Some detailed info about the extended Azov movement for anyone interested. The source is "far right research" sponsored by the German Green Party (literally faggits) but it's pretty NPOV (as a Wikipedo would say) factual and informative, while not even sensationalist.

After the Euromaidan revolution, the Azov movement—which grew out of a volunteer battalion that was first stationed at the Sea of Azov in 2014—emerged as a new attention-grabbing, multi-dimensional political phenomenon of Ukraine’s post-revolutionary landscape. Since summer 2014, the Azov movement has become a prominent new right-wing force in Ukraine, even rivalling the Svoboda party.[40] The various organizations, departments, fronts, branches, and arms of the Azov movement have been estimated to be able to mobilize 20,000 members all over Ukraine.[41]

The Azov movement has its roots in a little known and initially Russian-speaking Kharkiv groupuscule called “Patriot of Ukraine.”[42] This initially miniscule circle emerged from the SNPU’s paramilitary wing of the same name that had been disbanded in 2004.[43] The young leader of the group, Andriy Bilets’kyy (b. 1979), as well as some other members of the “Patriot of Ukraine” were imprisoned in 2011-2012 for various reasons, including alleged robbery, beatings, terrorism, and assaults. Partly, these accusations were overdrawn and referred to political rather than criminal episodes. The locked-up ultra-nationalists were released after the toppling of Viktor Yanukovych in early 2014.[44]

In spring 2014 in eastern Ukraine, Bilets’kyy and his followers organized small paramilitary units called “little black men”—an obvious reference to the nickname, “little green men,” given to Russian regular army forces who wore no identification marks while occupying Crimea in late February and early March 2014.[45] As the confrontation with pro-Russian groups in the Donets’ Basin (Donbas) and Kharkiv, Bilets’kyy’s once minor grouping grew rapidly.[46] In May 2014, it formed the semi-regular volunteer battalion “Azov” under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior.[47] In summer 2014, the Azov battalion played a central role in the liberation of the important Donbas industrial city of Mariupol from Russia-led separatists.[48]

By autumn 2014, the battalion had become a well-known professional military unit and was transformed into the fully regular “Azov” Regiment of the National Guard under the Ministry of Interior of Ukraine.[49] It has since been considered one of Ukraine’s most capable armed formations. The regiment’s commanders claim it is now operating according to NATO standards.[50] In winter 2015, veterans and volunteers of the regiment created the Azov Civil Corps and thereby started to expand their political grouping into a multi-faceted social movement.[51] In 2016, Bilets’kyy formed the political party National Corps, drawing membership from the Azov Civil Corps and veterans of the Azov Battalion and Regiment.[52]

In January 2018, an offshoot of the Azov movement, the unarmed vigilante organization National Squads (Natsional’ni druzhyny), became a Ukrainian media sensation after it held a visually impressive public torch march.[53] Further sub-organizations and branches of the Azov movement have emerged since 2014.[54] They include entities such as the Engineering Corps, Cossack House (Kozatsʹkyy dim), Plomin (Flame) Literary Club, Orden (Order) circle, Youth Corps, Intermarium Support Group, and others.[55] While being partly independent, the fronts and subunits of the Azov movement share basic stances on certain political issues, closely cooperate with each other, and accept Bilets’kyy as the unofficial leader of the entire coalition. As a result, Azov is now a multi-dimensional socio-political movement that is developing in a variety of directions.

Though initially at a distance from other Ukrainian far right groups, Azov, since 2016, has started to cooperate with other ultra-nationalists in Ukraine. In spring 2019, the National Corps joined an electoral alliance of several Ukrainian far-right parties under the organizational umbrella of Svoboda for the July 2019 snap parliamentary elections. Even this unified list of Ukraine’s far right, however, received only 2.15% in the proportional part of the elections and thus fell short of the 5% entrance barrier to parliament. The ultra-nationalist coalition also failed to win any seats in the majoritarian part of the election and so was unable to secure any official mandates in Ukraine 9th Verkhovna Rada. While the current Ukrainian parliament contains several members who have described themselves as “nationalists,” only one of Ukraine’s currently 423 national MPs, Oksana Savchuk (née Kryvolin’ska, b. 1983) from the Eastern Galician Ivano-Frankivs’k Oblast, is aligned to the Ukrainian far right, namely to Svoboda.[56]

