Total militarization: The Azov movement is colonizing Ukrainian society with neo-Nazi war ideology

Azov propaganda illustration.

By Susann Witt-Stahl. Junge Welt, 5 July 2025. Translation and notes by Helmut-Harry Loewen.

The Azov leadership has been acting for years as the vanguard of Ukraine’s fascist reorganization. It aims to form the state and nation into an “organic unity.” At the forefront of the movement to enforce its “national idea” as a raison d'état is the 3rd Separate Azov Assault Brigade of the Army, which is currently being expanded into a corps. Olexij “Consul” Reins, director of its Centre for Ideological Training and its Rainshouse publishing house, propagates war as an expression of a “natural need for expansion” with the goal of establishing a “Greater Ukraine” under military rule. He celebrates the fascist massacre of May 2, 2014 in the Odesa Trade Union House with “Vatniks burning” as a “day of purification.” [1]

Rainshouse publishes writings by Mikola Kravchenko — the Azov philosopher and former co-founder of their paramilitary grassroots organization Patriot of Ukraine and their current ideological backbone Centuria, a youth and combat association — who was killed during Russian shelling in March 2022. It also publishes “Eastern Front” and poetry by veterans about the “will to victory” during the "Maidan" revolt of 2013-2014 and the subsequent “anti-terrorist operation” against the insurgent population in Donbas, as well as comics with stories of war heroes. Above all, key texts by leaders of the fascist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) are being republished — for example, by Stepan Bandera and his successor Yaroslav Stetsko, as well as Dmitro Donzov, translator of ‘Mein Kampf,’ who viewed Hitler's state as a model for an independent Ukraine and integral nationalism as a way of life. Following this model, Azov, similar to the SS in the Third Reich, sees itself not only as a warrior elite and the spearhead of Ukrainian imperialism, but also as the ideological, political, and cultural lodestar of the nation.

“AB3” — the abbreviation for the 3rd Storm Brigade — and the Azov Wolfsangel (wolf's hook) are emblazoned on thousands of products today: clothing, household products, toys, food, etc. The unit issues its own stamp edition with portraits of frontline fighters. Recently, the social Darwinist Nazi principle of life has also found its way into the stomach. In Kyiv, under the slogan “The strongest will survive,” it has opened a “post-apocalyptic AB3 Army Food Spot” serving kebabs, hamburgers, and wraps. Azov has long since blossomed into a top-selling brand. It maintains a cultural industry complex with its own media, public relations agencies, fashion and music labels, and film production companies which produce, for example, battle action videos. Azov also organizes military festivals, including hip-hop, techno, and rock concerts with popular bands such as Hatespeech and PVNCH, which act as megaphones for Ukrainian nationalism. [2] Since 2024, AB3 has been touring with its own theater performance. The one-man play “Ненароджені для війни” (“Not Born for War”), featuring a "real Azov warrior” as the actor, is about true brotherhood in arms, loneliness, and the dangers of the trenches.

While German and other Western politicians, media outlets, and think tanks continue to propagate the lie of the “depoliticization” of Azov troops, the latter are pushing ahead at full speed with the total militarization of Ukrainian society. Today, the majority of young people are likely already able to recite the “Prayer of a Nationalist,” which praises fascist ancestors and the OUN's Decalogue (“Avenge the death of the great knights”) — for Azov, the sacred “symbols of struggle, faith, and honour.” In preparation for joining the ranks of their warriors, Centuria ensures the strengthening of mind and body with ideological and professional military training. For ten years now, children have been drilled in holiday camps to become "Azovets," trained in the use of Kalashnikovs and other weapons. The 3rd Assault Brigade is now also publishing a series of fairy tale books designed to teach children the “reality of war” and dispel “illusions about the historical main enemy.” Hatred of Russians is a pillar of the “education of a child leader, leader, leader of the country” sought through heroic adventure stories. The first volume, “Yurchik – the Snake Slayer,” is already available in the AB3 shop.

