Andriy Biletsky | |
|---|---|
Андрій Білецький | |
 Biletsky in 2025 | |
| Leader ofNational Corps | |
| Assumed office 14 October 2016 | |
| People's Deputy of Ukraine | |
| In office 27 November 2014 – 24 July 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Oleksandr Bryhynets [uk] |
| Succeeded by | Maryana Bezuhla |
| Constituency | Kyiv,No. 217 |
| Commander of the Azov Battalion | |
| In office 5 May 2014 – October 2014 | |
| Succeeded by | Ihor Mykhaylenko |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1979-08-05)5 August 1979 (age 46) Kharkiv,Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Citizenship | Ukrainian |
| Political party | Tryzub (2002–2005) Patriot of Ukraine (2005–2008) Social-National Assembly (2008–2016) National Corps (since 2016) |
| Spouse | [1][2] |
| Children | 1 son |
| Residence(s) | Kyiv,Ukraine |
| Alma mater | University of Kharkiv[3] |
| Religion | Rodnovery |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Ukraine |
| Branch/service |  Militsiya (Special Tasks Patrol Police) (2014)
 Ukrainian Ground Forces (2022-present) |
| Years of service | 2014–2016[4][1] 2022–present[5] |
| Rank |  Lieutenant colonel of police[6][7].svg) Brigadier general of Ukrainian Ground Forces[8] |
| Unit |  Azov Battalion (2014–2016)Azov Tactical Group (2022)[5]  3rd Assault Brigade (2023–present)[5] |
| Commands | Azov Battalion (2014–2016) Azov Tactical Group (2022)[5] 3rd Assault Brigade (2023–2025) 3rd Army Corps (2025–present) |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards |  [9]25 Years of Independence of Ukraine Medal |
Andriy Yevheniiovych Biletsky[a] (Ukrainian:Андрій Євгенійович Білецький[ɐnˈd⁽ʲ⁾r⁽ʲ⁾ijjeu̯ˈɦɛn⁽ʲ⁾ijowɪdʒbiˈlɛtsʲkɪj]; born 5 August 1979)[10] is a Ukrainianfar-right politician and military officer. He is the leader of the political partyNational Corps. He was the first commander of the volunteerAzov Battalion,[4][1] which he founded in 2014, he initiated a revival of the nationalist movementPatriot of Ukraine in 2005, and is a co-founder of theSocial-National Assembly.[11] From 2014 until 2019, Biletsky was aPeople's Deputy of Ukraine.[12]
After theRussian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Biletsky organized volunteer forces, formed by former Azov Battalion veterans in the region ofKyiv,[13] and joined theUkrainian Ground Forces. In January 2023 the volunteer Azov units were reorganized into the3rd Assault Brigade and Biletsky was later promoted to its commander.[14] In 2025, Biletsky was promoted toBrigadier General of the3rd Army Corps.[15]
Andriy Biletsky was born in 1979 inKharkiv,Soviet Union. Biletsky's father Yevheniy Mykhailovych Biletsky hailed from an oldCossack family that founded the village ofKrasnopavlivka inKharkiv Oblast, while Biletsky's mother Olena Anatoliyivna Biletsky (née Lukashevych) descended from a noble family fromZhytomyr region, to which belong theDecembristVasiliy Lukashevich [uk] who founded theLittle-Russian Secret Society [uk].[10]
In his youth, Biletsky practiced several types of martial arts and boxing. Unlike many Ukrainians, he declined to join theVladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization. Biletsky, along with senior schoolmates, raised the Ukrainian flag over his school.[16] His major patriotic influence in his youth was his father's gift of a book prohibited in the Soviet Union, History of Ukraine for Children byAnton Lototsky [uk].[16] During theKosovo War, Biletsky and a group of other Ukrainians attempted to join theYugoslav Army as volunteers to fight against theKosovo Liberation Army (KLA), but the war ended before they arrived at the front.[17][18][19] In 2001, Biletsky graduated with honors from the History faculty of theUniversity of Kharkiv. Histhesis was about theUkrainian Insurgent Army.[3] The same year Biletsky participated in theUkraine without Kuchma (UBK) protests, for which he was placed underadministrative arrest. TheSecurity Service of Ukraine pressured the university administration to expel Biletsky from the institution.
