From what regarded like a basement within the besieged port metropolis of Mariupol, a deputy commander of the nationalist Azov Regiment, part of Ukraine’s Nationwide Guard that Russia has described as “neo-Nazi”, wished to make one thing clear.
“You need to perceive what Azov is. These are the lads who, for essentially the most half, took arms as a result of we have been attacked by Russians,” mentioned the stocky bearded fighter, figuring out himself solely by his nom de guerre Kalyna, in a put up on the Azov Regiment’s Telegram channel. “I ask you to not confuse the ideas of patriotism and Nazism,” he added.
The infantry unit was created in 2014 by volunteers with nationalist and infrequently far-right political leanings to combat separatists in jap Ukraine. However, as Russia’s invasion enters its second month, the regiment has been key to the nationwide resistance effort, with outstanding roles in key battles in Kyiv, Kharkiv and, primarily, Mariupol.
Andriy Biletsky, a founding commander of the Azov forces and a former MP beneath its splinter political wing, the Nationwide Corps, informed the Monetary Occasions by phone from Kyiv that “they’re the backbone of Mariupol’s defences”, including that there have been about 1,500 Azov fighters within the metropolis. “We’re main in essentially the most severe battles,” he mentioned.
Having began as a militia of simply over 300 troops combating Moscow-backed separatists, now “there are scores of hundreds” of Azov fighters, mentioned Biletsky. He added that almost all have been serving inside Ukraine’s territorial defence items, together with greater than 1,000 in Kharkiv. The inside ministry wouldn’t touch upon the estimated measurement of Azov’s forces.
“Azov’s historical past is rooted in a volunteer battalion fashioned by the management of a neo-Nazi group. However it’s sure that Azov depoliticised itself. Its historical past linked to the far-right motion is fairly irrelevant immediately,” mentioned Anton Shekhovtsov, a Vienna-based Ukrainian skilled on Russia’s connections to Europe’s far-right.
Most Azov fighters “are patriotic, a lot of them are nationalists. However the majority of Ukrainians immediately are nationalists”, mentioned Biletsky. He claimed that many Ukrainians now regarded as much as “heroes” like Stepan Bandera, a nationalist chief who opposed each Nazi and Soviet efforts to stop Ukraine’s independence.
Azov fighters depend Israelis, Azeris, Georgians and even Russians of their ranks, in keeping with Biletsky. They put up movies of themselves attacking the enemy — blowing up Russian tanks or bundling tied-up and half-undressed Russian troopers right into a truck.
Its members and supporters shrug off the neo-Nazi label as “Russian propaganda”, particularly after the repeated insistence of Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, that he invaded Ukraine to “de-Nazify” the nation.
“If we have a look at the actions of Russia, for instance destruction on ethnic grounds of cities for being Ukrainian, it appears this extra carefully resembles the label of Nazism,” mentioned Biletsky.
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President Volodymyr Zelensky — who’s Jewish and this month awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine to an Azov commander — on Monday mentioned that in tried peace talks Ukraine refused to debate Russia’s want for “denazification” and “demilitarisation”, which he referred to as “utterly incomprehensible issues”.
“The way in which that Putin and the Kremlin use the phrases ‘Nazism’ and ‘fascism’ is rooted within the Soviet period when, then and now, it means anyone who doesn’t wish to be both a part of the Soviet Union or a part of the Russian world,” mentioned Taras Kuzio, a British-Ukrainian analysis fellow on the Henry Jackson Society, a think-tank.
Sergei Lavrov, Putin’s international minister, accused Azov troops at a shelled maternity hospital in Mariupol of “turning individuals into human shields . . . inserting their assault gear there and opening hearth on the positions of Russian troops”. Ukrainian and US officers denied these claims.
“They’re beneath fixed hearth from Russian propaganda as a result of Russians don’t like the thought of a Ukrainian nation, they see that as a menace,” mentioned Alex Kovzhun, a Kyiv-based marketing consultant who helped develop the programme of Azov’s political wing. He mentioned the Nationwide Corps’ ideology was akin to a “European rightwing conservative social gathering, however it’s positively not ultra-right”.
He defined that Azov was fashioned of historians, soccer hooligans and males with navy expertise, some sporting “doubtful tattoos” — together with the Black Solar and the Wolfsangel utilized by the Nazis however now claimed as pagan symbols by some battalion members.
They first fought alongside a Ukrainian military which had been weakened by the pro-Kremlin presidency of Viktor Yanukovych and have been integrated into the nationwide guard after they helped retake Mariupol in fierce battles in 2014.
“From the start I noticed the unit as part of Ukraine’s armed forces,” mentioned Biletsky, who left Azov to run for parliament as elected officers can’t be within the armed forces.
In 2016, the UN documented that members of Azov embedded their troopers and weapons in civilian buildings within the Donbas area. Two years later, the US state division labelled the Nationwide Corps a “nationalist hate group” and linked it to a bunch that “attacked” an ethnic-Roma camp in Kyiv.
The political leanings of some Azov members have by no means been well-liked with most Ukrainians. The Nationwide Corps was a part of a bloc with different far-right events that obtained simply over 2 per cent of the vote in parliamentary elections in 2019.
However liberal Ukrainians worry that the regiment might stand to learn politically from its battlefield prowess. “Are these the form of fascists we wish to run our nation after this warfare is over?” requested a linguist in Kyiv.
For now the political programme is taking a again seat. “Azov doesn’t comply with any political ambitions or objectives throughout the warfare,” mentioned Oleksandr Alfyorov, a historian and former spokesperson for Azov. The Nationwide Corps, he defined, had additionally “suspended political actions” as a result of all lively members had “now taken up arms or grow to be volunteers”.
With Azov fighters very important to the warfare effort, its volunteers really feel they’re incomes the assist of Ukrainians who’re extra involved about defending the nation than political affiliations.
“Curiosity in our motion elevated even earlier than Russia’s open aggression,” mentioned Serhiy Bevz, an Azov combatant in Kyiv, citing the regiment’s coaching of civilians in preparation for the battle. “We’re able to defend our state from the occupiers with all our would possibly.”
In his Telegram put up, Kalyna, the deputy commander, mentioned: “Patriotism is whenever you defend your nation and don’t assault others.” Slamming Russian warmongers, he added: “We’ve by no means tried to grab international lands, however we’ve got to confront the true Nazis of the twenty first century. Slava Ukraini! [‘glory to Ukraine!].”