Despite officially allying itself with Svoboda and others since 2016, the Azov movement remains an ideologically and institutionally specific phenomenon within Ukraine’s ultra-nationalist political spectrum and contains branches that profess views untypical to the traditional Ukrainian far right.[57] For example, some Azov members espouse not a Christian-Orthodox outlook, but an interest in paganism.[58] The Azov movement has conducted numerous semi-political street actions in major cities and smaller towns around Ukraine, such as rallies against the closure of a university in Zhovti Vody in the Dnipropetrovs’k Oblast.[59] Another major mobilizing issue are various ecological problems across Ukraine.[60]

There are rumors that the Azov movement was linked to Ukraine’s 2014-2021 Minister for Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov (b. 1964). And there is evidence of connections between the Azov-dominated Veterans Movement of Ukraine and the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs.[61] Nevertheless, since 2014 the movement’s public profile has been that of a resolute opposition force engaged in clashes with the police and political mobilization against the government.[62]

The Azov Battalion/Regiment has been particularly active in recruiting foreigners to fight in eastern Ukraine.[63] Among all the foreign fighters present in the Donbas, there may have been as many as 3,000 Russian citizens who fought in the Russian-Ukrainian war on the side of the Ukrainian state.[64] Some of them served and are still serving with the Azov Regiment. As detailed below, a number of these former or current Russian citizens are also actively involved in the development of the Azov movement’s civil and political structures.[65]

In August 2020, a number of Azov leaders and veterans as well as other activists from certain nationalist student and cadet groups presented a new paramilitary right-wing organization labeled Centuria—a Roman Empire term for a military unit of hundred men.[66] The Ukrainian group uses the Latin version and transcription of the more familiar Ukrainian word sotnia (hundred) as its official name.[67] Against a backdrop of images of Roman legions, Centuria held its first public presentation with Ihor Mykhailenko, the former head of the Azov movement’s National Squads, as its main speaker. This move signaled that the National Squads had been replaced by Centuria.[68]

Centuria’s website announced that their organization represents “a group of organized youth based on the world view of Ukrainian Stateness and European tradition.”[69] Since 2020 Centuria has been involved in a variety of public activities such as participating in the annual march on October 14 in Kyiv honoring the UPA,[70] rallies against illegal logging,[71] court hearings on right-wing activists, and the promotion of Ukraine’s medieval heritage.[72] Thereby, the organization duplicates the activism of its predecessor, the National Squads. While not formally subordinated to the National Corps, most of Centuria’s members are connected to the Azov movement.[73]

Centuria describes itself as a group of “Warriors of Light and Order” in the fight against Ukraine’s “internal enemy.”[74] While the former National Squads posed as an unofficial law enforcement militia, Centuria has a more open range of interests and is primarily engaged in anti-Russian activities throughout Ukraine.[75] For instance, in L’viv in August 2020 Centuria activists attacked Mykhailo Shpira, a pro-Russian political observer,[76] and in October 2020 blocked a rally in Vinnytsia for the pro-Russian Shariy Party.[77]

One of the largest actions of the movement so far was supporting 16 convicts, mainly from Kharkiv, who attacked a bus in 2020 carrying MP Illia Kyva’s pro-Russian Ukrainian youth organization “Patriots – For Life!”[78] (More on Kyva, below.) Since then, actions in support of the convicted Kharkiv nationalists have made up the majority of Centuria‘s actions.[79] There have also been further attacks on pro-Russian actors, one of which led to mass clashes on September 21, 2020, in Odesa.[80]

Centuria uses military paraphernalia and prepares its members for military service. It trains its own territorial defense groups, in effect duplicating the operation of similar units within the reserves of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.[81] The number of members of the organization is currently unknown but is suspected to correspond with or surpass the strength of its predecessor, Azov’s National Squads, which had approximately 1,000 active members.[82]

Some detailed info about the extended Azov movement for anyone interested. The source is "far right research" sponsored by the German Green Party (literally faggits) but it's pretty NPOV (as a Wikipedo would say) factual and informative, while not even sensationalist.

