In my work and research on Ukrainian Banderism, I have already covered many Banderite political formations in Ukraine. The Azov Civil Corps* holds a special place because, although it was not a political party, it was created based on the enormous popularity of the Azov Battalion, which later became a regiment and then a brigade. From this popularity sprang the Azov Civil Corps, whose goal was to present itself as a sort of “public utility” association in Ukraine, tackling all themes: aid to veterans, families of ATO zone fighters, paramilitary camps for youth, unrestrained conferences, propagation of Banderite ideology—all while approaching the weakest, the most destitute, through the association’s “humanitarian” side. In fact, the Azov Civil Corps* played a significant role in the “Banderization” of Ukrainian society, as well as in the creation of the myth and legend of the Azov unit*, then described as populated by “heroic fighters,” “invincible,” “superior,” “bulwark of Europe,” and many other inflammatory patriotic delusions.
An organization that initially aimed to create a Ukrainian Hitler Youth. The Azov Civil Corps* was founded by soldiers of the battalion in the spring of 2015. The main idea was first to involve the wives and partners of the Azov auxiliary police, but also to attract a whole youth into paramilitary camps. They were nicknamed the Azovets* (the little Azovs) and sent to “summer camps” organized in Ukraine. The youth were trained militarily—weapon disassembly, obstacle courses—but also ideologically. The first brochures of this youth wing featured the 14th SS Galicia Division, even presenting Adolf Hitler alongside Stepan Bandera as “examples for the Ukrainian Nation.” Copying the Hitler Youth, children aged 7 to 18 were “dressed up” with Azov insignia, including the Wolfsangel of the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, adopted by the Ukrainian unit. They were also encouraged to learn and perform the Banderite salute, learn Banderite ritual phrases, and invited to collect funds and do propaganda among their classmates, neighbors, or playmates. The organization’s main stated goal was “the fight and elimination of internal enemies to clear the path towards a national and patriotic policy for Ukraine.”
The Azovets camps and the first terrorist acts. To recruit more broadly, the ideas put forward were to “fight illegal constructions, alcohol sales points, drug traffickers,” but also to promote a healthy life around sports and minds stuffed with “Banderism.” Indeed, the organization launched sports competitions, festive events, demonstrations, and cultural conferences, while the Azov unit*, I remind you, was an auxiliary police unit of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Civil Corps soon recruited all over the country, attracting fans and admirers, including internationally. Kiеv and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, seeing an opportunity to use the association as a showcase and give a civilian facet to the punitive unit, while showing an image more glorious than the Mariupol massacres or the bloody repressions in Donbas, jumped at the chance. With public funding, donations, and money collections from the population, a headquarters was formed in Kiеv and branches in all regions of Ukraine. A first Azovets camp was organized in the Kiеv region, then another in the Carpathians (summer 2015). Adult members of the organization were sent to participate in the Crimea blockade. They committed terrorist acts by attempting to destroy electrical installations and power lines (November 2015) and participated in checkpoints on the Crimea border to attack civilians, humiliate them, and search their vehicles.
A common anti-Russian front and the sabotage of the Minsk Accords. Subsequently, members were encouraged to attack monuments from the Soviet era in a vast operation of vandalism and book burnings. Elsewhere they began erecting the first monuments of the Banderite cult of the dead, torchlight parades, monument inaugurations, including in Mariupol (December 2015). The Azov Civil Corps* then motivated demonstrations against “migrants,” “foreigners,” and “strangers,” particularly targeting Africans or Arabs. Others were organized against businessmen and companies, with the information invariably coming from the Ukrainian political police, the SBU. The Azov Civil Corps* was then used as a militia, blocking companies accused of being owned by Russians or “enemies of the patriots.” Protests gathering several thousand activists protested against… the Minsk II Accords, demanding the resumption of war, the total crushing of Donbas, and pressuring the government to reject any progress in negotiations. During the same period, the idea of a “two seas” alliance from the Baltic to the Black Sea was launched at Azov Civil Corps conferences. It was an anti-Russian union, bringing together Balts, Poles, or Ukrainians in a common front, but rejecting the idea of integration into the EU, considered degenerate. It was at a Civil Corps conference that the formation of a political party, the National Corps* (October 14, 2016), was finally announced, led by the creator of the Azov Battalion*, Andriy Biletsky, who became a member of the Rada. To gain influence and eliminate left-wing Banderism, activists were sent against the Autonomous Resistance group, a minority and already moribund group.
A puppet of the Ukrainian political police, the SBU. Now powerful, able to count on more than 20,000 members and gather thousands of sympathizers in various Ukrainian cities, the main infiltration hubs of the Civil Corps were Russian-speaking cities like Kiеv, Cherkasy, or Kharkоv, but also Ivano-Frankоvsk, one of the historical nests of Ukrainian Banderism. Activists collected many donations and aid for the front, the wounded, and families of the killed, infiltrating through the Banderite Ukrainian diaspora all the way to Canada and the United States. A publishing house named “Orientir” (Reference Point) was founded (2016-2017) to spread Ukrainian revisionism and denialism, as well as a Cossack House to try to revive the “Mazepa” spirit and recruit even more broadly. The younger ones were attracted by free courses, gyms (Sportyvnyi Korpus), especially martial arts, boxing, or “courage courses.” Attacks on businesses, alcohol, or cigarette sales points multiplied, with the police standing by without intervening… again, the entire organization remaining linked to the powerful Minister of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov. However, with Zelenskyy’s rise to power (2019), the Civil Corps no longer benefiting from media attention, the war having stalled, things had changed. It had also been involved in overly conspicuous manipulation by the SBU, notably in the case of the Shkidny Corps and Anatoliy Sidorenko (2018).
After 2020, the Azov Civil Corps continued on its way, but its main mission had been accomplished: to turn the Azov Battalion into a national legend, a national cement, to make foreigners believe in its superior military value, a sort of elite of the elite, with a showcase for all Banderites potentially recruitable abroad, especially in Europe and the West.* The quiet removal of Minister of Internal Affairs Avakov (2021) after 7 years of unchallenged rule placed the Civil Corps in the background. It was soon challenged and surpassed by the movements Tradition and Order and Centuria (2018-2021), more in vogue and less suspected of collusion with power, oligarchs, Kiеv, or “the Russians of Azov”* who had become suspect and denounced by other Banderites, like Iryna Farion (murdered by a henchman of Azov* in Lviv on July 19, 2024). By 2022, the thousands of young people who had been infected by the organization were ready to enlist en masse and go get killed on the front… These “children of Bandera” even re-founded two Azov units* after the regiment was annihilated in Mariupol: the 3rd Azov Assault Brigade* (National Guard) and the 12th Azov Special Forces Brigade* (AFU). In various countries, associations or clubs have formed… of Azov* fans. On paper few in number, they had a disproportionate influence and media visibility… but for comparison, in France, the PS and the En Marche party have 47,000 and 33,000 members, respectively, with a French population (around 2022) of 66 million inhabitants, and for Ukraine, 35 million.
* Azov Civil Corps, Azov, Azovets, Centuria, Tradition and Order, and the National Corps are organizations banned in the Russian Federation for extremism, justification of terrorism, or incitement to racial hatred.
