Did ‘Our Little Baby’ Make a Nazi International?
Ukrainian military intelligence and ‘Nation Europa’
This year on Ukraine’s Independence Day, some prominent Russian neo-Nazis found themselves in Lviv, the unofficial capital of Ukrainian nationalism, to attend the first “Nation Europa” conference, which brought together representatives of an extreme-right network in Europe and neo-Nazi movements in the Ukrainian armed forces.
About half of the speakers from Ukraine’s military were affiliated with units in the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR, Holovne upravlinnia rozvidky). This government agency in the Defense Ministry of Ukraine was “our little baby” that “we had kind of rebuilt from scratch,” according to a former U.S. intelligence official. Now the HUR is playing with Nazi soldiers and helping to create a monster that may come to haunt Ukraine and its Western allies more than it will antagonize Russia.
“Nation Europa” has claimed that the Azov movement and its military units, such as the 3rd Assault Brigade and HUR’s Kraken Regiment, were “not invited” to the conference, and blurred the face of its organizer who presided over the meeting. Twitter user @Dreznicagoat discovered that this was Yurii Pavlyshyn, a medic in the openly neo-Nazi 3rd Assault Brigade, which is commanded by Andriy Biletsky, the leader of the Azov movement.
According to Biletsky’s neo-Nazi manifesto for the “Patriot of Ukraine,” the paramilitary group that spearheaded the original Azov Battalion, “Our task is to fight for the creation of a powerful Social-Nationalist movement that will encompass the entire Nation and gain power in the State.” There is a section dedicated to “racism,” one of the “fundamental principles.”
All our nationalism is nothing — a castle on the sand, without the foundation of blood, the foundation of Race. … If Ukrainian spirituality, culture and language are unique, it is only because our racial nature is unique. If Ukraine is an earthly paradise, it is only because our Race has turned it into one. Accordingly, the treatment of our National organism must begin with the racial cleansing of the Nation. And then a healthy National Spirit will be reborn in a healthy Racial body, and with it culture, language and everything else. … The historical mission of our Nation in this turning point of the century is to lead the White Peoples of the world in the last crusade for their existence. A march against the Semitic-led subhumans.
Some notable Azov veterans and groups affiliated with the Azov movement took part in the launch of the Nation Europa network. In particular, Denis Kapustin, said to be “one of the most dangerous neo-Nazis in Europe,” is the commander of the HUR’s Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC). Alexey Levkin, an important ideologist in the Azov movement, also from the RVC, co-founded Nation Europa as the head of “Wotanjugend,” an extremely neo-Nazi group from Russia. Whereas Kapustin has a history of organizing far-right fighting tournaments in Russia and Ukraine, Levkin has organized National Socialist black metal festivals as the leader of the band “M8L8TH,” which is popular among hardcore neo-Nazis in Ukraine.
Yurii Pavlyshyn, the medic from Azov’s 3rd Assault Brigade, is the bass guitar player in M8L8TH, and apparently a coordinator of Nation Europa. To hear it from him, no matter who “wins” the war, “it will be a defeat,” because there will be a “dictatorship” in Ukraine of the Russian or Western neoliberal variety. He suggested that instead there should be a nationalist dictatorship of war veterans, “because the real elites of our ancient Ukraine are now in trenches and dugouts.” He calls this “Trincerocrazia,” or “Trenchocracy.” Another time, he told his Instagram followers,
Everything that is happening now is only the beginning, the foundation, and yes, indeed on blood and bones… just like all the greatest and most powerful states of past centuries. The goal for those like us is to be here and do our work. To lay this stone. Will we witness the great flourishing of our state in the full sense of the word? Unlikely, but not due to death in war. Several more generations need to grow up, born and living with an awareness of what we are doing now, engraving it on genetic and blood levels.
Currently, we have one specific enemy, who has no race or nationality, named “Bolshevik.” This evil will be destroyed. But after this victory, we will face a long struggle against no less insidious evil, which has destroyed Europe over the past 80 years — this evil of perverted liberalism, the power of money and sins. And they will try to destroy not us, but our children, so that they do not possess the same instinct for lethal justice and the desire to fight for their own until the end.
Will our “people” endure this trial after us? I do not know. I hope they are capable of it. But if not, then our feats will amount to nothing if this spirit dies in the melting pot of multiculturalism and consumerism.