After the Euromaidan revolution, the Azov movement—which grew out of a volunteer battalion that was first stationed at the Sea of Azov in 2014—emerged as a new attention-grabbing, multi-dimensional political phenomenon of Ukraine’s post-revolutionary landscape. Since summer 2014, the Azov movement has become a prominent new right-wing force in Ukraine, even rivalling the Svoboda party.[40] The various organizations, departments, fronts, branches, and arms of the Azov movement have been estimated to be able to mobilize 20,000 members all over Ukraine.[41]

The Azov movement has its roots in a little known and initially Russian-speaking Kharkiv groupuscule called “Patriot of Ukraine.”[42] This initially miniscule circle emerged from the SNPU’s paramilitary wing of the same name that had been disbanded in 2004.[43] The young leader of the group, Andriy Bilets’kyy (b. 1979), as well as some other members of the “Patriot of Ukraine” were imprisoned in 2011-2012 for various reasons, including alleged robbery, beatings, terrorism, and assaults. Partly, these accusations were overdrawn and referred to political rather than criminal episodes. The locked-up ultra-nationalists were released after the toppling of Viktor Yanukovych in early 2014.[44]

In spring 2014 in eastern Ukraine, Bilets’kyy and his followers organized small paramilitary units called “little black men”—an obvious reference to the nickname, “little green men,” given to Russian regular army forces who wore no identification marks while occupying Crimea in late February and early March 2014.[45] As the confrontation with pro-Russian groups in the Donets’ Basin (Donbas) and Kharkiv g, Bilets’kyy’s once minor grouping grew rapidly.[46] In May 2014, it formed the semi-regular volunteer battalion “Azov” under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior.[47] In summer 2014, the Azov battalion played a central role in the liberation of the important Donbas industrial city of Mariupol from Russia-led separatists.[48]

By autumn 2014, the battalion had become a well-known professional military unit and was transformed into the fully regular “Azov” Regiment of the National Guard under the Ministry of Interior of Ukraine.[49] It has since been considered one of Ukraine’s most capable armed formations. The regiment’s commanders claim it is now operating according to NATO standards.[50] In winter 2015, veterans and volunteers of the regiment created the Azov Civil Corps and thereby started to expand their political grouping into a multi-faceted social movement.[51] In 2016, Bilets’kyy formed the political party National Corps, drawing membership from the Azov Civil Corps and veterans of the Azov Battalion and Regiment.[52]

In January 2018, an offshoot of the Azov movement, the unarmed vigilante organization National Squads (Natsional’ni druzhyny), became a Ukrainian media sensation after it held a visually impressive public torch march.[53] Further sub-organizations and branches of the Azov movement have emerged since 2014.[54] They include entities such as the Engineering Corps, Cossack House (Kozatsʹkyy dim), Plomin (Flame) Literary Club, Orden (Order) circle, Youth Corps, Intermarium Support Group, and others.[55] While being partly independent, the fronts and subunits of the Azov movement share basic stances on certain political issues, closely cooperate with each other, and accept Bilets’kyy as the unofficial leader of the entire coalition. As a result, Azov is now a multi-dimensional socio-political movement that is developing in a variety of directions.

Though initially at a distance from other Ukrainian far right groups, Azov, since 2016, has started to cooperate with other ultra-nationalists in Ukraine. In spring 2019, the National Corps joined an electoral alliance of several Ukrainian far-right parties under the organizational umbrella of Svoboda for the July 2019 snap parliamentary elections. Even this unified list of Ukraine’s far right, however, received only 2.15% in the proportional part of the elections and thus fell short of the 5% entrance barrier to parliament. The ultra-nationalist coalition also failed to win any seats in the majoritarian part of the election and so was unable to secure any official mandates in Ukraine 9th Verkhovna Rada. While the current Ukrainian parliament contains several members who have described themselves as “nationalists,” only one of Ukraine’s currently 423 national MPs, Oksana Savchuk (née Kryvolin’ska, b. 1983) from the Eastern Galician Ivano-Frankivs’k Oblast, is aligned to the Ukrainian far right, namely to Svoboda.[56]

