Joe Biden has lifted restrictions on arming the Azov Battalion, a Neo-Nazi Ukrainian military formation founded by a politician who believes it is the Ukrainian nation’s mission to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans]”.
“This is a new page in our unit’s history,” Azov bragged in a statement on the policy change. “Azov is becoming even more powerful,” they boasted.
Azov founder Andriy Biletsky, who also leads the National Corps political party, has described his ideology as “Ukrainian racial social-nationalism.” However, he has minimized this rhetoric since the Euromaidan coup and the subsequent onset of hostilities with Russia in 2014.
Azov attempted to reform its brand by claiming it had given up its wolfsangel, or wolf’s hook, emblem, previously used by the Das Reich division of Adolf Hitler’s Waffen-SS, in 2022.
However their symbol was on full display just weeks ago when unit members visited London to meet one of their most vocal lobbyists, former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who posed with a banner bearing it and praised Azov as “heroes.”