National Corps

The National Corps (Національний корпус) party is a political party led by Andriy Biletsky formed in 2016, originating from the Azov Civil Corps, a political organisation represented by veterans of the Azov Brigade (formerly the Azov Battallion), it also has origins in the precursor to the Azov movement, the Patriot of Ukraine organisation and is considered to be the political wing of the Azov Movement.

In the past, the party controlled an unofficial policing organisation known as the National Militia, which later reformed as the Centuria group¹, it also has its own veterans wing known as Veterans Brotherhood.

After the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the leadership of the National Corps formed various Azov military groups from veterans of previous Azov formations, these groups include:

Azov-Dnipro
Azov-Kyiv (later reformed as the Azov-SSO, became the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Army)
Kraken Regiment
Lubart Brigade

Other notable members of the National Corps include:

Sergei ‘Boatsman’ Korotkikh, a Belarussian Neo-Nazi with ties to a former Russian Neo-Nazi group and Belarussian far-right soldiers
Serhii Tamarin, former commander of the “Eastern Corps” and “East” units, now head of the Kyiv branch of the party
And the party’s international secretary Olena Semenyaka, a coordinator of the Intermarium Support Group NGO (https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2019/09/04/the-hardcore-russian-neo-nazi-group-that-calls-ukraine-home/) and the Reconquista Movement (International) https://m.facebook.com/events/d41d8cd9/the-second-paneuropa-conference-in-kyiv/308172699997826/

The party also has direct ties to foreign political movements, such as Wotanjugend (Russian).

In the last Ukrainian election (as of 2022), held in 2019, the party ran on a joint electoral list with State Initiative of Yarosh (DIA), Right Sector and Svoboda, the party has also organised demonstrations alongside the Katekhon movement and the Freikorps Military-Patriotic Organisation:

In March 2018, members of Tradition and Order, Right Sector and another far-right group, the National Corps, blocked3 the entrance to the Shevchenkivskyi District Court during the hearing of Olena Shevchenko, the head of the LGBT+ organization “Insight.” Shevchenko had been issued a administrative violation during the Women’s March in Kyiv on March 8, 2018. The far-right demonstrators broke into the courtroom with weapons, and Shevchenko had to be evacuated through an emergency exit.

https://reportingradicalism.org/en/dossiers/groups/tradition-and-order

In June 2019, representatives of the organization together with the members of the associations “Tradition and order”, “Right sector”, “Nazkorpus” during the congress of the party “Trust in Affairs” arranged a demonstration, after which they went to the bust Marshal Zhukov, dropped it from the pedestal and hung it flag of Ukraine.