Despite officially allying itself with Svoboda and others since 2016, the Azov movement remains an ideologically and institutionally specific phenomenon within Ukraine’s ultra-nationalist political spectrum and contains branches that profess views untypical to the traditional Ukrainian far right.[57] For example, some Azov members espouse not a Christian-Orthodox outlook, but an interest in paganism.[58] The Azov movement has conducted numerous semi-political street actions in major cities and smaller towns around Ukraine, such as rallies against the closure of a university in Zhovti Vody (literally: Yellow Waters) in the Dnipropetrovs’k Oblast.[59] Another major mobilizing issue are various ecological problems across Ukraine.[60]

There are rumors that the Azov movement was linked to Ukraine’s 2014-2021 Minister for Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov (b. 1964). And there is evidence of connections between the Azov-dominated Veterans Movement of Ukraine and the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs.[61] Nevertheless, since 2014 the movement’s public profile has been that of a resolute opposition force engaged in clashes with the police and political mobilization against the government.[62]

The Azov Battalion/Regiment has been particularly active in recruiting foreigners to fight in eastern Ukraine.[63] Among all the foreign fighters present in the Donbas, there may have been as many as 3,000 Russian citizens who fought in the Russian-Ukrainian war on the side of the Ukrainian state.[64] Some of them served and are still serving with the Azov Regiment. As detailed below, a number of these former or current Russian citizens are also actively involved in the development of the Azov movement’s civil and political structures.[65]

In August 2020, a number of Azov leaders and veterans as well as other activists from certain nationalist student and cadet groups presented a new paramilitary right-wing organization labeled Centuria—a Roman Empire term for a military unit of hundred men.[66] The Ukrainian group uses the Latin version and transcription of the more familiar Ukrainian word sotnia (hundred) as its official name.[67] Against a backdrop of images of Roman legions, Centuria held its first public presentation with Ihor Mykhailenko, the former head of the Azov movement’s National Squads, as its main speaker. This move signaled that the National Squads had been replaced by Centuria.[68]

Centuria’s website announced that their organization represents “a group of organized youth based on the world view of Ukrainian Stateness and European tradition.”[69] Since 2020 Centuria has been involved in a variety of public activities such as participating in the annual march on October 14 in Kyiv honoring the UPA,[70] rallies against illegal logging,[71] court hearings on right-wing activists, and the promotion of Ukraine’s medieval heritage.[72] Thereby, the organization duplicates the activism of its predecessor, the National Squads. While not formally subordinated to the National Corps, most of Centuria’s members are connected to the Azov movement.[73]

Centuria describes itself as a group of “Warriors of Light and Order” in the fight against Ukraine’s “internal enemy.”[74] While the former National Squads posed as an unofficial law enforcement militia, Centuria has a more open range of interests and is primarily engaged in anti-Russian activities throughout Ukraine.[75] For instance, in L’viv in August 2020 Centuria activists attacked Mykhailo Shpira, a pro-Russian political observer,[76] and in October 2020 blocked a rally in Vinnytsia for the pro-Russian Shariy Party.[77]

One of the largest actions of the movement so far was supporting 16 convicts, mainly from Kharkiv, who attacked a bus in 2020 carrying MP Illia Kyva’s pro-Russian Ukrainian youth organization “Patriots – For Life!”[78] (More on Kyva, below.) Since then, actions in support of the convicted Kharkiv nationalists have made up the majority of Centuria‘s actions.[79] There have also been further attacks on pro-Russian actors, one of which led to mass clashes on September 21, 2020, in Odesa.[80]

Centuria uses military paraphernalia and prepares its members for military service. It trains its own territorial defense groups, in effect duplicating the operation of similar units within the reserves of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.[81] The number of members of the organization is currently unknown but is suspected to correspond with or surpass the strength of its predecessor, Azov’s National Squads, which had approximately 1,000 active members.[82]

