MEGA: The Ukrainian Divide

4.3 The Azov Hydra

15 min read

Previous Subchapter → 4.2 Introducing Azov

So, to summarise, we essentially have a military unit in Ukraine with an extensive far-right history and identity, and a whole barrage of misinformation trying to convince outside observers that this is nothing to be concerned about, pretty worrying, right?

But here’s the bad news, it gets worse, the Azov family tree is bigger than it initially appears.

You see, the central Azov Brigade isn’t the only Azov military unit fighting for Ukraine, after the 2022 Russian invasion began various veterans from Azov formed their own military groups to take part in the war effort, the “Mapping Militants Project” of Stanford University, citing Ukrainian sources such as Kyiv Post and UNIAN (as well as the US based outlet “La Prensa”), names 4 of these Azov splinter organisations:

  • Azov-Dnipro
  • Azov-Kyiv
  • Kraken 
  • And Lubart

And it mentions 3 of these as being commanded by or associated with National Corps members, leaving only the 4th, Lubart, unconfirmed. We looked into Lubart ourselves and found that in their very first social media post on Telegram, they had announced their ties to National Corps as well, later they even publicly boasted about being included on a list of Ukrainian far-right ultranationalist units.

A separate detachment of special purpose “Lubart” The military unit, which included volunteer soldiers, ATO veterans, veterans of the Azov Regiment, members of the National Corps, National Miltia, and Centuria organizations. The unit now consists of a special company and a platoon of special purpose, led by Commander Vadim Krikun.

Stanford’s project also reports that Azov-Kyiv took on a contingent of Belarussian fighters as well, who later went on to form their own unit called the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment, Azov-Kyiv has since expanded, first expanding into the Azov Special Operations Forces Regiment (Azov SSO for short), then into the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Army, the leader of the 3rd Brigade is none other than… Andriy Biletsky, so much for “deradicalisation”.

https://ab3.army/en/about-the-brigade/

We found that despite the US ban on aid to Azov, the 3rd Brigade were happily showing off their US made artillery on YouTube.

American artillery VS Russian invaders In the new issue of “How it is with us”, Vitya Rozovy together with the gunners of the 3rd OShBr master the firepower of special friends - the American M777 howitzer.

And (unsurprisingly at this point), these groups are happy to display where they stand politically, after only a brief skim of the 3rd Brigade’s social media we found this clip showing a soldier of the Brigade wearing a patch from the World War 2 era SS Galicia Division unit.

![[Pasted image 20240514232524.png]] ![[Source 39 - Info on SS Galicia logo.png]]

And Azov-Dnipro aren’t far behind, some of their soldiers took part in a video call with other Ukrainians meeting everyone’s favourite Star Wars actor Mark Hamill, and in the background they displayed an interesting flag, which featured a combination of the Black Sun and the Tyr rune (another symbol commonly used by Neo-Nazis) imposed on the flag of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (Nazi collaborators, in case you forgot who they were!).

![tyrune.png]

So now we’ve gone from 1 Neo Nazi affiliated military unit to 6.

But that’s not all, after doing some further digging we found that Azov-Dnipro is also affiliated with yet another group, the Russian Volunteer Corps.

The Russian Volunteer Corps is a unit of Russian expats who volunteered to fight for the Pro-Ukrainian side, fighting alongside Azov-Dnipro and even taking some of its soldiers under its wing.

The Russian Volunteer Corps is one of the most mysterious units in the Territorial Defense. It consists of volunteers originally from Russia who went through the Revolution of Dignity, fought in the ATO and JFO, fought in their homeland against the Putin regime. After the full-scale invasion, these soldiers decided to unite into one unit and now perform combat missions as part of the 98th battalion of the Azov-Dnipro Territorial Defense of the 108th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Dmitry: In summer, our Russian company was seconded to the first company of the 98th battalion of the Azov Troops in the Zaporizhzhya-Donetsk direction. We were divided into different positions, that is, on each we were Russian and Ukrainians. Our relations were normal, there are the most even and generally cool types. If someone asked why I was fighting for Ukraine, I explained this: when I had a bad life situation and I had nothing left, I came to this country, I was treated with full understanding - well, as my person. I have formed a circle of friends who trust me. And they all went to fight. That is, in principle, even in relation to them, it would be as ugly as possible - not to help them defend their homeland.

Danil : In the summer, I found out that there is still the Russian Volunteer Corps (founded the nationalist corps Denis Kapustin (Nikitin). Many of the personnel of the RDC also adhere to “legal-conservative and traditionalist views and beliefs”. — Note. ed.). They eventually took me there. In early September, I already received weapons and went to the forefront in the Donetsk direction. He studied there in parallel, remembered something. In the first shift for us is BMP-3 (armored fighting vehicle. — Note. ed.) worked well.

The corps is commanded by Denis Nikitin, Nikitin is a Russian far-right activist who before the war ran a brand called “White Rex”, which sold Fascist themed merch and organised MMA tournaments alongside other international far-right groups like Italy’s Neo-Fascist CasaPound movement and Germany’s Young Nationalists, the Youth Wing of the far-right party “Die Heimat”, VICE describes White Rex as a kind of “Nike for Nazis”.

