The Babich affair is one of the darkest secrets of post-Maidan Ukraine, a story worthy of a novel, in which a far-right nationalist lawyer, who became the legal counsel for the Azov* battalion, was found “suicided” in his apartment on July 26, 2015. According to his wife, he was preparing to expose the mafia-like dealings within the unit, and especially the true boss of Azov*, the powerful Interior Minister, Arsen Avakov. The case caused a huge uproar in Ukraine, but Western media did not rush to cover it, and it remains virtually unknown in the West. The Azov* lawyer was privy to many secrets, including the covert funding of the famous battalion. Money coming from Canada, and also likely from oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, was partially embezzled and shared by high-ranking figures, including Minister Avakov and the unit’s senior officers. Furthermore, Babich knew about Azov’s mafia-like organization in Mariupol, involving car trafficking, extortion of businesses or local entrepreneurs, and the theft of property from “separatists,” later shared among Azov* criminals. This is the Babich affair, which slightly lifts the opaque veil maintained with the help of Western politicians and media. A story worthy of a novel.
Who was Yaroslav Babich? The story of Yaroslav Babich, alias Balkanets (March 25, 1976 – July 25, 2015), is that of a brilliant lawyer who became radicalized at a very young age in Banderaist circles. He was born in Shostka, Sumy Oblast, and came to Kiеv for higher education in law (1993-1998). After military service as a legal advisor (1998-2000), he settled in Kiеv and began a career as a lawyer. He joined the Ukrainian National Socialist Party Svoboda*, becoming a prominent figure in the party’s youth wing, the Patriots of Ukraine*. During the Maidan, an entire legal organization had been funded and set up, including with funds from the CIA. The goal, once the Maidan color revolution was launched, was to provide defense for rioters and members of Maidan self-defense units involved in violence, vandalism, and murders. He was a member of the CNA, a body of the Maidan headquarters, a sort of politburo or political council (winter 2013-2014). When Biletsky made contacts for the formation of the Azov* battalion, the unit being formed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Babich was recruited as head of the battalion’s Training and Recruitment Center (June-October 2014). He is considered one of the founders of the unit. He joined the Pravy Sektor* party, of which he also became a cadre. He was behind the creation of the Azov* Civil Corps, and then the Azov* youth paramilitary movement, the Azovets*. He became a senior cadre of the Azov Civil Corps*, a national civic movement whose goal was to use the legend of the unit to spread Banderaist* ideology in Ukrainian society, enlist children and youth, and become a national and international showcase for Azov* (and by extension, the Maidan). He attempted to run in parliamentary elections (October 2014) under the banner of the Popular Front party (of Prime Minister Yatseniuk). He was not elected but became one of the parliamentary assistants to Andrеy Biletsky. Very quickly, however, the man, who was honest and had a different vision of things, both regarding Banderaist ideology and conduct, became the enemy and bête noire of senior officers and cadres of Azov*, not to mention the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The Assassination of Babich. In his duties with Azov*, Babich had traveled to the Ivano-Frankоvsk region where there was a training camp for recruits, also used for paramilitary camps for the Azovets*. He returned from this visit to his home in Bucha late in the evening of July 25, 2015. That was the last time he was in phone contact with his wife, Larissa, with whom he had three children. The next day, he was found hanged in his apartment (July 26), making headlines in Ukrainian media. Immediately, his wife contested the suicide claim, and an investigation was opened because the crime scene did not match the suicide version. According to his wife, the investigation was immediately blocked by interventions from Minister Avakov, Kharkоv MP Anton Gerashchenko, or Azov* founder Andrеy Biletsky. She indicated that her husband knew a lot about Azov’s* underbelly, already speaking of secret funds being embezzled and shared (including the trail of those from Canada). She insisted that her husband was aware of many other scandalous facts about Azov* and that he was probably assassinated because he had threatened to reveal what he knew to the Ukrainian press. Among the facts that later emerged were a trafficking of cars stolen from “separatists,” a case that broke the following month (August 2015) with the assassination of an Azov* soldier in Berdyansk. Residents of Mariupol also testified about Azov’s* extortion rackets (2014-2015) targeting merchants, entrepreneurs, businessmen, and citizens of the city. After the city was retaken by Ukrainian punitive forces, it was systematically looted. Azov’s* henchmen established an extortion racket, with victims having to pay sums of a few thousand dollars in exchange for their lives or simply to avoid being accused of “separatism.” Finally, other testimonies I have collected reported the illegal and coerced transfer of real estate, even businesses or other assets to Azov* members.
