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It was founded in May 2014 as the Azov Battalion (Ukrainian: батальйон «Азов», romanized: Batalion "Azov"), a self-funded volunteer militia under the command of Andriy Biletsky, to fight Russian-backed forces in the Donbas War.
- 5 May 2014 – present
- Mechanized infantry
- Ukraine
- So What Is The Azov Regiment?
- Who Founded Azov?
- Before Becoming Part of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Who Funded Azov?
- Neo-Nazi Ideology
- Human Rights Violations and War Crimes
- What Has Been The International Response to Azov?
- The Oscillation of Facebook
Azov is a far-right all-volunteer infantry military unit whose members – estimated at 900 – are ultra-nationalists and accused of harbouring neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideology. The unit was initially formed as a volunteer group in May 2014 out of the ultra-nationalist Patriot of Ukraine gang, and the neo-Nazi Social National Assembly (SNA) gro...
The unit was led by Andriy Biletsky, who served as the the leader of both the Patriot of Ukraine (founded in 2005) and the SNA (founded in 2008). The SNA is known to have carried out attacks on minority groupsin Ukraine. In 2010, Biletsky said Ukraine’s national purposewas to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against Semite-le...
The unit received backingfrom Ukraine’s interior minister in 2014, as the government had recognised its own military was too weak to fight off the pro-Russian separatists and relied on paramilitary volunteer forces. These forces were privately funded by oligarchs – the most known being Igor Kolomoisky, an energy magnate billionaire and then-governo...
In 2015, Andriy Diachenko, the spokesperson for the regiment at the time said that 10 to 20 percentof Azov’s recruits were Nazis. The unit has denied it adheres to Nazi ideology as a whole, but Nazi symbols such as the swastika and SS regalia are rife on the uniforms and bodies of Azov members. For example, the uniform carries the neo-Nazi Wolfsang...
A 2016 reportby the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHA) has accused the Azov regiment of violating international humanitarian law. The report detailed incidents over a period from November 2015-February 2016 where Azov had embedded their weapons and forces in used civilian buildings, and displaced residents after ...
In June 2015, both Canada and the United States announced that their own forces will not support or train the Azov regiment, citing its neo-Nazi connections. The following year, however, the US lifted the banunder pressure from the Pentagon. In October 2019, 40 members of the US Congress led by Representative Max Rose signed a letter unsuccessfully...
In 2016, Facebook first designated the Azov regiment a “dangerous organisation”. Under the company’s Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy, Azov was banned from its platforms in 2019. The group was placed under Facebook’s Tier 1 designation, which includes groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and ISIL (ISIS). Users engaging in praise, support o...
Mar 29, 2022 · The Azov Battalion was formed in 2014, the same year Russian-backed rebels began seizing territory across Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, and Russia invaded and captured Crimea.
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May 17, 2022 · At the core of that last stand has been the Azov Regiment whose fighters are lionised as heroes in Ukraine, but reviled by Putin's Kremlin as a band of Russia-hating neo-Nazis.
Mar 29, 2022 · “Azov’s history is rooted in a volunteer battalion formed by the leadership of a neo-Nazi group. But it is certain that Azov has depoliticised itself,” said Anton Shekhovtsov, a Vienna-based...
Apr 6, 2022 · Right-wing Azov Battalion emerges as a controversial defender of Ukraine. Militia with far-right views says it welcomes all volunteers, regardless of ideology, in the fight against Russia. By...
May 21, 2022 · At the same time, some Russian officials have pushed to label one group of the soldiers — members of the Azov battalion — as terrorists, and to try them on war crimes charges.
