Neo-Nazism in Ukraine

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The National Idea symbol (Ukrainian: Ідея нації) ("ꑭ"), used currently and formerly by various neo-Nazi, neo-Fascist, and/or ultranationalist political parties and paramilitaries within Ukraine. This symbol bears resemblance to Wolfsangel symbols used by the Waffen-SS.[1]

Neo-Nazism in Ukraine is a multifaceted issue encompassing the history of ultranationalist movements, their contemporary manifestations, and the state's complex relationship with certain nationalist figures and groups. The topic has gained international attention in the wake of the Russo-Ukrainian War as denazifying Ukraine is one of the Russian Federation's stated objectives of the 2022 invasion, frequently labeling the Ukrainian government and its supporters as Nazis. Both sides have utilized propaganda to accuse the other of Nazism. Ukraine, in turn, has highlighted Russia's aggression and rhetoric, with Ukrainian leaders and media comparing Russian actions to those of the Nazis during World War II.

History

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See also: Ukrainian national government (1941) and Modern history of Ukraine § World War II
A military parade of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators in Stanislaviv, Reichskommissariat Ukraine, October 1941.

Historically, Ukrainian nationalism is a complex phenomenon with origins in late Imperial Russia and the interwar period.[2] In 1929, a group of Ukrainian anti-Soviet intellectuals and veterans, including Yevhen Konovalets, Stepan Bandera, and Andriy Melnyk, inspired by Italian fascism and German National Socialism,[3] formed the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and sought Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union. The group, drawing from Nazi racial ideology and Führerism, sought to create a totalitarian Ukrainian ethnostate as well. Many OUN fighters were trained by Fascist Italy in Sicily alongside the Ustaše, and also had offices in Nazi Berlin and Vienna with many trainees becoming influenced by fascist ideology.[4] The two most prominent OUN leaders, Bandera and Melnyk, were often at odds and formally factionalized in April 1941, Bandera's faction was known as OUN-B (Banderites), and OUN-M (Melnykites); nevertheless they maintained limited cooperation. Both OUN factions collaborated with Nazi Germany, viewing them as a potential ally against the Soviet Union.[5] Both Bandera and Melnyk personally and their martial collaborators swore absolute loyalty to Adolf Hitler and pledged their support in the "Crusade Against Bolshevism" (a Nazi propaganda term for the German-Soviet War) and a New Order in Europe.[6][7][8] Members of the OUN took an active part in the Holocaust in Ukraine and Poland, either directly orchestrating or actively participating in a number of pogroms and other massacres, such as the Lviv pogroms and a massacre of about 100,000 Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.[9][10]

Former official emblem of the Azov Brigade, prominently featuring the National Idea symbol in the foreground and a Nazi Black Sun in the background. The group's current official symbolry continues to feature the National Idea symbol, but not the Black Sun.

Stepan Bandera has long been and remains a highly contentious figure within Ukraine, with many memorials to him being erected in post-Soviet Ukraine, primarily within pro-western regions. Among his supporters, he is seen as a champion of Ukrainian liberation from Soviet occupation, among his detractors he is seen as a genocidal Nazi collaborator. In 2010, he was posthumously granted the honorary title "Hero of Ukraine" by pro-western President Viktor Yushchenko, but this title was revoked shortly after the election of his anti-western successor Viktor Yanukovych.[11][12]

Ukrainian nationalism and neo-Nazism have roots dating back to the early 1990s following Ukraine's independence, with some "social nationalists" drawing inspiration from German National Socialism alongside earlier Ukrainian nationalist figures.[13] Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the OUN was unable to re-establish itself politically in the independent Ukrainian state, and splintered between various neo-fascist political movements. Several of these movements, including the neo-Nazi Social-National Party of Ukraine (later renamed to Svoboda), would go on to receive significant regional and parliamentary political representation.[14]

Official emblem of the neo-Nazi political party Ukrainian National Union, prominently featuring the National Idea symbol. This is not the official military insignia used by its Ukrainian Armed Forces volunteer component, Pechersk Battalion.