In 2002 Biletsky became a leader of the Kharkiv branch of the political organizationTryzub, and was a member of the Kharkiv section of theSocial-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU), but opposed the idea of its transformation intoSvoboda.[3]
After the transformation of SNPU into Svoboda and liquidation of the original Patriot of Ukraine, in 2005 Biletsky initiated a revival of thePatriot of Ukraine,[3] independent from any political factions. The new Patriot of Ukraine initially consisted of the Kharkiv branches ofUNA-UNSO,Tryzub, and former SNPU. Since 2005, Biletsky also cooperated with the newly establishedUkrainian Conservative Party [uk].[citation needed]
In the2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Biletsky unsuccessfully ran forUkrainian parliament.[16]
During theEuromaidan events, members of the Biletsky's Patriot of Ukraine were among the founders ofRight Sector on 28 November 2013. On 24 February 2014, theUkrainian parliament adopted a decision on the freedom of political prisoners. The next day, Biletsky and other prisoners were completely acquitted of all charges and freed from custody.[citation needed]
On 12 March 2014, Biletsky became a party leader in special operations for the "Right Sector - East," which included such regions asPoltava,Kharkiv,Donetsk, andLuhanskoblasts. On 5 May 2014, inBerdyansk Biletsky became a founder of theAzov Battalion (as aterritorial battalion of patrol service), and its first commander. The battalion was initially composed of members of the Patriot of Ukraine, Social-National Assembly, football fans (notablyDynamo Kyiv supporters) and theAutoMaidan movement. The paramilitary unit became known as theLittle black men as an opposition to the Russian special operations "Little green men".[16] It would be transformed from a militia into a regular regiment of theNational Guard of Ukraine on 20 November 2014.
On 13 June 2014, Biletsky led his detachment in the successfulFirst Battle of Mariupol. According to British military reporterAskold Krushelnycky, "Biletsky was cool in the evaluation of actions and giving orders calmly and, in my opinion, logically".[16] On 2 August 2014, Biletsky, holding a rank of Major of Militsiya,[citation needed] was awarded theOrder For Courage (III degree)[20][non-primary source needed] and promoted to lieutenant colonel of police[6][7] on 15 August 2014.
On 10 September 2014, Biletsky was admitted to the military council of thePeople's Front, yet did not become a member of the party. On 27 September 2014, he ran as an independent candidate in the 217th electoral district (Kyiv) for the2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election and won by receiving 31,445 votes (33.75%). In parliament, he joined the inter-factional groupUKROP.[21] In October 2014,Ihor Mykhailenko [uk] replaced Biletsky as commander of Azov Battalion.[citation needed]
In an interview toLB.ua (Left Bank) given on 10 December 2014, Biletsky announced that thePatriot of Ukraine suspended its activities as a political organization due to the war, and would be absorbed primarily into theAzov Battalion.[22] In the same interview Biletsky said that the logo of the battalion is different from the GermanWolfsangel and symbolizes the Ukrainian national idea.[22]
On October 14, 2016, Biletsky was voted as the leader of the newly formed partyNational Corps.[23]In October 2016 Biletsky officially left the Ukrainian National Guard because Ukrainian elected officials were barred from military service, but he vowed to continue his military career "without titles".[4]
During his first three years of work inVerkhovna Rada Biletsky participated only in 2% of votes,[24] He took part in only 229 votings, taking the fifth place in the rating of deputies with the fewest votings.[25] He missed 328 sittings of the Ukrainian parliament.[26][27] He missed all sittings of the Verkhovna Rada in 2016 and did not appear in parliament as of March 2017.[28][29][30] According to a research of theCommittee of Voters of Ukraine, published in August 2017, Biletsky did not write any laws that were adopted in the Verkhovna Rada. With 30 unsuccessful projects, he is in the first place among the deputies who submitted unsuccessful draft laws.[31][32][33]