Denis has also reportedly trained British and Swiss far-right groups in knife fighting and participated in bouts of football hooliganism, in an interview with The Guardian he said that he often asked his fellow hooligans, who wants to go kick some immigrants?

Because of this behaviour, Denis was actually banned from the entire EU Schengen Area in 2019, after the German authorities said his activity was a threat to the country’s constitutional order.

But in 2022 Denis got his lucky break reinventing himself as a “freedom fighter”, sending the Russian Volunteer Corps into battle in the Ukraine conflict and even leading multiple incursions into Russia itself, carrying out partisan attacks and kidnapping Russian soldiers to be held for ransom in prisoner exchanges.

Oh, and like Azov-Dnipro, the Volunteer Corps have a soft spot for old school Nazi collaborators, here we can see a picture of some of their troops displaying patches from the “Russian Liberation Army”, a group of Russian soldiers who defected to the Nazis during World War 2.

The Russian Volunteer Corps weren’t the only participants in these border raids by Pro-Ukrainian forces, another group tied to the National Corps, the “Terror Battalion”, also participated.

The Terror Battalion is a unit of Belarussian expats who decided to join the Ukrainian side, and they’re led by a Neo-Nazi called Rodion Batulin. The Terror Battalion started as part of the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment, formed after the 2022 invasion, but some of this Regiment’s forces (the Terror Battalion included) later split off from the Regiment in December 2022 and formed what they call the “Belarussian Volunteer Corps”, both of these formations are again affiliated with the far-right.

Their ties to the National Corps come from Batulin’s association with a prominent National Corps figure, Sergei Korotkikh, Korotkikh is a Belarussian national who moved to Russia in the early 2000s, starting up an organisation called the “National Socialist Society” or “NSO”, the NSO was banned in Russia in 2011 after members of its northern branch were found guilty of carrying out 28 racially motivated murders in Moscow. After the NSO’s ban, Korotkikh left Russia for Ukraine, joining the National Corps.

https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2014/12/09/62280-osobo-zlostnyy-grazhdanin

And this isn’t the only strange affiliation Denis Nikitin and the National Corps have with foreign far-right groups, Denis has also organised his fight tournaments at a place called the Reconquista Club in Kyiv, which just so happens to be the meeting place of another group: The Reconquista Movement, a coalition of international far-right groups hosted by National Corps.

This Movement’s main goal seems to be networking these various far-right groups and figures together, usually through various panel events, for example these “Paneuropean Conferences” which included the previously mentioned CasaPound and Young Nationalists, as well as another German group, the “Third Path” and a Norwegian Party called “Alliance - Alternative for Norway”.

Other events hosted by Reconquista include the “Homeland Seminars” and the “Pact of Steel” conferences, because these guys are just the pinnacle of subtlety.

[Editor’s Note: For those unaware, the Pact of Steel was the name of the alliance between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy]

The Reconquista Movement is led by the National Corps’ “international secretary”, a woman called Olena Semenyaka, and it turns out that this isn’t her only project.

Semenyaka also coordinates an NGO called the “Intermarium Support Group”, which aims to foster connections between the National Corps and parties located in Ukraine’s neighbour countries, calling for “regional integration between the Baltic, the Black and the Adriatic Seas”.

The name of the organisation, “Intermarium”, is a Latinisation of a Polish word which translates to “Between-Seas”, it references a historic concept envisioned by Polish leader Józef Piłsudski after the collapse of the Russian Empire in the early 1900s, the concept aimed to unite Central and Eastern European nations into a federation, a “slavic Europe” if you will, it was complemented by an idea Piłsudski called “Promethism”, the splintering of Russia into several smaller states that couldn’t threaten the new federation.

The Intermarium Support Group modified this idea by shifting from the concept of a federation towards a coalition of independent states, almost like a Fascist EU, that can act as its own power bloc in the world between what National Corps sees as its rivals: An overly aggressive Russia and an overly liberal European Union.

And the Intermarium NGO has managed to make some inroads with these ideas, achieving representation as a group in the Estonian parliament thanks to the Estonian Conservative Party and the Lithuanian parliament thanks to a coalition of 3 right wing Lithuanian parties, with these branches allowing Intermarium to further its geopolitical agenda and spread Pro-Azov propaganda.

And while Azov’s views are anything but inclusive, The Intermarium has a rather flexible admissions policy for their target countries, promising that they could remain in other alliances like NATO or the European Union while being part of the Intermarium, presumably they’re taking some inspiration from the examples of Poland and Hungary here, which have stayed in the EU to reap its benefits while refusing to play by its rules.

Just as the original Intermarium concept was complemented by the Promethism concept, the Intermarium NGO is also complemented by another group sponsored by Semenyaka called “The New Prometheism Initiative”, which denounces the idea of democratic reform in Russia, and claims that the only way to fight Russian imperialism is by “freeing its many indigenous peoples” and developing the Intermarium, the initiative is sponsored by various groups in Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Croatia.