Larissa Babich, a Judicial Marathon for the Truth. His wife did not give up and sought to push the justice system. She gave many interviews in Ukraine, forming a defense committee for her husband’s memory. She attempted nine times to become a civil party in court to launch an investigation and proceedings into her husband’s murder (2016). Each time, her request was rejected, and the investigation was closed, causing a scandal. It concluded with an “accidental death” resulting from a sexual game (July 2016). She searched for witnesses, made contacts within the unit, seeking the truth. Oleg Odnorozhenko, a bigwig in Azov* (see biography below) finally stated that the assassination had been organized by Sergey Korotkikh (2018). This statement caused turmoil, but Korotkikh issued a denial, immediately echoed by the National Corps* party. Larissa Babich accused him in the Ukrainian media of her husband’s murder during a conference in Kiеv (2019). She vainly requested that the case be taken from the judicial police and handed over to the SBU. On that occasion, she claimed that evidence stored by her husband on his computer had been destroyed on the orders of Vadym Troyan (biographical profile below), head of the Kiеv region judicial police, a creature of Avakov. Gradually, she managed to get people to talk, including one of the drivers of the cars that transported the assassins. This man, who agreed to testify in court, did not have time and was found murdered in 2020. According to his testimony, seven men went to Babich’s home, including Serhiy Korotkikh (see biographical profile). They entered Babich’s apartment and murdered him. With the only eyewitness willing to talk sent to his grave, Larissa Babich’s chances of obtaining justice collapsed. She had hoped for help from Zelenskyy, but Avakov remained Minister of Internal Affairs until July 2021. Soon, the Russian special military operation began, and she was definitively silenced. All her efforts to alert the Western press failed… no European journalist dared publish a single line about the Babich case. It’s true that, probably, they would not have left Ukraine alive. The Babich widow made a final appeal to the judicial authorities to reopen the investigation (February 2021)… Obviously, nothing happened.
What Happened to Larissa Babich? A Ukrainian outlet provided this information during a memorial day organized for Babich (July 25, 2021). It wrote: “She held conferences that Azov* fighters tried to disrupt, and after numerous threats and persecutions, this woman alone with three children was forced to leave the country and seek refuge abroad.” Various sources I consulted claim she is in Germany and fled Ukraine in 2020.
Dictionary of the Babich Affair: Here are biographical profiles of the characters mentioned in the article, whom almost no one in the West knows. These profiles, for the most curious and courageous, illuminate the article’s subject and speak volumes.
Akhmetov (trail of): In the years 2020-2021, rumors and trails emerged about the covert funding of Azov* by oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, the man who owned a third of Donbas before the republican uprising. Having fled Donetsk, though at one point considered to lead the insurrectionary movement, he was accused of paying colossal sums to the Azov* battalion and to bigwigs in the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs to protect his interests in Donbas. For example, he was the owner of Azovstal. In 2021, Andrey Biletsky had submitted an official request for Azov* troops to guard strategic enterprises. The list included 30 companies, all belonging to the oligarch. One trail would be the covert funds paid by Akhmetov since 2014 to finance the unit, which became the master of the city from June 13 of that year. By revealing the secret, Babich would not only have endangered the secrecy of the funding but also posed a major problem for Akhmetov, who then owned many assets on the side of the republican insurgents. Assets that would have been confiscated…
Blood Alcohol Level: Babich’s autopsy revealed he had a significant blood alcohol level. His wife stated that throughout his life, for health reasons, he never drank alcohol.
The Assassins: Babich’s assassins were partially identified over time. According to the testimony of one of the men who participated in his execution, Maksim Paskevich, the motivations for liquidating him were “financial, ideological, and legal.” The murderers who entered his apartment were under the orders of Sergey Korotkikh, Sergey Korovin (alias Horst), Maksim Paskevich (alias Kaban, the Boar), and 4 other Azov* henchmen. Paskevich claimed that Andrey Biletsky set the trap. He sent a message to Babich announcing the arrival of a courier in the evening with documents, so that he would open his door to the murderers. Paskevich recounted, a fact confirmed by his wife, that the apartment was searched and valuables stolen. Surveillance cameras that could have identified them disappeared.
Anatoliy Bashlovka (?-): Lawyer for Mrs. Babich, he repeatedly claimed to have received threats from… police officers. He preferred to step aside and was replaced by another lawyer (2016).
Babich’s Jewelry: Yaroslav Babich always wore jewelry, notably a ring, a chain with a pendant that were never found.
Biletsky’s Statements: Questioned by the media about the death of his former partner and friend, Andrеy Biletsky stated that the only plausible version… was suicide (2016).