Contemporary status

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In contemporary Ukraine, various ultranationalist and neo-Nazi political groupings exist, though they command limited popular support in elections.[15] Neo-Nazi parties hit the peak of their elective influence in 2012 and have since declined steadily. In 2012, Svoboda and a coalition of other neo-fascist parties received at least 2,129,933 votes, about 10.4% of the total, which made them the fourth largest party in the Verkhovna Rada for that parliament.[14] The most prominent neo-Nazi[10] party within Ukraine is Svoboda, formerly the Social-National Party of Ukraine, which currently holds one seat in the VR. The party received 315,568 votes in the 2019 parliamentary elections, the last national election held in Ukraine.[16] Svoboda has additionally controlled 890 regional elective positions since regional elections were last held in Ukraine in 2020.[17]

Outside of the parliamentary political establishment, a number of neo-Nazi terrorist organizations/paramilitaries currently operate within Ukraine that commit violence against their political opponents and racial minorities, such as the Romani in Ukraine.[18] The Foreign Policy Centre calls these groups "...a threat to the political regime and minorities."[19] Some of such groups have been recruited by the Ukrainian state to extrajudicially identify, search, and attack separatist groups.[20][21][22] Among them are the Misanthropic Division[23], S14 group "Sich"[24] (a Svoboda youth wing),[25][26][27] and the Ukrainian National Union[28] among many others.[29] All of these groups have participated on Ukraine's behalf during the Russo-Ukrainian War, some as uniformed belligerents. The Ukrainian state, through its armed forces have officially incorporated some neo-Nazi paramilitaries into its ranks, such as the Right Sector's Right Sector Ukrainian Volunteer Corps[19] (now the 67th Mechanized Brigade)[30], the Social-National Assembly's Azov Regiment (now Azov Brigade)[31], S14 group "Sich" into the Sich Battalion[32] and the Ukrainian National Union's paramilitary into the Pechersk Battalion.[33]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Kyiv's Next Image Problem". openDemocracy. Retrieved 2025-08-08.
  2. ^ Hurska, Alla (February 2016). "Far-right Movements and Ideology in Contemporary Ukraine: Formidable Image vs. Weak Essence". prod.cidob.org. Retrieved 2025-05-15.
  3. ^ Brown, Kate (2009-06-30). A Biography of No Place. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-02893-7.
  4. ^ Fascism without Borders: Transnational Connections and Cooperation between Movements and Regimes in Europe from 1918 to 1945 (1 ed.). Berghahn Books. 2019. ISBN 978-1-78533-468-9.
  5. ^ Motyl, Alexander (15 March 2010). "Stepan Bandera: Hero of Ukraine?". Atlantic Council. Retrieved 2025-05-15.
  6. ^ Armstrong, John (1963). Ukrainian Nationalism. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 87. "The Ukrainian people, whose century-old struggle for freedom has scarcely been matched by any other people, espouses from the depths of its soul the ideals of the New Europe. The entire Ukrainian people yearns to take part in the realisation of these ideals. We, old fighters for freedom in 1918-1921, request that we, together with our Ukrainian youth, be permitted the honour of taking part in the crusade against Bolshevik barbarism. In twenty-one years of a defensive struggle, we have suffered bloody sacrifices, and we suffer especially at present through the frightful slaughter of so many of our compatriots. We request that we be allowed to march shoulder to shoulder with the legions of Europe and with our liberator, the German Wehrmacht, and therefore we ask to be permitted to create a Ukrainian military formation. -Andriy Melnyk.
  7. ^ Радченко, Юрій (Амір) (2023-06-22). "«Падають в братні могили… члени Організації українських націоналістів»: нацистські репресії проти мельниківців (1941–1944 рр.). Частина 4". Україна Модерна (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2025-08-09.
  8. ^ OUN-German Relations 1941-1945, Taras Hunczak. (1994). From German-Ukrainian relations in historical perspective. Hans-Joachim Torke, John-Paul Himka, eds. Edmonton, Alberta: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, University of Alberta. pg. 178
