The Azov Battalions of the 127th Territorial Defense Brigade
The Kraken Special Unit (Part II)
This is a refurbished version of an article that originally appeared in April of 2023. The process of republication, alas, removes comments made on the original. For that reason, I have added, to the bottom of this page, a link to a version of this post that features both recent improvements and, if any were made, older comments.
On the subject of comments … violations of the spirit (if not the letter) of the ‘keep it clean, classy, and congenial’ policy have led me to disable comments on this series.
On 15 March 2022, Kostiantyn Nemichev used his Telegram channel to post footage of a raid on a Russian supply dump. ‘The forces of the 226th “Azov” Battalion,’ he wrote under the video, ‘together with the soldiers of the 92nd Brigade and the National Guard of Ukraine, inflicted significant losses on the occupier in the Kharkiv region. Russia is minus a command and staff vehicle, an infantry building, and a warehouse. We continue to systematically destroy the enemies of the Ukrainian Nation. JOIN!”
On that same day, he announced a training course that would qualify people without combat experience for service in his organization. This announcement included a photo of the swearing-in ceremony of the previous week emblazoned with the words ‘we are opening a recruiting center’. (Strange to say, neither the photo nor the text of the announcement bore any sort of organizational logo. Similarly, while the announcement provided telephone numbers for would be recruits to call, it made no mention of the unit that was organizing the course.)
On 16 March, Nemichev posted a pair of recruiting videos which mentioned both of the recently-formed territorial defense battalions. In the first, which recorded a talk he gave in front of damaged building in the center of Kharkiv, he identified himself as the ‘commander of the 225th “Azov” Battalion’. In the second, a soldier identified as a member of the 226th ‘Azov’ Battalion used an anti-tank rocket to destroy a Russian truck.
In the week that followed, however, none of the announcements posted by Nemichev made any mention of the numbered battalions. One video, which was part of a series of profiles of people in support roles, referred simply to ‘our unit’. Another, which showed a team of saboteurs blowing up a railway bridge north of Kharkiv, described the organization in question as ‘sabotage group Azov’.
On 23 March 2022, Nemichev posted a video that featured, for the first time, an entirely new logo. Edged in black and red, the traditional colors of Ukrainian nationalism, this emblem featured a stylized sea monster, the arrowhead rune of the Norse god Týr, and, in white Latin letters, the word ‘Kraken’.
Sources: This article makes extensive use of material posted on the Telegram channels of Kostiantyn Nemichev and the Kraken Special Unit, as well as the Facebook page of the First Nationalist Hub.
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