Ukraine President Vlodymyr Zelenky uploaded a video of an “open conversation” between himself and Andriy Biletsky, founder of the Azov Battalion.
Biletsky’s college thesis was a defense of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, a group established by Stepan Bandera’s Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists that carried out ethnic cleansings of more than 100,000 Jews and Poles.
According to the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, Patriots of Ukraine “espoused xenophobic and neo-Nazi ideas, and was engaged in violent attacks against migrants, foreign students in Kharkiv and those opposing its views.”
“Biletsky and some other members were suspected of violent seizures of newspaper kiosks and similar criminal activities,” the group added.
In 2011, Biletsky was arrested for allegedly ordering Patriots of Ukraine members to kill an ultranationalist inside the group’s office.
He was released from a pre-trial detention in 2014.
While he was in custody, Biletsky published writings in what is known as “The Word of the White Leader.”
The writings consist of anti-Jewish and anti-Black sentiments, discuss eugenics, and express that “race is everything for nation-building.”
Reporting from Zero Hedge:
Following his release from prison, Biletsky got his chance to carry out a campaign of violence against the ethnic Russians of eastern Ukraine. As war broke out in the country, with the Russian majority of the east seeking self-determination in the face of a nationalist post-coup government viewed as Western puppets, Biletsky dissolved the Patriot of Ukraine and formed the Azov Battalion to wage a war against the separatists. Around this time, he was also elected to the Ukrainian parliament, remaining in office until 2019. … In 2019, it seemed almost as though Biletsky’s influence was waning. An electoral coalition he formed with several other prominent neo-Nazis in Ukraine failed to gain enough votes to pass the threshold to gain any seats in parliament. Meanwhile, Vlodomyr Zelensky won the presidential election on a platform of making peace with Russia. But Biletsky still held on to a trump card as a nationally-recognized strongman. When a Ukrainian news channel announced a two-hour live studio “TV bridge” between Ukrainian and Russian civilians aimed at fostering a stronger mutual understanding, Biletsky seized the moment to issue a thinly-veiled threat against Zelensky if he did not have the event canceled in a day’s time. If Zelensky did not intervene, “the answer to the Kremlin’s ‘little green men’ will begin to be given by ‘little black men,’” Biletsky said, referring to the black garb of fascist elements like Azov.