  9. ^ Rudling, Per Anders (2013). "The Return of the Ukrainian Far Right: The Case of VO Svoboda". In Wodak and Richardson (ed.). Analysing Fascist Discourse: European Fascism in Talk and Text. New York: Routledge. pp. 229–235.
  10. ^ a b Golinkin, Lev (2019-02-22). "Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are On the March in Ukraine". ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2025-08-08.
  11. ^ "Divisive Nationalist Made Ukraine Hero". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 2010-01-27. Retrieved 2025-08-08.
  12. ^ "Суд на Украине лишил С.Бандеру звания Героя :: Общество :: Top.rbc.ru". top.rbc.ru. Archived from the original on 2010-04-05. Retrieved 2025-08-08.
  13. ^ Rudling, Per Anders (2013). Analyzing Fascist Discourse (1st ed.). Routledge. pp. 235–237. ISBN 9780203071847.
  14. ^ a b "IFES Election Guide | Elections: Ukrainian Supreme Council 2012 General". www.electionguide.org. Retrieved 2025-08-09.
  15. ^ Farley, Robert (31 March 2022). "The Facts on 'De-Nazifying' Ukraine". FactCheck.org. Retrieved 2025-05-15.
  16. ^ "Wayback Machine" (PDF). www.cvk.gov.ua. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-09-13. Retrieved 2025-08-08.
  17. ^ ПроКом, ТОВ НВП. "Центральна виборча комісія України - WWW відображення ІАС "Місцеві вибори 2020"". www.cvk.gov.ua (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2025-03-16. Retrieved 2025-08-09.
  18. ^ Haring, Melinda (2018-06-20). "Ukraine's Got a Real Problem with Far-Right Violence (And No, RT Didn't Write This Headline)". Atlantic Council. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  19. ^ a b Centre, Foreign Policy (2018-07-18). "The unique extra-parliamentary power of Ukrainian radical nationalists is a threat to the political regime and minorities". The Foreign Policy Centre. Retrieved 2025-08-10. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  20. ^ Єгошина, Валерія (2019-03-22). "Силовики для кандидатів: як напередодні виборів Порошенко та Тимошенко заручились підтримкою СБУ, ГПУ та МВС". Радіо Свобода (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  21. ^ Haring, Melinda (2018-06-20). "Ukraine's Got a Real Problem with Far-Right Violence (And No, RT Didn't Write This Headline)". Atlantic Council. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  22. ^ "С14. Кто они и почему им позволено бить людей". LIGA (in Russian). 2017-11-15. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  23. ^ "REFT & LIGHT ❬ ❭ Misanthropic Division: A Neo-Nazi Movement from Ukraine and Russia". Reft & Light. 2016-09-30. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  24. ^ "C14 aka Sich - Ukraine". TRAC. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  25. ^ "Neo-Nazi C14 vigilantes appear to work with Kyiv police in latest 'purge' of Roma". Human Rights in Ukraine. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  26. ^ "Партія Свобода створює власний батальйон". ua.korrespondent.net (in Russian). Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  27. ^ "A Fine Line: Defining Nationalism and Neo-Nazism in Ukraine". Archived from the original on 2018-06-29. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  28. ^ "Uma entrevista com o dissidente russo Roman Strigunkov" (in Brazilian Portuguese). 2022-11-26. Archived from the original on 2022-11-28. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  29. ^ "Provoking the Euromaidan". openDemocracy. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  30. ^ Axe, David. "As Russian Troops Invaded, Ukraine Scrambled To Form New Mechanized Brigades. A Few Months Later, They Were On The Front". Forbes. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  31. ^ Chazan, Guy (1 August 2014). "Ukrainian volunteer fighters with a luxurious seaside residence". Financial Times. London. Azov was created in March by the Social National Assembly…. Azov was granted official status as a volunteer battalion…. Azov stormed the rebels' barricades, seizing control…. Since then, its main role has been to keep an eye on Mariupol and patrol the Azov coastline, preventing arms smuggling from Russia.
  32. ^ "Партія Свобода створює власний батальйон". ua.korrespondent.net (in Russian). Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  33. ^ "Батальйон «Печерськ» прибув у розташування Збройних сил України » Український Національний Союз". www.naso.org.ua. Archived from the original on 2015-07-25. Retrieved 2025-08-10.