It might seem like these ambitions to break up Russia are at odds with the National Corps’ ties with Russians like Denis Nikitin and the Russian Volunteer Corps, but if you think about it, it makes more sense than it initially seems.

The Volunteer Corps are very explicitly ethno-nationalists, so giving up the Russian territories that are populated by minority groups makes it easier to pursue their agenda, essentially its quid-pro-quo, Ukraine gets a smaller Russia, Denis gets a whiter Russia.

We could essentially say that Intermarium and New Prometheism are the National Corps’ wings for geopolitical outreach, with a broader agenda, while Reconquista is its wing for ideological outreach, connected with those sharing its far-right ideals.

Alongside these organisations, Semenyaka and the National Corps also have more informal relations with various other Neo-Nazi groups, which have been identified by the investigative group “Bellingcat”.

The first of these is another Russian expat group based in Ukraine called “Wotanjugend”, which hosts various Neo-Nazi themed events like concerts, weapons training seminars and Hitler worshipping ceremonies dubbed “Führernight”s. Similar to White Rex, the group also distributes Nazi merch.

Wotanjugend is additionally known for spreading propaganda glorifying Neo-Nazi terrorists such as Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people in a bombing attack, Anders Brevik, who killed 77 in a combined bombing and shooting attack, and Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 in a series of shooting sprees.

And this isn’t just for show, Wotanjugend and its friends in the National Corps have networked with figures responsible for real world violence, specifically a US-based Neo-Nazi gang called the “Rise Above Movement” which participated in street battles during the infamous “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville.

Now, apologists for Azov have tried to dismiss this connection by pointing out that the charges against the RAM for these violent attacks were dropped, but when we looked into this case, we found out the interesting reason why.

It turns out that the group’s guilt regarding the violent acts they committed wasn’t the issue in question, but the issue instead was that the FBI used “unconstitutional” sections of an anti-riot law to build their case, once these unconstitutional provisions were dropped, the case restarted and the RAM was indicted again.

The National Corps themselves also offered their trademark paper thin denials regarding the RAM, with Olena Semenyaka claiming in an interview with the Radio Free Europe outlet that there was “no real evidence” of Azov’s involvement with the RAM, then immediately after admitting that the RAM had visited Azov to “learn their ways”, in the same interview she openly admitted her goal was to build a far-right coalition that would reach out to the populist right in the West for support.

And clearly that Western outreach has made its mark, the RAM’s leader Robert Rundo went as far as to say Azov and the Ukrainian far-right scene were “my whole inspiration for everything”.

These connections have even unnerved some within Azov’s ranks, with one Azov veteran reportedly saying to Radio Free Europe “I don’t mind [Azov] reaching out, but the ones they reach out to… Jesus,“.

But Azov’s ties to the US far-right go deeper than meetings with the RAM, Bellingcat also uncovered a connection between the party and a former member of a US-based paramilitary group called the “Atomwaffen Division”. “Atomwaffen”, also known as the “National Socialist Resistance Front” or “National Socialist Order”, is a designated terrorist organisation in the UK, Canada and Australia, and the militia has been implicated in several murders.

This Atomwaffen member, Andrew Oneschuk, was hosted on an Azov affiliated podcast in 2016, where he admitted that he had attempted to join the Azov Battalion the previous year, the podcast host encouraged him to try again, suggesting that Azov would be more welcoming this time.).

A year later, Oneschuk was dead, executed by one of his roommates, a fellow Atomwaffen affiliate who claimed he wanted to leave the group and had murdered his former friends after they plotted to carry out a terrorist attack, a police investigation revealed that the group’s home, covered in Neo-Nazi iconography, was packed with explosives.

Now of course, the National Corps again denies all of these connections, and they responded to Bellingcat’s reporting by claiming that the Azov military branches and the National Corps are separate, and that National Corps’ main focus is on the Intermarium, which has nothing to do with the US, but surprise surprise, these denials were not credible, containing a number of paradoxical claims.

They also branded Bellingcat’s reporting as “a collection of horror stories, clichés and stereotypes”, the trouble with that is, horror stories are baseless, they have no sourcing to back them up, Bellingcat’s reporting is well equipped with sources to verify their claims.

We also found that the German publication “Zeit Online” has uncovered more of these “informal ties” between Semenyaka and the international far-right, as well as her previously mentioned ties to the Third Path and the Young Nationalists, Zeit found that she’s also affiliated with another Neo-Nazi party called “Die Rechte” or “The Right”, having travelled to Germany at least 8 times in her role as International Secretary of the National Corps.

The sheer volume of international ties this movement has is hard to keep track of, but in case you’re not keeping score, we’ve gone from 1 military unit, the original Azov Brigade, to 8 military units and 3 international initiatives all tied together under the same family tree, with countless affiliates around the world ranging from obscure political parties to street gangs to full-blown terrorist organisations.

When we initially looked into this whole topic, we zeroed in on the singular Azov Brigade for our analysis, but now we can see what a mistake that was, Azov is a much wider network than first meets the eye.

Next Subchapter → 4.4 Ukraine’s Wider Far Right

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