Thread by @kooleksiy

"Everything anti-Ukrainian will be annihilated". Ukraine's internationally active far-right Azov movement yesterday rolled out a new organization - the "Centuria" -  in a dramatic ceremony attended by what looked like (maybe) hundreds of masked men dressed in black. THREAD

"Disciplined, organized and resolute [...] ready to fight any enemy of Ukraine [...] everything anti-Ukrainian will be annihilated", - Ihor “Cherkass” Mykhailenko commander of the Azov's "National Militia" wrote online about the event he apparently led.

In recent months, far-right Azov has been making headlines in Ukraine with violent attacks (and seeming impunity for them) on activists of the anti-Maidan blogger Sharij party. Sharij alleged that attacks are coordinated with Ukraine's president Zelenskiy.

While Azov attacks anti-Maidan Sharij and other politicians cast as "pro-Russian", the movement's leaders earlier denounced Ukraine's president Zelenskiy as "the enemy agent in chief", stated that punishing him for "high treason" was a goal of the movement

https://twitter.com/kooleksiy/status/1238543557063061504

Re "Centuria", consider that Ukraine's Azov - not unlike other far-right groups internationally - appears to have a pattern of routinely multi-patching its activists (overall estimated in the low thousands by the organization itself) as members of several groups at the same time.

More often than not the same Azov activists, figures appear as members of supposedly different branches of the Movement and linked organizations: National Militia, National Corps, Veterans Brotherhood, Nord Storm, Wotan Jugend, etc, etc.

The public roll-out of the "Centuria" group is notable because that supposedly new group shares the name with an apparently Azov-linked group of young military officers dedicated to infiltrating Ukraine's Armed Forces, building far right's clout there. The latter Centuria's logos

Ukraine's far-right Azov movement includes the Azov Regiment of Ukraine's National guard. But even with its own highly-politicized unit (read:  ) in @ng_ukraine the Azov movement appears to also invest into building influence in Ukraine's Armed Forces.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainea…

In 2019 I wrote about the "Centuria" a self-described pan-European nationalist organization of young officers that at the time openly proselytized in Ukraine's National Army Academy @ArmyAcademyUA. That group appeared to be Azov-linked 

https://twitter.com/kooleksiy/status/1122192638772432905

Currently, the aforementioned "Centuria" claims that it has established a foothold in a number of Ukraine's military units where its members allegedly assumed commanding roles. Online "Centuria" invites likeminded Ukrainian soldiers to serve under "Centuria commandors (sic!)".

The list of Ukraine's Armed forces units where Centuria members, young military officers, allegedly serve in leadership roles includes nearly a dozen units.

"Look for us in every unit of Ukraine's Armed Forces [...] Protect your territory and your traditions to the last drop of blood", a promotional video shared on "Centuria Army" Telegram in May 2020 said.

If true, there are serious implications of the situation where units of Ukraine's Armed forces are influenced by officers answering to the "Centuria" that describes itself as a pan-European traditionalist, nationalist group equally HOSTILE to Kremlin and Brussels.

For example, establishing Azov's influence in regular units of Ukraine's Armed Forces would allow that far-right movement to negate the ban on American training, military aid to the Azov Regiment imposed and maintained by the US Congress (Read: ).thehill.com/policy/defense…

The apparently Azov-linked "Centuria" infiltrating Ukraine's Armed Forces and the "Centuria" presented by the Azov movement yesterday may be different groups: The namesake organizations have different symbols, for example.

There's a consistency to the military-oriented "Centuria" (let's separate it from the organization presented by Azov on August 1st) claims about having its members in leadership positions in Ukraine's Armed Forces. Consider this from September 2019. Complete with banking info.

Online the military-oriented "Centuria" (let's separate it from the org. presented by Azov on August 1st) consistently touts its ties to the Azov Regiment of Ukraine's National Guard and the larger far-right Azov movement, including participation in events at the Regiment's base.

Online the military-oriented "Centuria" has identified an individual with military call sign "Milan" (Milano) as one of its leaders. "Milan" is likely 20-something Yurii Gavrylyshyn, a veteran of the Azov Regiment. Gavrylyshyn also popped up in photos with a "Centuria" patch.

I wrote ⬆️ that Azov movement put its membership in “the low thousands”. Inaccurate. I was referencing a statement by its leader Biletsky that 2000 Azov Regiment veterans were involved in the movement. That’s a lot of trained fighters. Estimates vary tho

https://twitter.com/kooleksiy/status/1268307612556197888?s=21

https://twitter.com/kooleksiy/status/1268307612556197888

As I suggested earlier ⬆️, there are, in fact, 2 organizations named "Centuria" that are associated with Ukraine’s far-right Azov movement. The military-oriented "Centuria" group yesterday distanced itself from the one pompously presented by the Azov movement on August 1st.

The military-oriented "Centuria" stresses in a Telegram post that it rejects "any ties" to the namesake group rolled-out by the Azov movement on August 1st, and emphasized that its sole focus is on the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Sensing the confusion that will undoubtedly continue about the two Azov-linked organizations named "Centuria", the military-oriented group also included a side by side comparison of the groups' logos. On the right is the military "Centuria"

The military-oriented "Centuria" that claims successful infiltration of the Armed Forces of Ukraine IS Azov-linked. Its leader Yurii "Milan" Gavrylyshyn is not only a veteran of the Azov Regiment but was involved with “Civic Corps "Azov", the predecessor of Azov's National Corps.

Images shared online by Centuria's stated leader Yurii "Milan" Gavrylyshyn also suggest an affinity for white supremacy. In one such video Havrylyshyn (part of his face covered) is seen wearing a "White Pride World Wide" shirt next to another Azov Regiment fighter Oleksiy Komarov

My findings re the military-oriented "Centuria" group linked to the far-right Azov movement and aimed at infiltrating Ukraine's Armed Forces now appear to be publicly confirmed by the group's leader in a commentary to @kp_ukraine kp.ua/life/673586-kt…

Confirming my findings, the leader of the military-oriented "Centuria" id-s himself to @kp_ukraine as Yurii, a cadet in Ukraine's National Army Academy, veteran of the Azov Regiment. Yurii says his group "cooperates with various military units, military colleges", is ~3 years old

Yurii's comments were in response to the recent launch of a namesake "Centuria" group by the Azov movement. Per Yurii (of the older, military-oriented "Centuria"), "the name and idea" of his organization were used without permission.

There are layers of irony to this situation but it is actually disturbing: leader of far-right "Centuria" group - which is self-admittedly all about infiltrating the Armed Forces of Ukraine - expresses indignation to the media with the fact that another group used the same name.

In what seems illustrative of both Ukrainian far right's typical bluntness and Ukraine's government typical denial, the Ukrainian military and National Army Academy denied ANY knowledge of the group to @kp_ukraine. That's while there's plenty of evidence of "Centuria" operations.