The fact that President Volodymyr Zelensky supports the Azovization of Ukraine is shown by the appointment of Olexander Alfiorov, a former officer of the 3rd Assault Brigade, admirer of Adolf Hitler, and expert on “de-Russification,” as president of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance. This is a stunning triumph for the neo-Nazi movement, which has asserted almost complete control over the historical narrative. This could also mean the official rehabilitation of Nazi Germany's collaborators during the Holocaust and the war of extermination against the Soviet Union, such as the SS Division Galicia, which to this day is “uncompromisingly” glorified by the Azov leadership as “those who took up arms for a Ukrainian Ukraine.”

There are practically no Azov-free spaces left in Ukrainian society. In June, Olexij “Consul” Reins, who is considered Kravchenko's successor, proudly presented a video from his “far-right city” of Kyiv of a metro train decorated in the martial Azov design. “The universal penetration of our aesthetic pleases the eye. Ukrainians are gradually getting used to the fact that Ukrainian nationalists are all about style, strength, and heroism.” "Consul" leaves no room for misunderstanding about the balance of power: “They are getting used to the fact that this country is our country.”

Historical Background: The Waffen-SS as a role model

To this day, the Azov movement is guided by the aesthetics, symbolism, and nomenclature of the Third Reich. The Schwarze Sonne (Black Sun) and the Wolfsangel of the Waffen-SS could already be found in the insignia of their first combat unit, a battalion that was established in Mariupol on May 5, 2014, expanded into a regiment four months later, and incorporated into the National Guard. The latter symbol in particular is still used today in abstract form for the emblems of Azov troops, for example by the 1st Corps of the National Guard, which has operated since April 2025.

The 1st Platoon of the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade of Azov in the Ukrainian army is named after the SS Grenadier Division Galicia and has also adopted its insignia with the Ruthenian lion, with a slight modification. Formed in 1943, the unit was recruited mainly from Ukrainian volunteers, was deployed to fight partisans, and carried out massacres of Polish civilians. The coat of arms of the 3rd Company of the same Azov battalion is based on the insignia of crossed stick grenades of the SS Special Command Dirlewanger established by Heinrich Himmler. This unit burned people alive in their homes in Belarus, committed mass rapes, and other serious war crimes. Other units of the Azov brigade bear names such as Wolf Pack and Steel Wolf.

The emblem of the Azov infantry unit Kraken of the Ukrainian military intelligence service contains the battle rune used by the Reichsführer schools and the SS Grenadier Division “30 January.” The motto of the Wedmedi SS-Azov unit, which now belongs to a marine brigade, is “My honour is loyalty.” [3] Some Azov warriors wear skull patches with the insignia of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler tank division.

Notes:

[1] "Vatnik" (Ukrainian ватник: vatnyk), an anti-Russian pejorative term, originally a 2011 Internet meme to disparage someone as an ultra-patriotic and unintelligent jingoist who parrots Russian government views.

Dozens of trade union activists and protesters against Ukrainian neo-Nazis were killed — some of whom were beaten to death after they tried to escape the conflagration — in one of the most egregious fascist attacks in Europe since 1945: “On March 13, 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that Ukraine violated the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to prevent and effectively investigate violence erupted during the May 2, 2014 clashes in Odesa.” https://www.asil.org/.../ecthr-rules-ukraine-violated...

[2] More than 1,000 soldiers and young people gathered in a former Kyiv movie studio to listen to artists who joined forces with a military brigade to raise funds for Azov. This was the live performance of the charity album “Epoch,” a collaboration between the Third Assault Brigade and eight Ukrainian bands, including Hatespeech (хейтспіч), a band from Odesa, and PVNCH, a rap group from northern Ukraine, founded in 2013. (Photos: AP, Dec. 17, 2024)

[3] “Meine Ehre heißt Treue” (“My honour is loyalty”) was the official motto of the Schutzstaffel (SS) from 1931 to 1945. It is widely used by neo-Nazis and other fascist groups not only in Ukraine but in many other countries.

• Original article: Susann Witt-Stahl, “Totale Militarisierung, Die »Asow«-Bewegung kolonisiert die ukrainische Gesellschaft mit neonazistischer Kriegsideologie,” junge Welt, Berlin, 5 July 2025.