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Oleksiy Kuzmenko Profile picture
Oleksiy Kuzmenko
@kooleksiy
Infrequent investigative reports, tweets. Wrote a ton on Ukraine’s far right. Texts in @bellingcat, @ILLSP_GWU, @voanews. My own contrarianism, takes&mistakes
May 18, 2022 • 20 tweets • 9 min read
In the Azov Regiment’s magazine“Black sun”, fighters, AR figures contemporaneously wrote that the launch of a political wing was meant to allow the Regiment to influence politics. Far-right Azov movement has specialized branches with specific functions. AR - military, NC-politics That being said, current leadership of the Regiment is very much part of Biletsky era “old guard”. Prokopenko, Palamar, Berkal are old school Azov types not “new blood”. Azov ran its own (!) recruitment, education systems allowing it to preserve its unique identity, standing.
Apr 11, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Photos show soldiers donning Azov Regiment "Spartan" patch in training with Canadian mil instructors in Ukraine in 2020.

@simoncoutu built on my findings regarding the Canada-backed National Guard of Ukraine center [] to find this
ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/18734… The center where Azov Regiment fighters trained - including, per new findings, with Canadian instructors - apparently also received some U.S. backing, per this 2019 Pentagon letter to Senator Risch foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/… Image
Feb 17, 2022 • 17 tweets • 8 min read
Instructors of the Azov Regiment [=National Guard of Ukraine unit & mil wing of the internationally active far-right Azov movement] were trained in the [Canada-backed] NGU center and then taught dozens of Azov fighters a course developed by NGU and Canada military -per NGU, Azov ImageImageImageImage Per statements, btw Aug-Oct 2021, 33 Azov fighters completed a 10-week course "developed with [Canada's] Operation Unifier', and instructors from Azov's Yevhen Konovalets Military School [YKMS] were trained for the task in the [Canada-backed] NGU center in Zolochiv. ImageImage
Nov 25, 2021 • 7 tweets • 5 min read
Fighters of the Azov Regiment - a unit of Ukraine's National Guard & the military wing of the internationally active far-right Azov movement - receive training in the U.S.-, Canada- backed training Centers of the National Guard of Ukraine. That's per Ukraine's National Guard. In August, the National Guard stated that Azov fighter "Bars" [apparent real name: Oleksandr Moskalenko] graduated after 4 years from the [U.S.- and Canada-backed] National Academy of the National Guard of Ukraine and returned to the Regiment as an officer ngu.gov.ua/nove-pokolinny… ImageImageImageImage
May 25, 2021 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
Thread. Re Protasevich and Azov. Here's what's out there to be analyzed against other evidence, commentary: 1st photo is Protasevich, 2nd photo is the cover of Azov's "Black Sun" publication July 2015 issue #15. 3rd photo is what @azure says: "0.70 confidence" (that's high-ish). There's less confidence from Azure when Azov's "Black Sun" cover photo is compared to other photos of Protasevich. For example, it's "0.62" with this photo.
Aug 28, 2020 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
German neo-Nazi "Dritte Weg" party gushes over the "Centuria" organization recently launched in Ukraine by the far-right internationally active Azov Movement:

"A new organization with eternal values ​​- perhaps exactly what was missing in the political arena of Eastern Europe". Image Germany's neo-Nazi "Dritte Weg" is a known ally of Ukraine's Azov movement and members of the party routinely join Ukrainian far right at events in the country
Aug 9, 2020 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Hoping for Lukashenko's win because his ensuing weak, delegitimized presidency may pave the way for "a national project" in Belarus: Sergei Korotkih, Belarusian/Russian neo-Nazi-come-leader of Ukraine's far-right Azov movement speaks on Belarus election. Thread In a Telegram video, Korotkih theorizes that under weakened Lukashenko within 1-2 years "nationally-oriented people" with a "national project" may be able to "fight for Belarus' future". Korotkih says that he's ready to support such people NOW. Source: t.me/c/1369674348/5…
Aug 2, 2020 • 29 tweets • 14 min read
"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.


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Jul 9, 2020 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
Important: In an apparent testament to global ambitions of Ukraine-based far-right Azov movement Azov's spox and alleged financier, suggests that UKRAINE'S COLLAPSE would pave the way for conceiving/seeding "New European way of life". THREAD “European civilization is in crisis globally [...]I believe that we have a sacred function to kick-start the whole series of events because we will collapse faster, seize to exist as a nation-state", Azov Spox Sergey Korotkih says in a recent interview
Jul 1, 2020 • 13 tweets • 10 min read
In Ukraine, a photograph of a group of heavily armed men with a Nazi flag leads to the Azov movement-linked group "Avangard"/ "Students' Avangard" (ВПО Авангард/ ГО Студентський Авангард)and its successors that currently offer "tactical-special training" in downtown Kyiv. THREAD In August 2019 Ukrainian "Tarrant's lads" Telegram -known for spreading printed copies of Christchurch shooter manifesto- shared this photo claiming that it showed "volunteers" (in the war against Russian aggression) from Russia, Belarus & was taken by "a volunteer from Ukraine"
Jun 20, 2020 • 25 tweets • 16 min read
Russian emigre neo-Nazi Skachkov - arrested in Ukraine, held by the court over his suspected role in a network of admirers of the Christchurch shooter Tarrant - NETWORKED WITH EUROPEAN far right in Ukraine's Uzhhorod in 2019, and more: Photos posted on social media suggest.THREAD ImageImageImageImage Photos place Skachkov at April 2019 far-right networking event Radical Alliance/ Sword of Europe in Uzhhorod. Per participants, the event brought together groups from Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Serbia. In one photo Skachkov is next to "Legio Hungaria" activists. Image
Jun 8, 2020 • 9 tweets • 7 min read
Thread. Has anyone in the USA claimed - re George Floyd Protests - that ANTIFA are tied to Moscow? Ukrainian fact-checker "Behind the News" has without proof:

"Modern ANTIFA hail from Russia and are a well-coordinated hierarchical organization[...]Hence Trump's extreme concern" The claim that ANTIFA are tied to Moscow was made as part of a Facebook post that explained George Floyd protests in the USA by Ukrainian fact-checker "Behind the News". Source: facebook.com/24550372294043… archived: archive.md/ipLFF
Jun 3, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Much has been inferred from the fact that figures of Ukraine's far-right Azov show up on TV channels linked to pro-Russian oligarch Medvedchuk. BUT let's not ignore that Azov's leader Biletsky had an hour-long interview on Poroshenko's Channel 5 on May 30 Biletsky's lengthy appearance on Poroshenko's Channel 5 comes as the Azov movement plays a visible role in the anti-Zelenskiy "Resistance to Capitulation Movement", attacks Zelenskiy. RCM events have been boosted by figures, groups linked to Poroshenko's own "European Solidarity"
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Apr 27, 2020 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
How close to neo-Nazi is Ukraine's Azov movement? Today leader of Azov's National Militia "Cherkas" Mykhailenko did an hour-long @instagram live with Alexei Levkin, leader of the neo-Nazi "Wotanjugend" org, M8l8th band, praised him as an "inspiration" for Azov's youth Image "An inspiration to the National Militia youth" that's how ex-commander of the Azov Regiment of @ng_ukraine, Mykhailenko "Cherkas" introduces leader of the neo-Nazi "Wotanjugend" organization Levkin to viewers. Image
Apr 22, 2020 • 7 tweets • 5 min read
Thread. Additional signs emerge of ties between influential "pro-family" "All Together" (Vsi Razom) movement and figures associated with Ukraine's nationalists, far right. A recent report by LGBT Human Rights Nash Mir Center described "All Together" as a "homophobic initiative".
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Image "Vsi Razom" describes self as an umbrella org for groups "based in Christian values", it leads nationwide campaigns to ban "homosexual propaganda". It currently opposes a bill proposing hate-crimes protections based on sexual orientation & gender identity
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Apr 16, 2020 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Thread. Ukrainian far-right Azov and leading anti-LGBT organization "All Together" come out against the bill 3316 () that proposes hate-crime protections based on sexual orientation & gender identity in the Criminal Code. A campaign to derail the bill is ON "8 years behind bars for criticizing LGBT and gay parades[...]THEY want to fight against commons sense, nationalists, every Ukrainian family", leader of the far-right National Corps/Azov Maksym Zhorin says re the proposed hate-crime protections Bill 3316
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Apr 12, 2020 • 14 tweets • 9 min read
Is it likely that @Facebook's fact-checker of choice in Ukraine "Stop Fake" will cover issues related to the far right, neo-Nazism justly? Food for thought in these recent photos featuring Stop Fake's contributor Marko Suprun and known Ukrainian far-right, neo-Nazi figures. The photos apparently taken at the January 2020 premier of a recent Ukrainian patriotic movie "Our Kittens" were posted to @Instagram page of Ukrainian neo-Nazi band "Sokyra Peruna".
Apr 7, 2020 • 8 tweets • 6 min read
The Russian Imperial Movement’s Stanislav Shevchuk toured Washington, DC with American white nationalist Matthew Heimbach - @cjcmichel 's 2017 article.

I'd add that (a dwindling number of) social media associated with Shevchuk suggest that he practices law in Barcelona, Spain. ImageImageImage On the Russian Imperial Movement’s RECENT international contacts: In November 2019 RIM’s Stanislav Shevchuk took part in an international conference organized by Spain’s far-right National Democracy party. Check out participants here : democracianacional.org/dn/31535/ ImageImageImageImage
Mar 19, 2020 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
I criticized @AtlanticCouncil , and yet they published my article on the alleged de-politicization of the Azov Regiment of @ng_ukraine . Speaks volumes I think. Not all of my arguments made it in due of size constraints. Happy to present them too atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainea… The Azov Regiment doesn't just side with the far-right National Corps party it sides with it during its most controversial, disruptive campaigns. Take the Regiment soldiers boosting NC's slogans during the 2019 Presidential campaign
Mar 6, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
This is all that there’s to know re the supposed distancing of the Azov Regiment of Ukraine’s National Guard from political, other wings of far-right Azov movement. Shatrovsky, head of Azov’s “Veterans Brotherhood” uses the Regiment as a prop in an ad for March 14 rally in Kyiv. Image March 14 “March of Ukrainian Volunteers” organized by “Veterans brotherhood” [branch of far-right Azov movement] is clearly a political event. VB’s head Shatrovsky also leads Veterans Movement of Ukraine that holds immense influence in Ukraine’s Ministry of Veterans Affairs. Image
Mar 5, 2020 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
Reports by Ukraine's military, Ihor's own social media, other reports show him working as an instructor in the "Desna", including alongside Canadian instructors, and with leading Ukrainian tactical medicine experts. ImageImageImageImage On his social media, Ihor can be seen along with other ostensible "Desna" instructors doing drills with cadets of that West-backed military center. He often openly wears clothing items, patches with recognizable neo-Nazi symbols