For several weeks, Vladimir Putin has presented the Russian army’s invasion of Ukraine as a “special operation” aimed, in particular, at the “denazification” of the Ukrainian state. In this attempt to justify the Kremlin master’s attack on his neighbor, the disreputable Ukrainian military unit, the Azov Regiment, is being used by the Russian camp as a symbolic enemy. On social networks, images of its fighters with symbols that evoke Nazism are widespread, in particular among pro-Russian Internet users.
The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, used this controversial battalion to justify the bombing of a maternity hospital on Wednesday March 9 in besieged Mariupol, claiming that the building served as a base for his fighters. “This maternity hospital has long been captured by the Azov battalion and other radicals, and all women in labor, all nurses and all support staff have been thrown out,” the Russian Foreign Minister said. Franceinfo answers a few questions about this unit, integrated since 2014 into the National Guard of Ukraine.
1 How was he born?
The Azov Regiment is a paramilitary group that takes its name from the Sea of Azov, which borders Ukraine, Russia and Crimea, a Ukrainian region annexed by Moscow since 2014. Initially, it was a battalion consisting of volunteers, Ukrainians and foreigners. He played a key role in the liberation of Mariupol in the spring of 2014, when the large Donbass city was then in the hands of pro-Russian separatists. The battalion acquired the status of a regiment in November of the same year, becoming part of the National Guard of Ukraine by decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Since then, the paramilitary group has been part of the institutionalized Ukrainian forces. “It is a desire to reintegrate them into a structure in order to contain the danger that the existence of military groups outside the state can pose,” Masha Tserovich, EHESS lecturer and member of the Center for the Study of Russia, the Caucasus and the Central European Worlds (Cercec), analyzes for franceinfo.
2 What are its links to neo-Nazi ideology?
The historical core of the Azov Regiment is associated with ultra-right neo-Nazi radicals who defend the theses about the “white race,” analyzes Masha Tserovich. The founder of this armed group, Andriy Biletsky, was a member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. In 2007, while a member of the ultra-nationalist paramilitary organization Patriots of Ukraine, he published a text entitled “Ukrainian racial social nationalism,” reports Let out. “However, Andrei Biletsky never openly declared his neo-Nazi identity,” the researcher clarifies.
In 2016, he participated in the creation of the National Corps party. “The veterans of the Azov Regiment wanted to capitalize on their image in order to turn the military action into a political one,” Adrien Nongeon, a research fellow at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (Inalco), a specialist on Ukraine and the far right, explains to franceinfo. . In the National Corps, war is presented as the best way to defend the nation, explains Adrien Nonjon, who describes the party as inspired by “soldier nationalism”. “Her influence remains very small in the Ukrainian political game,” says Masha Tserovych, however.
However, these acquaintances with Nazism were noted at the front. Photos of fighters of the Azov Regiment with symbols of the Third Reich have been circulating on social networks since the very beginning of the conflict in Ukraine. The esoteric symbol of the “Black Sun” or inverted “Wolfsangel”, which was the symbol of the 2nd SS Panzer Division “Das Reich”, is depicted on some Ukrainian uniforms. These are former emblems of a paramilitary group, which are still used by some soldiers, says Adrien Nonjon. However, neo-Nazi ideology will not prevail in the troops of the regiment, which are now fighting, the researcher adds. “With the opening of the regiment for wider manning in 2014, this base [néonazie] drowned in the mass,” he clarifies.
3Why are his methods contradictory?
The Azov Regiment was accused by the UN and some non-governmental organizations of abuses committed during the Crimean conflict in 2014. Two years later, a report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights accused the battalion of rape and torture. “A mentally retarded man was subjected to abuse, rape and other forms of sexual violence by eight to ten fighters from the Azov and Donbass battalions. [une autre formation paramilitaire ukrainienne] in August-September 2014″, can be read in particular.
Also in 2016, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International also released a joint report on the situation in Ukraine. The two NGOs report arbitrary detentions and ill-treatment of several military groups, including the Azov Regiment. The same goes for the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (Ofpra), which in 2018 published its findings on the 2014 conflict. The state institution under the Ministry of Internal Affairs condemned the acts of torture (deprivation of food, electric shocks, etc.), in which the military personnel of the regiment were allegedly guilty.
4 What is his part in this war?
For the researcher Masha Tserovich, the Azov regiment is developing mainly in the Donbas region, in eastern Ukraine, although it remains difficult to accurately determine the location of combat units during the war. According to Adrian Nonjon, it will have between 3,500 and 4,000 people. Thus, the regiment would represent less than 2% of the total Ukrainian army, which has nearly 200,000 soldiers, according to the military balance sheet of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) cited by AFP at the end of 2018. February.