Some detailed info about the extended Azov movement for anyone interested. The source is "far right research" sponsored by the German Green Party (literally faggits) but it's pretty NPOV (as a Wikipedo would say) and informative

After the Euromaidan revolution, the Azov movement—which grew out of a volunteer battalion that was first stationed at the Sea of Azov in 2014—emerged as a new attention-grabbing, multi-dimensional political phenomenon of Ukraine’s post-revolutionary landscape. Since summer 2014, the Azov movement has become a prominent new right-wing force in Ukraine, even rivalling the Svoboda party.[40] The various organizations, departments, fronts, branches, and arms of the Azov movement have been estimated to be able to mobilize 20,000 members all over Ukraine.[41]

The Azov movement has its roots in a little known and initially Russian-speaking Kharkiv groupuscule called “Patriot of Ukraine.”[42] This initially miniscule circle emerged from the SNPU’s paramilitary wing of the same name that had been disbanded in 2004.[43] The young leader of the group, Andriy Bilets’kyy (b. 1979), as well as some other members of the “Patriot of Ukraine” were imprisoned in 2011-2012 for various reasons, including alleged robbery, beatings, terrorism, and assaults. Partly, these accusations were overdrawn and referred to political rather than criminal episodes. The locked-up ultra-nationalists were released after the toppling of Viktor Yanukovych in early 2014.[44]

In spring 2014 in eastern Ukraine, Bilets’kyy and his followers organized small paramilitary units called “little black men”—an obvious reference to the nickname, “little green men,” given to Russian regular army forces who wore no identification marks while occupying Crimea in late February and early March 2014.[45] As the confrontation with pro-Russian groups in the Donets’ Basin (Donbas) and Kharkiv g, Bilets’kyy’s once minor grouping grew rapidly.[46] In May 2014, it formed the semi-regular volunteer battalion “Azov” under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior.[47] In summer 2014, the Azov battalion played a central role in the liberation of the important Donbas industrial city of Mariupol from Russia-led separatists.[48]

By autumn 2014, the battalion had become a well-known professional military unit and was transformed into the fully regular “Azov” Regiment of the National Guard under the Ministry of Interior of Ukraine.[49] It has since been considered one of Ukraine’s most capable armed formations. The regiment’s commanders claim it is now operating according to NATO standards.[50] In winter 2015, veterans and volunteers of the regiment created the Azov Civil Corps and thereby started to expand their political grouping into a multi-faceted social movement.[51] In 2016, Bilets’kyy formed the political party National Corps, drawing membership from the Azov Civil Corps and veterans of the Azov Battalion and Regiment.[52]

In January 2018, an offshoot of the Azov movement, the unarmed vigilante organization National Squads (Natsional’ni druzhyny), became a Ukrainian media sensation after it held a visually impressive public torch march.[53] Further sub-organizations and branches of the Azov movement have emerged since 2014.[54] They include entities such as the Engineering Corps, Cossack House (Kozatsʹkyy dim), Plomin (Flame) Literary Club, Orden (Order) circle, Youth Corps, Intermarium Support Group, and others.[55] While being partly independent, the fronts and subunits of the Azov movement share basic stances on certain political issues, closely cooperate with each other, and accept Bilets’kyy as the unofficial leader of the entire coalition. As a result, Azov is now a multi-dimensional socio-political movement that is developing in a variety of directions.

Though initially at a distance from other Ukrainian far right groups, Azov, since 2016, has started to cooperate with other ultra-nationalists in Ukraine. In spring 2019, the National Corps joined an electoral alliance of several Ukrainian far-right parties under the organizational umbrella of Svoboda for the July 2019 snap parliamentary elections. Even this unified list of Ukraine’s far right, however, received only 2.15% in the proportional part of the elections and thus fell short of the 5% entrance barrier to parliament. The ultra-nationalist coalition also failed to win any seats in the majoritarian part of the election and so was unable to secure any official mandates in Ukraine 9th Verkhovna Rada. While the current Ukrainian parliament contains several members who have described themselves as “nationalists,” only one of Ukraine’s currently 423 national MPs, Oksana Savchuk (née Kryvolin’ska, b. 1983) from the Eastern Galician Ivano-Frankivs’k Oblast, is aligned to the Ukrainian far right, namely to Svoboda.[56]