Our path after the war is militarization, compulsory military service for all, military industry, supporting the viability of the army, elevating the honor of the individual warrior and serviceman. Faith in our power and uniqueness, knowledge of the glorious deeds of our heroic ancestors, the heroes of today, traditional millennia-old values, militancy, national cultural and racial identity — these are the postulates of a future great Ukraine.
A European Neofascist Network
The HUR’s International Legion, which includes the RVC, is filled with neo-Nazis tied to the Azov movement, and they largely spearheaded the conference. Representatives of the HUR’s Russian, German, and Belarusian Volunteer Corps, including Alexey Levkin from Wotanjugend, constituted a majority of those from Ukraine’s military that signed Nation Europa’s “Memorandum of Unity and Cooperation.” Azov veterans created the Belarusian unit, and the German squad originated in Der Dritte Weg (“The Third Way”), a small neo-Nazi party in Germany that is allied with the Azov movement. The German delegation at the Nation Europa conference included Klaus Armstroff, the founding chairman of “III. Weg.”
The Revanche battalion is another HUR unit that participated in the conference and signed its memorandum. It did so alongside the violent far-right “conservative” organization “Tradition & Order,” which created the unit. These groups might have drifted apart, but not from their allies in CasaPound, an Italian neo-fascist movement, which is an important backer of the Nation Europa project.
Alberto Palladino, an Italian “journalist” who hospitalized five members of the Italian Democratic Party in 2011, represented CasaPound at the first Nation Europa meeting. Several years ago, Palladino presented “CasaPound’s Point of View” at the Azov movement’s second “Paneuropa” conference. In 2022, he shared the above photo on his Instagram account. That year Palladino wrote a report and made a mini-documentary about the Revanche battalion after an exclusive visit to their base. The video featured an interview with a soldier who wore a patch inspired by the Waffen-SS Dirlewanger Brigade.
Gabriele Adinolfi, an unofficial founder of CasaPound, was the main guest speaker at the Nation Europa conference, although he participated remotely. “The great challenge is to create new elites for Europe,” he said. One month earlier, the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University published an illuminating essay about this 70-year-old “Architect of a European Neofascist Network.” As the author, David Holcombe, summarized this important report:
There is perhaps no single individual who is more deeply embedded in this transnational European far-right network than Gabriele Adinolfi (b. 1954). Beginning with his origins during the violent “Years of Lead” in Italy in the 1970s, continuing through his two decades on the run from the law across Western Europe in the 1980s and 1990s, and leading to his role rebuilding a neofascist network in Italy and around Europe since the early 2000s, Adinolfi’s path has been one of remarkable breadth and depth. While by no means the only actor to engage in transnational far-right activities, Adinolfi stands out for his longevity and continuing relevance in this multigenerational space. … Throughout his myriad activities, Adinolfi has served as a key point of connection in the European far right — creating linkages between individuals and organizations across space and over time and demonstrating the striking continuity of the far-right project from the postwar years to the present.
According to Holcombe, Adinolfi’s current project, “the Lansquenets of Europe,” involves “recruiting a cadre of neofascist elites from across the continent.” An alleged member of the Lansquenets in France spoke at the Azov movement’s first “Paneuropa” conference in 2017, and the Telegram channel of “Les Lansquenets” shared the news about Nation Europa. According to Adinolfi, his group is “neither a movement nor an exclusive organization, but one that is at the disposal of everyone’s growth.”
‘Right-Wing Movements in the Defense Forces’
According to the program for the event, last month’s conference in Lviv included a 10 minute lecture about the “Ukrainian Right-Wing Movements in the Defense Forces.” Some of them were represented at the meeting: “Svoboda,” the successor of the Social-National Party of Ukraine; “Avangard,” another group linked to the Azov movement; and the so-called 14th Regiment in the Unmanned Systems Forces, the newest branch of the Ukrainian military, which is already infested with neo-Nazis.
The 14th Regiment is apparently the first unit to appear in the Unmanned Systems Forces. Its deputy commander is Yevhen Karas, the founder of the violent neo-Nazi organization C14, which got started as a youth wing of Svoboda. (The name of C14 is understood to contain a reference to the neo-Nazi “Fourteen Words.”) The 3rd “battalion” in the 14th Regiment, which participated in Ukraine’s ongoing incursion into Kursk, is named after the Nachtigall Battalion, a Banderite unit in Nazi Germany’s military that was created for the invasion of the Soviet Union. The day after the Nation Europa conference, Yevhen Karas and CasaPound’s Alberto Palladino co-published an Instagram post about Benito Mussolini.