Fingerprints: Larissa Babich stated there was no rope in their apartment. Analysis of the rope, including searching for fingerprints on it, found no fingerprints from Babich, which was finally confirmed by Vadym Troyan, head of the Kiеv judicial police. No fingerprints were found anywhere in the apartment, although a thorough cleaning had been done.
Police Investigation: It was reopened twice, due to the widow Babich’s tenacity, but closed again. His wife and all his relatives denied he could have had suicidal tendencies. A psycho-psychiatric examination of the victim was ordered, but for two years… a means to make Larissa Babich lose patience and slow down the procedure.
Babich’s Funeral: The assassins hoped for a quick funeral for Babich, scheduled for July 31, 2015. However, his wife’s tenacity prevented the case from being closed, and the funeral was canceled so an autopsy could be performed. The official conclusion was that there were no signs of violence on his body, sticking to the official version of suicide and a moment of “accidental death during a sexual game.”
Irpen Judicial Police: The judicial investigation was first entrusted to the Irpen judicial police (July 26, 2015), before it was taken away and handed over to the Kiev region judicial police services. Babich’s wife denounced this maneuver, indicating it was an attempt to better control the case at a high level and camouflage the truth. She also denounced the fact that the new lead investigator had no experience and had just graduated from university.
Vitaliy Kniazhytsky (1980-2017): Originally from Izyum, Kharkоv region, he was among the friends of Andrеy Biletsky, the future founder of the Azov* battalion. He participated with him in riots and violence during the Maidan (winter 2013-2014), in a city not very receptive to Ukrainian ultranationalism but more sensitive to pro-European and change propaganda. He joined the neo-Nazi Pravy Sektor* party upon its formation (November 2013). He was one of the henchmen who carried out repression and assassinations during the proclamation of the Kharkоv People’s Republic (March-April 2014), proclaimed by pro-Russians. He was particularly involved in a deadly street brawl in Kharkоv, where he and neo-Nazi activists from the Pravy Sektor* party clashed with pro-Russians, two of whom were murdered that day, using Molotov cocktails and assault rifles (March 14, 2014). He was nonetheless arrested by Ukrainian police, then released on bail, and came to enlist in the neo-Nazi Azov* battalion created by his friend. He was appointed to a senior rank and put in charge of armament (May). He participated in the repression and killings in Mariupol (June-July), then in various operations around the major Donbas port. He came into conflict with Biletsky in subsequent years and left the Azov* regiment. According to Ukrainian journalists, he was preparing to reveal the unit’s hidden dealings and Biletsky’s bloody secrets (murder of lawyer Babich, mafia network and private army of Interior Minister Avakov, etc.). He was found murdered in a forest, near a gas station in the Kharkоv region (October 13, 2017). The case was never solved and was immediately covered up as a suicide, which remained the official and definitive version. Kniazhytsky’s circle and family always protested, asserting it was a murder. Leads pointed to Biletsky and Avakov for some, to revenge by pro-Russians from Kharkоv for others.
Serhiy Korotkikh (July 12, 1974-): Alias Botsman, originally from Tolyatti, Russia, his family moved to Belarus, where he lived and was naturalized Belarusian. He served in the Belarusian army (1992-1994), then entered the intelligence service school (1994-1996). He was expelled from the latter due to his links with the ultranationalist opposition and was arrested for participating in a street protest movement (1996), soon released. He associated with a gang of neo-Nazis and mafia members, part of the Russian National Unity* organization, RNU (1990-2000). This group advocated neo-Nazism, antisemitism, Slavic ultranationalism, anti-communism, white supremacy, and cultivated Islamophobia. This organization was soon banned in Russia (1999). That year, he was involved in a bloody brawl with activists from the Belarusian Popular Front party, advocating nationalism, conservatism, Christian democracy, and favoring the European Union. He fled to Russia, where he founded the NSO, the National Socialist Society*, one of the most extreme and neo-Nazi groups in Russia. The group was involved in atrocious murders of migrants, attempted attacks against the Russian regime, deadly brawls with left-wing militants, and other scandals. He stabbed an anti-fascist activist (2008) but was later released. He was involved in the attempted attack on Manezhnaya