Despite officially allying itself with Svoboda and others since 2016, the Azov movement remains an ideologically and institutionally specific phenomenon within Ukraine’s ultra-nationalist political spectrum and contains branches that profess views untypical to the traditional Ukrainian far right.[57] For example, some Azov members espouse not a Christian-Orthodox outlook, but an interest in paganism.[58] The Azov movement has conducted numerous semi-political street actions in major cities and smaller towns around Ukraine, such as rallies against the closure of a university in Zhovti Vody (literally: Yellow Waters) in the Dnipropetrovs’k Oblast.[59] Another major mobilizing issue are various ecological problems across Ukraine.[60]

There are rumors that the Azov movement was linked to Ukraine’s 2014-2021 Minister for Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov (b. 1964). And there is evidence of connections between the Azov-dominated Veterans Movement of Ukraine and the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs.[61] Nevertheless, since 2014 the movement’s public profile has been that of a resolute opposition force engaged in clashes with the police and political mobilization against the government.[62]

The Azov Battalion/Regiment has been particularly active in recruiting foreigners to fight in eastern Ukraine.[63] Among all the foreign fighters present in the Donbas, there may have been as many as 3,000 Russian citizens who fought in the Russian-Ukrainian war on the side of the Ukrainian state.[64] Some of them served and are still serving with the Azov Regiment. As detailed below, a number of these former or current Russian citizens are also actively involved in the development of the Azov movement’s civil and political structures.[65]

In August 2020, a number of Azov leaders and veterans as well as other activists from certain nationalist student and cadet groups presented a new paramilitary right-wing organization labeled Centuria—a Roman Empire term for a military unit of hundred men.[66] The Ukrainian group uses the Latin version and transcription of the more familiar Ukrainian word sotnia (hundred) as its official name.[67] Against a backdrop of images of Roman legions, Centuria held its first public presentation with Ihor Mykhailenko, the former head of the Azov movement’s National Squads, as its main speaker. This move signaled that the National Squads had been replaced by Centuria.[68]

Centuria’s website announced that their organization represents “a group of organized youth based on the world view of Ukrainian Stateness and European tradition.”[69] Since 2020 Centuria has been involved in a variety of public activities such as participating in the annual march on October 14 in Kyiv honoring the UPA,[70] rallies against illegal logging,[71] court hearings on right-wing activists, and the promotion of Ukraine’s medieval heritage.[72] Thereby, the organization duplicates the activism of its predecessor, the National Squads. While not formally subordinated to the National Corps, most of Centuria’s members are connected to the Azov movement.[73]

Centuria describes itself as a group of “Warriors of Light and Order” in the fight against Ukraine’s “internal enemy.”[74] While the former National Squads posed as an unofficial law enforcement militia, Centuria has a more open range of interests and is primarily engaged in anti-Russian activities throughout Ukraine.[75] For instance, in L’viv in August 2020 Centuria activists attacked Mykhailo Shpira, a pro-Russian political observer,[76] and in October 2020 blocked a rally in Vinnytsia for the pro-Russian Shariy Party.[77]

One of the largest actions of the movement so far was supporting 16 convicts, mainly from Kharkiv, who attacked a bus in 2020 carrying MP Illia Kyva’s pro-Russian Ukrainian youth organization “Patriots – For Life!”[78] (More on Kyva, below.) Since then, actions in support of the convicted Kharkiv nationalists have made up the majority of Centuria‘s actions.[79] There have also been further attacks on pro-Russian actors, one of which led to mass clashes on September 21, 2020, in Odesa.[80]

Centuria uses military paraphernalia and prepares its members for military service. It trains its own territorial defense groups, in effect duplicating the operation of similar units within the reserves of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.[81] The number of members of the organization is currently unknown but is suspected to correspond with or surpass the strength of its predecessor, Azov’s National Squads, which had approximately 1,000 active members.[82]

