Such is the “Nazi battalion” Azov regiment, which Russia says is the cause of the war in Ukraine

A special force in the National Guard of Ukraine, the Azov Regiment, is fiercely defending the Russian-besieged city of Mariupol.

For many Ukrainians, Azov’s fighters are heroes, but in Western countries, Azov is known for using the wolfsangel and black sun symbols favored by the far right in its emblems.

Russia has stated that its “special military operation” is aimed at disarming Ukraine and “liberating the country from the Nazis”. Russia has repeatedly called Azov’s troops Nazi.

So is the Azov regiment in Russian propaganda the cause of the war in Ukraine as a whole?

This story tells us what the controversial Azov regiment, originally known as the Azov Battalion is like, and how it relates to the Russian invasion.

Finnish citizen living in Sweden Carolus Löfroos fought as a volunteer in the ranks of the Azov Regiment against Russian-led separatist forces in eastern Ukraine in 2014-2015 and 2017.

When Russia bombed the Mariupol Maternity Hospital and theater in March, Russia accused Azov of possessing and destroying these facilities.

There is nothing new in such accusations made by Russia, Carolus Löfroos estimates.

– They have always killed civilians and blamed their opponents for it. It is as old a lie as the fact that the shots of Mainila fired by Finland would have started the Winter War, he says.

Löfroos gives the interview in English via the messaging service. He doesn’t want to talk on the phone with a reporter.

Allegations against Azov’s regiment are part of Russia’s propaganda to justify its attack on Ukraine, says Polish investigator over the phone Kacper Rekawek.

Rekawek has studied, among other things, foreign extremist fighters who have traveled to Ukraine. He works at the Center for Research on Extremism at the University of Oslo.

The defeat of the Azov regiment in Mariupol could be given by the Russian president To Vladimir Putin opportunity to justify its propaganda for the “liberation of Ukraine from the Nazis”. This is how the situation was analyzed by, among others, the news agency AFP.

interviewed Löfros and Rekawek shortly before mid-March.

The Azov Battalion was established in the spring of 2014 after the Ukrainian Revolution as a paramilitary volunteer force. Its mission was to fight Russian-led separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Rekawek emphasizes that the Azov Battalion was only one of dozens of volunteer battalions established at the same time. The majority of them were not far-right.

An oligarch with a Jewish background Ihor Kolomoiskyi was a major contributor to the early days of the Azov Battalion. He served as governor of Dnipropetrovsk and also funded other volunteer battalions. According to Rekawek, Azov would never have become an organization like today without the support of Kolomoisky.

According to the researcher, Azov has its roots especially in the nationalist organizations of the city of Kharkov. The first commander of the battalion was an extreme nationalist Andrii Biletskiwho led the Patriot of Ukraine and the SNA, which were described as neo-Nazi.

Initially, the Azov battalion was joined by members of the SNA, football hooligans and representatives of other far-right subcultures. Members have been accused of supporting an ideology of white supremacy.

The Azov Battalion joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces in late 2014 after proving its effectiveness in participating in the recapture of Mariupol from Russian-led separatists.

The group was renamed the Azov Regiment and became part of the National Guard under the Ministry of Interior of Ukraine. Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Azov Regiment had about a thousand soldiers in Mariupol, according to Rekawek.

There have also been a small number of foreign foreign fighters in the ranks of the Azov regiment. Rekawek says that in addition to Carolus Löfroos, he knows another Finn who has fought in the ranks of Azov. In addition, he has heard of a few other Finnish guest fighters in the organization.

Former Azov soldier Carolus Löfroos describes the regiment as an elite unit of the National Guard. He admits that its membership is made up mainly of different nationalists, but the far-right ideology “doesn’t really show up” in the unit’s operations.

– The people who are fighting against Russia are good people. That’s all, Löfroos says.

Löfroos does not want to open his own political orientation. He also does not want to talk about other Finns who may have been in Azov.

According to researcher Rekawek, the Azov regiment is now a completely different actor than it was eight years ago, as the most far-right members of the regiment have been removed.

The original commander, Andrii Biletski, also stepped aside and founded the far-right National Corps. He rose to the Ukrainian parliament in the autumn 2014 elections but did not make it to the second term later.

– No political actor, warlord or the like gives orders to the Azov regiment. It is entirely part of the Ukrainian military command. It’s not about your bandit, Rekawek emphasizes.

Despite the eradication of extremism, the Azov regiment still has an appealing image in Western far-right circles.