In the2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election he was placed 2nd on the joined list ofSvoboda with the far-rightNational Corps, theGovernmental Initiative of Yarosh andRight Sector.[34] His party did not win enough votes to clear the 5% election threshold and thus did not gain any parliamentary seats.[35]
In 2023 Biletsky and Azov veterans formed the3rd Assault Brigade. Biletsky was the commander of the "Azov Tactical Group" at first, which is part of the brigade, and soon afterwards became a full commander of the brigade itself.[14] The brigade has appeared regularly in the news due to its performance in combat, partly founded in successful recruiting and training.[36][37][38] The brigade presents many details of its activities on its popular YouTube channel.[37][38][39][5]
In 2010, Biletsky reportedly said that the Ukrainian nation's mission is to "lead the white races of the world in a final crusade...against Semite-ledUntermenschen".[40][41][42][43] Biletsky later denied ever making such remarks.[44]
In a 2007 article, Biletsky stated that "Ukrainian racial social-nationalism" was the ideology of Patriot of Ukraine.[45] During his speech at a 2009 general meeting of the party he said: "How then can we describe our enemy? The general regime in power are oligarchs. Is there anything they have in common? Yes, one thing in common – they are Jews, or their true bosses – Jews – are behind them. Out of one hundred published richest people in Ukraine 92 are Jews, and some others of Tatar origin".[46]
Until 2011 Biletsky was in favour of forming a confederation between Russia and Ukraine, with Kyiv as its capital, according toBBC News Ukrainian.[47]
In 2013 he wrote a brochure calledThe Word of the White Leader («Слово білого вождя»).[48] TheBBC in 2014[49] andThe Moscow Times[50] in 2015 described Biletsky as awhite supremacist. In 2014, he was accused of being an "actualneo-Nazi" by sociologistVolodymyr Ishchenko [uk] because of his involvement in Patriot of Ukraine and Azov.[51]
In 2018,The Guardian reported that Biletsky "has toned down his rhetoric in recent years".[42]Freedom House initiativeReporting Radicalism reported as of 2022[update] that he has not publicly made racist remarks since 2014, but he does "invoke anti-LGBT+ rhetoric frequently".[52] Umland and Fedorenko wrote in 2021 that he still publicly objects to multiculturalism, but has stated "to be a Ukrainian nationalist today is to believe in values, not racial prejudice", and announced that his party does not use ethnicity to define who can, or cannot, be part of the nation Ukraine.[53]
In 2022, however,The Independent still described him as a white supremacist, whileThe Daily Telegraph reported that he was known asthe White Leader.[54][55] According to a 2021 paper by political scientists Umland and Fedorenko, he had been known as white leader before 2014, but subsequently said that "if someone called me white leader face-to-face, [that person] would have been beaten".[53]
According to the electronic declaration, in 2015, Biletsky received₴ 58,990 (US$2,087) as salary in the Verkhovna Rada. He had ₴ 250,000 (US$8,846) in cash.[2][56] The declaration also indicated an apartment in Kyiv (see below), which was recorded as belonging to Biletsky's spouse Yuliya.[2][57][58] In the declaration for 2016, Biletsky indicated 115,652 hryvnia (US$4,423) as deputy salary, and ₴ 250,000 in cash.[59]
From 2003 to 2016, Andriy Biletsky was married to Yuliya Oleksandrivna Biletska (née Brusenko); their son was born in 2007. In April 2016, the couple divorced.[60][61]
Andrei Biletsky, a white supremacist commander
It was organised by Andriy Biletsky, a white supermacist former football hooligan
Mr Biletsky, also known as the White Leader
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