Serhiy Zaikovsky, the main ideologue of Avangard, was “a representative of the intellectual wing of the Native Faith movement of Ukraine,” which is steeped in neo-Nazi ideas about Ukraine’s history as an ancient Aryan homeland. Zaikovsky also co-founded the “Plomin” publishing house, and HUR chief Kyrylo Budanov has signaled that he’s familiar with this Azov-affiliated outfit. By 2022, Avangard was allied with Tradition & Order, and a pair of small Ukrainian neo-Nazi groups: “Karpatska Sich” and “Freikorps.” That year Avangard received fighters from the neo-pagan “Albanian Third Position,” which has also joined Nation Europa. Avangard’s military unit eventually wound up in Ukraine’s 78th Air Assault Regiment.
The 49th Infantry Battalion “Carpathian Sich,” not to be confused with the aforementioned neo-Nazi group, originated in the far-right Svoboda party, which has a youth wing that is reportedly close with Der Dritte Weg. Since 2022, the Svoboda party created a battalion in the National Guard’s elite Rubizh Brigade. Nobody imagines that being part of the National Guard of Ukraine (NGU) has “depoliticized” this Nazi-infested unit; after all, it was created by a far-right political party. That status is however supposed to mean something for the NGU’s Azov Brigade, which used to be the only military wing of a neo-Nazi movement that now has an army.
The Wall Street Journal has just reported, “Fifteen percent of [Ukrainian] soldiers and veterans said they would join an armed protest if Kyiv signed a peace treaty that they didn’t agree with.” In the following lines, the newspaper quoted Azov leader Andriy Biletsky, “the commander of one of Ukraine’s largest brigades.” It reassured readers, less than three weeks after the first Nation Europa conference, that Biletsky “denies ever having any Nazi ideas or affiliations.” The Wall Street Journal did not even try to refute this. A widely held assumption is that a Nazi coup is unthinkable. But what if Biletsky could rely on help from the “Ukrainian Mossad”?
Ukrainian Mossad’s Nazi Special Forces
Last year, a former CIA official told the Washington Post, “We are seeing the birth of a set of intelligence services that are like [the Israeli] Mossad in the 1970s,” which they warned “has risks for Russia … but it carries broader risks as well.” According to HUR chief Kyrylo Budanov, “If you’re asking about Mossad as being famous (for) … eliminating enemies of their state,” then the Ukrainian Mossad “already exists.”
About two weeks after Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022, HUR officer Ruslan Kaganets declared, “The Ukrainian Mossad is being formed.” Kaganets commanded the “Sonechko” (Sunshine) battalion in the HUR’s special Tymur Unit that is known to operate behind enemy lines. Tymur appears to be filled with neo-Nazis and far-right nationalists. This year, Kaganets and some of his fighters created a new group called “Vidar” that works with far-right recruiters, which helps to explain the presence of the extremist “Right Youth” in these units.
Probably the best known Tymur unit is the Bratstvo Battalion, commanded by the notorious Dmytro Korchynsky, an extremist Orthodox and nationalist leader whose involvement in the Ukrainian far-right goes back to the 1990s. Bohdan Khodakovsky, the young leader of “Revanche” and “Tradition & Order,” is himself a former member of Korchynsky’s militant “Bratstvo” (Brotherhood), a “revolutionary Christian community” that Korchynsky envisioned as an “Orthodox Taliban.”
Last year, Bratstvo and “Stugna,” another Tymur special forces unit, conducted an operation on the Crimean peninsula. Stugna might be named after a music group formed by a pair of Ukrainian “hatecore” band leaders: Arseniy Bilodub of “Sokyra Peruna,” and Andriy Sereda of “Komu Vnyz.” Bilodub is also a prominent figure in the extremist Right Sector movement and founded the neo-Nazi brand “Svastone,” which produced a shirt (that HUR chief Budanov signed) to raise money for the Stugna unit. Svastone, meanwhile, sponsors the far-right “Legion V” unit, which formed the 2nd “battalion” in the 14th Regiment of Unmanned Systems Forces.
