https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleh_Liashko Oleh Liashko (Олег Ляшко) is a Ukrainian politician and chairman of the Radical Party of Oleh Liashko, Liashko was an early sponsor of various volunteer battalions, include the Azov Battalion and the Shakhtarsk Battalion:

In summer 2014, Liashko cooperated closely with the newly created and then relatively small Azov battalion. The Azov Civic Corps site even maintains that Liashko was one of the battalion’s creators (Volunteer.org 2014). In an article for the website of the Azov battalion, the famous right-wing journalist Olena Bilozers’ka acknowledged Liashko’s role, reporting that “the Patriot of Ukraine and the Social-National Assembly are the backbone of Azov, but not all battalion fighters are nationalist. Moderates in the battalion do not have problems with people who have tattoos of runes or inscriptions such as ‘I am a 100% racist.’ And, if someone does have such problems, he would not admit that, since in Azov, not least thanks to Oleh Liashko, it is possible to fight. Not all units are so lucky” (Volunteer.org 2014).

Liashko is also alleged to have helped with the creation of the battalion “Ukraina” that was later renamed Shakhtars’k (Buniak Reference Buniak2014). However, already before the October 2014 general elections, Liashko appeared to have lost interest in, or the support of, the Azov battalion/regiment. The Shakhtars’k battalion was disbanded in September 2014 (Vasylchenko Reference Vasylchenko2014). Still, the Radical Party made heavy use of representatives of various IAGs in its public positioning for the October 2014 parliamentary elections and also included some further activists in one way or another linked to the armed volunteer movement.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/nationalities-papers/article/between-frontline-and-parliament-ukrainian-political-parties-and-irregular-armed-groups-in-20142019/90BAFE7AA179511DA2B58240D943D8C4

in “Azov”, not least thanks to the help of Oleg Lyashko, there is an opportunity to fight. Not all units were so lucky. https://web.archive.org/web/20151029201052/http://www.volunteer.org.ua/about/azov/

Oleh Liashko would accompany his Battalion through eastern Ukraine and partook in various abductions and intimidation. An example made available by Christopher J. Miller from the Kyiv Post: