
Andriy Yevhenovych Biletsky (1979-) was the founder of the Social-National Assembly and Patriot of Ukraine far-right and neo-Nazi groups who led the Azov Battalion during the Donbass War in 2014.
Biography[]
Andriy Yevhenovych Biletsky was born in 1979 in Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. Biletsky became a Ukrainian nationalist when his father gave him a banned book on the history of Ukraine, and he raised the Ukrainian flag over his school with his schoolmates to protest against the USSR. In 2005 he helped the revival of the Patriot of Ukraine neo-Nazi group, and he founded the Social National Assembly in 2008 after being arrested for taking part in a Ukrainian Insurgent Army memorial march. Biletsky helped in creating Right Sector and took part in the Ukrainian Revolution of 2014, and on 5 May 2014 he was one of the founders of the Azov Battalion, a group accused of being neo-Nazi. He said that he wanted to lead a crusade against "Semite-led untermenschen" and to achieve the "liberation of the white race". This led to the United States, Canada, and other countries refusing to give support to the Azov Battalion, but it managed to be one of the most effective units loyal to the government of Ukraine. On 27 November 2014, he was elected as a People's Deputy of Ukraine in Kyiv. While he lost re-election in 2019, he commanded the 3rd Assault Brigade during the Russo-Ukrainian War.