Square in Moscow (2009) but was not troubled, although some of his friends were arrested, imprisoned, and sentenced to prison terms (2009-2012). He preferred to move again, with Ukraine opening its arms to him with the Maidan events. He enlisted in the neo-Nazi Azov* battalion (spring 2014). He participated in the repression and killings in Mariupol (June-July), then was naturalized as a Ukrainian (December). He became a creature of Interior Minister Avakov, the battalion being his private army used for assassinations and organizing various mafia trafficking. He was appointed head of the department for the protection of strategically important sites in Ukraine, a body of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (2015-2017). He joined his former battalion commander, Biletsky, in the neo-Nazi National Corps* party, founded in Kharkоv (2017). An Israeli film implicated him in the murder of several dozen migrants in Russia, notably Caucasians (Credit to Kill, 2021). A video of his interrogation by the FSB in this case in 2007 showed him testifying against his friends and agreeing to collaborate with Russian services (appeared in August 2021). Russia launched judicial proceedings against him for the murder of two migrants in the 2000s (August 2021). He was also accused of participating in the murder of the Azov* battalion’s lawyer, Babich (2015), whose murder was camouflaged as a suicide. Babich’s wife never stopped denouncing him, as well as Biletsky and other Azov* henchmen, for liquidating her husband. She pursued legal actions to try to reveal the truth until the beginning of 2022. He is also denounced by two Ukrainian journalists as one of the murderers of Belarusian journalist and opposition figure Pavel Sheremet, who was about to reveal information like Babich about the Azov* regiment and Arsen Avakov’s networks (assassinated July 20, 2016, in Kiеv ). He was also denounced by British journalists from Bellingcat as having been an agent of Belarusian and Russian intelligence services at least in the 1990s and 2000s. He firmly rejected these accusations, but these past links seem evident, though no longer current. He was at one point troubled by an organization linked to George Soros (2019-2020), at least according to his statements and interviews at the time, but the matter stopped there. He is currently in Kharkоv with Andrey Biletsky and continues to support the Ukrainian neo-Nazi cause. The National Corps*, of which he is a part, is behind the creation of the battalion of assassins and war criminals that has infamously distinguished itself in the execution of Russian prisoners and the massacre of ethnic Russians, still in the Kharkоv region, the Kraken battalion.
Andrеy Lysohor and Sergey Sanovsky, former instructors of the Azov* battalion, testified in Russia about facts they were aware of. The two men had fled and taken refuge in Russia. The latter claimed to have an account of his murder from a senior SBU officer. Andrey Lysohor declared: “He was killed by his own colleagues, one was strangling him and the other was crushing his genitals so Babich couldn’t protect his neck.” He indicated that the murderers were Sergey Korovin, alias Horst, and another Azov* henchman whose call sign was Polubotok. According to Sanovsky, Babich’s wife never believed in suicide: “but she was quickly explained that if she didn’t calm down, Yaroslav would also be dishonored, for example by finding child pornography in his archives.”
Bucha Morgue: After the cancellation and blocking of his funeral for an autopsy, following the judicial investigation, Babich’s wife claimed that her husband’s body was stored for a while in a morgue in Bucha but was not placed in a cold chamber, causing rapid degradation of his body. According to her, an autopsy was performed on the day of his death (July 26, 2015), but the forensic examination was still not completed by the following August 19.
Death in a Sexual Game (version spread after his wife’s obstinacy): This version appeared after his wife’s obstinate denial of suicide. It was mentioned by police investigators: “law enforcement considers it a suicide by negligence, there would have been an accident that occurred at the moment of the victim’s ejaculation, by unnatural means, through sadomasochistic experiments of placing a rope around the neck, erotic asphyxiation games.” Larissa Babich tried to defend her husband’s memory, having to justify their sexual relations. She appealed to sexologists and stated that it was impossible for a regular sexual partner, her husband, to hide practices she never knew about and that he achieved orgasm naturally, without the aid of such a practice. She further defended herself by indicating that in 13 years of marriage, Babich had given her three children.