Some detailed info about the extended Azov movement for anyone interested. The source is "far right research" sponsored by German Fren Party (literally faggots) but it's pretty NPOV (as a Wikipedo would say) and informative

After the Euromaidan revolution, the Azov movement—which grew out of a volunteer battalion that was first stationed at the Sea of Azov in 2014—emerged as a new attention-grabbing, multi-dimensional political phenomenon of Ukraine’s post-revolutionary landscape. Since summer 2014, the Azov movement has become a prominent new right-wing force in Ukraine, even rivalling the Svoboda party.[40] The various organizations, departments, fronts, branches, and arms of the Azov movement have been estimated to be able to mobilize 20,000 members all over Ukraine.[41]

The Azov movement has its roots in a little known and initially Russian-speaking Kharkiv groupuscule called “Patriot of Ukraine.”[42] This initially miniscule circle emerged from the SNPU’s paramilitary wing of the same name that had been disbanded in 2004.[43] The young leader of the group, Andriy Bilets’kyy (b. 1979), as well as some other members of the “Patriot of Ukraine” were imprisoned in 2011-2012 for various reasons, including alleged robbery, beatings, terrorism, and assaults. Partly, these accusations were overdrawn and referred to political rather than criminal episodes. The locked-up ultra-nationalists were released after the toppling of Viktor Yanukovych in early 2014.[44]

In spring 2014 in eastern Ukraine, Bilets’kyy and his followers organized small paramilitary units called “little black men”—an obvious reference to the nickname, “little green men,” given to Russian regular army forces who wore no identification marks while occupying Crimea in late February and early March 2014.[45] As the confrontation with pro-Russian groups in the Donets’ Basin (Donbas) and Kharkiv g, Bilets’kyy’s once minor grouping grew rapidly.[46] In May 2014, it formed the semi-regular volunteer battalion “Azov” under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior.[47] In summer 2014, the Azov battalion played a central role in the liberation of the important Donbas industrial city of Mariupol from Russia-led separatists.[48]

By autumn 2014, the battalion had become a well-known professional military unit and was transformed into the fully regular “Azov” Regiment of the National Guard under the Ministry of Interior of Ukraine.[49] It has since been considered one of Ukraine’s most capable armed formations. The regiment’s commanders claim it is now operating according to NATO standards.[50] In winter 2015, veterans and volunteers of the regiment created the Azov Civil Corps and thereby started to expand their political grouping into a multi-faceted social movement.[51] In 2016, Bilets’kyy formed the political party National Corps, drawing membership from the Azov Civil Corps and veterans of the Azov Battalion and Regiment.[52]

In January 2018, an offshoot of the Azov movement, the unarmed vigilante organization National Squads (Natsional’ni druzhyny), became a Ukrainian media sensation after it held a visually impressive public torch march.[53] Further sub-organizations and branches of the Azov movement have emerged since 2014.[54] They include entities such as the Engineering Corps, Cossack House (Kozatsʹkyy dim), Plomin (Flame) Literary Club, Orden (Order) circle, Youth Corps, Intermarium Support Group, and others.[55] While being partly independent, the fronts and subunits of the Azov movement share basic stances on certain political issues, closely cooperate with each other, and accept Bilets’kyy as the unofficial leader of the entire coalition. As a result, Azov is now a multi-dimensional socio-political movement that is developing in a variety of directions.

Though initially at a distance from other Ukrainian far right groups, Azov, since 2016, has started to cooperate with other ultra-nationalists in Ukraine. In spring 2019, the National Corps joined an electoral alliance of several Ukrainian far-right parties under the organizational umbrella of Svoboda for the July 2019 snap parliamentary elections. Even this unified list of Ukraine’s far right, however, received only 2.15% in the proportional part of the elections and thus fell short of the 5% entrance barrier to parliament. The ultra-nationalist coalition also failed to win any seats in the majoritarian part of the election and so was unable to secure any official mandates in Ukraine 9th Verkhovna Rada. While the current Ukrainian parliament contains several members who have described themselves as “nationalists,” only one of Ukraine’s currently 423 national MPs, Oksana Savchuk (née Kryvolin’ska, b. 1983) from the Eastern Galician Ivano-Frankivs’k Oblast, is aligned to the Ukrainian far right, namely to Svoboda.[56]

