, The Azov Battalion is fighting to keep Zelenskyy in power, something very un-Nazi. While there is little doubt that the Azov Battalion has far-right leadership and is nationalist, it is not so clear that the current leadership are neo-Nazis, though the leadership admits that there are extremists and neo-Nazis within their ranks. Andriy Biletskiy, a former commander in 2014, was reported to have made neo-Nazi-type statements (e.g., that Ukraine was to "lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against Semite-led Untermenschen"), which he has denied making. Biletskiy however has claimed that Azov has attracted both Jews from the Israeli Defense Forces and Chechen Muslims, as well as liberals and anti-fascists.

Defense of Mariupol
The city of Mariupol (located on the Sea of Azov, for which the battalion is named) is symbolic for the Azov Battalion, and has been referred to as their "spiritual home". The battalion helped to recapture the city in 2014 from pro-Russian forces. They were also significant in the 2022 which bought time for Ukraine yet ultimately saw the city's capture by Russian forces. The battalion suffered significant casualties as a result of the siege, but have managed to regroup elsewhere. Some top commanders for the regiment that fought in Mariupol have been captured and held in Moscow. Other Azov soldiers have been returned in prisoner exchanges.