A couple more components of the Tymur Unit are affiliated with the far-right “Ukrainian Volunteer Army” (UDA, Ukrayinsʹka dobrovolʹcha armiya) commanded by Dmytro Yarosh, the first leader of Right Sector. This includes the Aratta Battalion, named after a mythical land, which according to some Ukrainian pagans, makes their country the Aryan homeland of “the world’s first civilization.” There is also the UDA’s Raven Group in the Tymur Unit, the commander of which has the neo-Nazi code “1488” in his Instagram handle. (These numbers refer to the “Fourteen Words,” and “H.H.”, or “Heil Hitler.”)
Last but not least is “Team Nobody,” another special forces group in the HUR’s Tymur Unit, which is affiliated with the Azov-linked “Ragnarock Group.” The latter has indicated that it handles recruitment for the Tymur Unit and HUR. “Ragnarock,” which sells 1488 patches, also has a Telegram channel with a disturbing history and more than a quarter of a million subscribers. Here, one can find lots of Nazi content, including a “full video in good quality” of the Christchurch, New Zealand massacre. (Wotanjugend, the RVC-linked group which co-founded Nation Europa, circulated a Russian translation of the mosque shooter’s neo-Nazi manifesto.) On Instagram, the admin of “Ragnarock” created another account where he shared clips of “my war” that suggest he served in Azov’s Special Operations Forces (commanded by Andriy Biletsky) which later formed the 3rd Assault Brigade.
In the spring of 2022, before the Azov Regiment in the National Guard of Ukraine surrendered to the Russians in Mariupol, an intelligence officer from the unit, Lt. Ilya Samoilenko, blamed the Ukrainian government and its Western allies for losing the city. He said that authorities “have been sabotaging the defense of Ukraine for the last eight years,” and “NATO blocked us from their military aid.” Bohdan Krotevych, the Azov Regiment’s chief of staff, however praised the chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence, who oversaw a daring helicopter operation to resupply the Mariupol garrison and evacuate the most severely wounded. “The only general who was really concerned about saving Mariupol and persistently helped us as much as he could was K. A. Budanov.”
Later that year, Kyrylo Budanov received a painting by an “AZOV artist” that was “dedicated to the legendary operation.” He hung it behind the desk in his office. Soon he praised the HUR’s Kraken Regiment, created by leaders of the Azov movement’s political party in Kharkiv, as “one of the most combat-capable units” in the military. There are openly neo-Nazi units in this HUR detachment, the emblem of which includes a rune (also used by Wotanjugend) that is “considered a symbol of the most aggressive neo-Nazis.” In the spring of 2023, Budanov even participated in a mission by the Kraken Regiment. Around that time, the HUR’s Russian Volunteer Corps — “good warriors,” according to Budanov — started to lead cross-border raids into Russia, “a pet project” of the young spymaster. “Tradition & Order” and the rest of the HUR International Legion joined them.
Kyrylo Budanov has undeniably emerged as a powerful figure in Ukraine over the course of this war. For some time, it was speculated that he might replace Valery Zaluzhny, the former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian military. In the spring of 2022, the NGU Azov Regiment’s chief of staff seemed to suggest that he should. Last year, the Economist reported,
In conversation it is clear that General Budanov has been thinking hard about post-war Ukraine. Last winter there was talk of him becoming defence minister. He insists his only ambition is victory. Yet secret polls conducted by Mr Zelensky’s office show they are thinking about using the cult of their hero spymaster to counterbalance a perceived rivalry emanating from Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s likeable and independent commander-in-chief. General Budanov’s colleagues say they are convinced he is destined for a big political role once peace comes — if he lives that long.
How do neo-Nazis fit into Budanov’s plans for the future? Perhaps he dropped a menacing hint with the Nation Europa conference, featuring neo-Nazi HUR fighters and a guest speaker who likely had ties to Italy’s stay-behind Gladio network. Another time, the HUR chief produced a provocative map of Russia partitioned, which is considered the ultimate form of victory by Ukrainian nationalists. These extremist agendas preclude conflict resolution.
The first of the 1929 “Ten Commandments of the Ukrainian Nationalist” is to win the struggle, or die fighting. Andriy Yusov, the HUR’s main spokesperson, used to be a coordinator of the far-right “Capitulation Resistance Movement,” which was part of a broader anti-democratic movement (led by Azov) from 2019–22 that threatened to topple Zelensky’s government if it pursued negotiations with Russia. If that day should come, Budanov could be the one to release the hounds.
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