Despite officially allying itself with Svoboda and others since 2016, the Azov movement remains an ideologically and institutionally specific phenomenon within Ukraine’s ultra-nationalist political spectrum and contains branches that profess views untypical to the traditional Ukrainian far right.[57] For example, some Azov members espouse not a Christian-Orthodox outlook, but an interest in paganism.[58] The Azov movement has conducted numerous semi-political street actions in major cities and smaller towns around Ukraine, such as rallies against the closure of a university in Zhovti Vody (literally: Yellow Waters) in the Dnipropetrovs’k Oblast.[59] Another major mobilizing issue are various ecological problems across Ukraine.[60]

There are rumors that the Azov movement was linked to Ukraine’s 2014-2021 Minister for Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov (b. 1964). And there is evidence of connections between the Azov-dominated Veterans Movement of Ukraine and the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs.[61] Nevertheless, since 2014 the movement’s public profile has been that of a resolute opposition force engaged in clashes with the police and political mobilization against the government.[62]

The Azov Battalion/Regiment has been particularly active in recruiting foreigners to fight in eastern Ukraine.[63] Among all the foreign fighters present in the Donbas, there may have been as many as 3,000 Russian citizens who fought in the Russian-Ukrainian war on the side of the Ukrainian state.[64] Some of them served and are still serving with the Azov Regiment. As detailed below, a number of these former or current Russian citizens are also actively involved in the development of the Azov movement’s civil and political structures.[65]

In August 2020, a number of Azov leaders and veterans as well as other activists from certain nationalist student and cadet groups presented a new paramilitary right-wing organization labeled Centuria—a Roman Empire term for a military unit of hundred men.[66] The Ukrainian group uses the Latin version and transcription of the more familiar Ukrainian word sotnia (hundred) as its official name.[67] Against a backdrop of images of Roman legions, Centuria held its first public presentation with Ihor Mykhailenko, the former head of the Azov movement’s National Squads, as its main speaker. This move signaled that the National Squads had been replaced by Centuria.[68]

Centuria’s website announced that their organization represents “a group of organized youth based on the world view of Ukrainian Stateness and European tradition.”[69] Since 2020 Centuria has been involved in a variety of public activities such as participating in the annual march on October 14 in Kyiv honoring the UPA,[70] rallies against illegal logging,[71] court hearings on right-wing activists, and the promotion of Ukraine’s medieval heritage.[72] Thereby, the organization duplicates the activism of its predecessor, the National Squads. While not formally subordinated to the National Corps, most of Centuria’s members are connected to the Azov movement.[73]

Centuria describes itself as a group of “Warriors of Light and Order” in the fight against Ukraine’s “internal enemy.”[74] While the former National Squads posed as an unofficial law enforcement militia, Centuria has a more open range of interests and is primarily engaged in anti-Russian activities throughout Ukraine.[75] For instance, in L’viv in August 2020 Centuria activists attacked Mykhailo Shpira, a pro-Russian political observer,[76] and in October 2020 blocked a rally in Vinnytsia for the pro-Russian Shariy Party.[77]

One of the largest actions of the movement so far was supporting 16 convicts, mainly from Kharkiv, who attacked a bus in 2020 carrying MP Illia Kyva’s pro-Russian Ukrainian youth organization “Patriots – For Life!”[78] (More on Kyva, below.) Since then, actions in support of the convicted Kharkiv nationalists have made up the majority of Centuria‘s actions.[79] There have also been further attacks on pro-Russian actors, one of which led to mass clashes on September 21, 2020, in Odesa.[80]

Centuria uses military paraphernalia and prepares its members for military service. It trains its own territorial defense groups, in effect duplicating the operation of similar units within the reserves of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.[81] The number of members of the organization is currently unknown but is suspected to correspond with or surpass the strength of its predecessor, Azov’s National Squads, which had approximately 1,000 active members.[82]