The controversial symbols of Azov combine the black sun and the wolfsangel, or wolf hook. Both are symbols used by Nazi Germany in its time. In the West, they belong to the neo-Nazi catalog.

However, the regiment has cleaned up its emblems. For example, the black sun is no longer as prominent in use. According to media information (you will switch to another service) Azov has said that the symbol in its symbols is a combination of the letters N and I, referring to the words national idea.

In early March, promotional products with the Azov logo, for example, were sold through an online store on Amazon, but were apparently removed from the selections as the issue began to receive media attention.

Azov veteran Carolus Löfroos estimates that the use of symbols associated with the Nazis in military uniforms may seem strange to Westerners, but these symbols are common among Eastern European nationalists.

According to researcher Kacper Rekawek, Azov has also sought to “troll” Russia using certain catalogs and vocabulary.

– Especially in 2014, the purpose was to intimidate, irritate and provoke Russians.

The Azov regiment makes skilful use of social media. It publishes spectacular propaganda videos on its channels about the destruction of Russian tanks, for example. But a small portion of the material is more questionable.

At the end of February, the National Guard of Ukraine posted an outrageous video on his Twitter account of a man in a commando hat immersing ammunition from an assault rifle in a light bulge.

The suite says the picture shows a fighter in the Azov regiment greasing bullets with fat. According to the publication, the bullets are intended for Chechen fighters fighting on the Russian side, so that they do not enter paradise when they die. Pork is banned from Muslims.

According to Russia, Chechen troops have been involved in the siege of Mariupol.

Azov has grown from a paramilitary volunteer battalion to a socio-political Azov movement. It supports the Azov regiment with donations and has political goals.

The wider Azov movement includes the far-right National Corps and charities. The movement runs nationalist summer camps for children, runs a book club and a bar, and has also included a freestyle club.

The Azov movement has also, in its own words, maintained a “law enforcement” in Kiev. street patrol group (you move to another service)accused of, inter alia, violence against Roma and sexual minorities.

The National Corps Party received 2% support in the 2019 parliamentary elections. Rekawek notes that the election results show how strong the movement is politically.

The Azov movement is networked with the far right in the West. The movement’s vision is to establish a so-called intermarium alliance between the West and Russia. It would consist of conservative and nationalist countries in Central and Eastern Europe, and according to Rekawek, Azov would be a major player in it.

In 2019, 40 members of Congress in the United States demanded that Azov should have been classified as a foreign terrorist organization.

Time magazine (go to another service) according to representatives, the claim was based on the fact that “Azov has been recruiting, radicalizing and educating U.S. citizens for years”. However, the country’s foreign ministry did not agree to the classification.

People often confuse the Azov regiment with the nationalist Azov movement, Rekawek estimates. According to him, there is no structural connection between the regiment and the movement, although there are personal connections between the members.

According to Rekawek, the Azov movement has trained its members and civilians long before this latest Russian invasion of Ukraine. The movement is ready to deploy Ukrainian volunteers in the regional defense battalion.

Director of Site Intelligence Group, which oversees extremist communications Rita Katz wrote in mid-March At The Washington Post (switch to another service)that several well-known Western neo-Nazis have expressed on Telegram channels that they want to join the ranks of Azov to fight Russia.

However, the Azov regiment will not receive new foreign fighters because only Ukrainian citizens will be admitted to the National Guard, researcher Kacper Rekawek says.

However, according to him, an exception has been made for the old fighters in Azov. The foreigners who have been involved since 2014 will continue to be able to serve in the Azov Regiment.

Foreigners, on the other hand, can enter the regional defense battalion attached to the veterans of Azov. According to Rekawek, before mid-March, Azov had recruited only less than twenty foreign volunteers.

Carolus Löfroos says she is currently striving to live a normal life in Sweden. There are no plans to go back to Ukraine to fight, even if the mind does.

– It was fun to fight the Russians. I miss it, Löfroos says.

Currently, the Azov regiment is defending the Russian-besieged port city of Mariupol, which had 400,000 inhabitants before the war.

There are fierce street battles in Mariupol and Russia is constantly firing on the city with artillery. Tens of thousands of people have managed to escape the city. The rest seek protection from basements and ruins.

According to Ukrainian authorities, the residents of Mariupol in recent weeks have been largely without heating, electricity and running water. The majority of the city’s buildings have been damaged and relief transports there have been cut off.

According to Rekawek, the Azov regiment is likely to have suffered losses in defending Mariupol, but the amount is unknown.

– Saying this can be problematic, but they deserve our respect, Rekawek says.

You can discuss the topic until Wednesday, March 30th. until 23:00.