When Vladimir Putin asserts that the invasion of Ukraine aims to “denazify and demilitarize the country”, he often points the finger at a far-right group: the Azov regiment. But who is this group, which Canada would have helped to form? Is he really carrying out a genocide against the Russian speakers of Ukraine in the name of the government? We take stock.
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As in many other countries around the world, including the United States, France, Greece and Germany, neo-Nazi groups are active in Ukraine. And by coincidence, the best-known of these groups, the Azov Regiment, joined the country’s national guard (army) in 2014 and has since been funded by the Ukrainian government.
Canada, which has been involved in training Ukrainian soldiers since 2014, even paid to train members of the Azov regiment, according to Radio-Canada.
“When the war broke out in the Donbass in 2014, the Ukrainian army was very weak and totally unprepared for a war,” explains the holder of the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa, Dominique Arel.
“So when the rebellion got organised, the authorities were forced to call in volunteers to defend Ukraine’s sovereignty against pro-Russian forces. Among these volunteer battalions, some were affiliated with the extreme right, including the Azov battalion.
Originally from Kharkiv, the group particularly distinguished itself in defending Mariupol. This city, which is currently crumbling under Russian bombs, is bordered by the Sea of Azov, from which the regiment takes its name.
The group’s feats of arms have been widely documented on social networks, helping to raise awareness of Azov in the country and internationally.
A far-right group
But beyond its successes on the battlefields, what we remember from the group is above all that the far right is part of its DNA.
“A simple search on Google reveals that they look like a bunch of neo-Nazis,” says Dominique Arel.
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Azov fighters do wear Nazi emblems, such as the swastika and SS insignia, on their uniforms. The group’s main symbol, formed of the letters I and N on a yellow background, for “National Idea”, resembles the infamous Wolfsangel symbol used by neo-Nazis.
Azov was born from the marriage between the ultranationalist group Patriot of Ukraine and the neo-Nazi group Social National Assembly (SNA), two notoriously xenophobic groups.
AFP
Members of the Azov regiment during a demonstration in March 2016
These groups are also racist and homophobic in their actions: in addition to fighting at the front, members of Azov have created a street militia, the Azov Corps, known to attack marginalized groups, continues the professor.
“They attack marginalized groups like Roma immigrants and members of the LGBTQ2+ community. They do a lot of things that we associate with the extreme right.
AFP
Azov Regiment recruits in 2015
Genocide against Russian speakers?
Would Vladimir Putin be right, then, to accuse the Ukrainian government and the army of being infested with neo-Nazis who aspire to carry out a genocide against the Russian speakers of the country?
“Absolutely not! It’s a monstrous lie,” insists Dominique Arel, who recalls at the same time that the current president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, is a Russian speaker of Jewish origin.
Photo: AFP
Russian President Vladimir Putin
“In his phantasmagorical portrayal of Ukraine, all Ukrainians who resist Russia politically and militarily are fascist nationalists. So, when he talks about denazifying Ukraine, he talks about overthrowing the government and eliminating the entire Ukrainian political class which, for 30 years and particularly in the last eight years, has been resisting Russia. It has absolutely nothing to do with far-right groups like Azov, ”continues the professor.
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As the Azov fighters took part, in 2014 and 2015, in the battles which claimed the lives of “nearly 2,000 civilians” in the pro-Russian regions of eastern Ukraine, the Russian president is using the image of the group to convince its people that a genocide is underway against this population.
With “around 2,000 fighters”, Azov nevertheless remains marginal within the Ukrainian army, which today has more than 200,000 soldiers, recalls Dominique Arel.
Political failure
If many Ukrainians have a certain respect for Azov, it is because the group has successfully defended their homeland in the past, and not for its far-right ideas, mentions Dominique Arel.
The proof: the political party created by the group, the Corps National, bit the dust in the 2019 elections. The various far-right nationalist parties, which had to come together to hope for a breakthrough, did not even amass 2% of votes.
“It didn’t go nearly wrong, which means that unlike other European countries, the far right is hardly represented in the Ukrainian parliament,” concludes the professor.