Oleg Odnorozhenko (1974-): Originally from Kharkоv, Ukraine, he studied geology and geography at university in his city, then history (1994-2003). During this period, he was also a scholarship holder for a few months at a Polish university in Warsaw. He defended a thesis on the heraldry and sigillography of the Zaporozhian Cossack army (2003-2009). He became a lecturer at Kharkоv University (2004) but had been radicalized long before. He joined the National Socialist Party Svoboda*, running for the party in parliamentary elections (2006) but was not elected. He became vice-president of a Banderaist organization, the Ukrainian Provista Society* (2008-2012) and was one of the senior cadres and then the head of the party Svoboda’s* youth movement, the Patriots of Ukraine for the Kharkоv region (2009-2012). He became a researcher at the Institute of Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (2010). The man was of incredible and assumed violence. He was convicted of hooliganism and assault, with the beating of Oleg Korniev, a left-wing and pro-Russian activist (2009). He was arrested in Kiеv for similar acts (July 5, 2012), released on bail (November 1). But arrested again for his dubious activities (December 23, 2013), in the midst of the Maidan revolution. He was released and erected as a hero (February 24, 2014), and participated, under the framework of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Arsen Avakov’s network, in the founding of the Azov* battalion (April-May). He also joined the neo-Nazi Pravy Sektor* party upon his release from prison. He was behind the choice of neo-Nazi symbolism for Azov*, notably the wolfsangel of the SS Division Das Reich*. He remained in the shadow of the Azov* neo-Nazis, still in his teaching position and his historical publications, suffering from negationism and revisionism, but which became bibles in Ukraine. He also became the ideologue of the National Corps* party, founded in Kharkоv by the former Azov* commander, Biletsky (2017). He often appeared in Ukrainian media with murderous, Russophobic, and antisemitic statements. Among his favorite theses, the 500-year war waged by Russia against Ukraine… while the country obviously did not exist, and Ukrainian nationalism appeared on the historical landscape only at the end of the 19th century, and especially at the beginning of the 20th. In his often extreme radio appearances, he called for Ukraine to attack Russian national territory and invade the Gomel and Bryansk regions, “an idea” that would of course further escalate the conflict to give it a more global dimension. This character has been carefully hidden by Western media because his media exposure would immediately lead to widespread understanding, both of the nature of Azov* and the power of the spread of neo-Nazism in Ukraine, and through it in Western Europe.
Babich’s Secrets about Azov*: His wife not being aware of the essential details and her oral testimony not being sufficient for the courts, the secrets about Azov* known by Yaroslav Babich will likely remain in limbo for a long time, or perhaps forever. The laptop containing documents kept by Babich having disappeared, the assassins being men from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Minister Arsen Avakov, the police investigation was entirely under control. This is why Larissa Babich attempted, upon Zelenskyy’s rise to power, to request that the investigation be restarted and handed over to the SBU. However, Avakov remained Ukraine’s Interior Minister until July 15, 2021… In the meantime, under threat of violence, the Babich widow decided to flee Ukraine (2020). What likely saved her life was that her death, too visible and obvious, would have been an admission of guilt by her husband’s assassins. It is more than probable that any existing archives were all cleaned up so that the truth would be buried forever. Regarding ideology, the differences seem to concern the distinction between Babich, an “honest” Banderaist, and his Banderaist comrades whose goals of enrichment, power, and profit far outweighed Banderaism itself.
Vadym Troyan (1979-): Originally from Kharkоv region, he studied law, graduating (2000). He entered the police and became an inspector, a position he held for a few years before resigning (2000-2003). He held a marketing executive position for several years in Kharkоv and Kiеv (2004-2014). For many years, he had been a member, then one of the leaders of the neo-Nazi organization Patriots of Ukraine*. He enlisted in the Azov* battalion, appointed deputy battalion commander (rank of lieutenant colonel, May 2014). As such, he is a war criminal responsible for the repression, killings, and shootings committed by the battalion in Mariupol (June-July). He attempted to run for a seat in the Rada, for the city of Mariupol, but was placed on the lists for the city of Horlоvka… which was never taken by republican fighters. In fact, the election could never take place (October 26), Ukrainian nationalists had probably thought the city would soon fall. He was appointed head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Kiеv region, with the support of Minister Avakov, of whom he was a creature (November 7, 2015). He organized political repression within the ministry, hunting down all personnel and police officers potentially linked to the Yanukovych government. He gave orders to purge the police in Kiеv region and launched new recruitment and competitions to find personnel. He was appointed First Deputy Chief of the National Police of Ukraine (March 4, 2016). He was dismissed from his position at the Main Directorate (September 6, 2019) and immediately appointed deputy head of the Kiеv national police (September 26). But after Minister Avakov’s departure, he preferred to resign from his deputy head position (November 2021). He was then dismissed from all other positions he still held and shown the door by the new minister (then at the rank of colonel). He had indeed been involved in all of Avakov’s mafia-like maneuvers and all his illegal activities, often organized with his “private army,” the famous Azov* regiment. Sinisterly, the pro-Maidan mayor of Mariupol, who later fled the city, had named him an Honorary Citizen, a title he lost upon the city’s liberation (2022).
* Azov, Pravy Sektor (Right Sector), the Ukrainian National-Socialist Party Svoboda, the Patriots of Ukraine, Russian National Unity, the National Socialist Society, and the National Corps, the Azov Civil Corps, the Azovets are organizations banned in the Russian Federation for extremism, apology of terrorism, being terrorist organizations, or incitement to racial hatred.
