Vikings & Hipsters
The branding of three Ukrainian Army Corps
In March and April of 2025, the Ukrainian Armed Forces formed eighteen army corps, ‘operational-tactical’ formations that enjoyed enduring connections to their component units. The three most senior organizations of this type took their names, their emblems, and much of their senior leadership, from existing brigades, outfits that, in turn, had begun their lives as battalions.
The odd-numbered members of this troika, the 1st and 3rd Army Corps, descend from the Azov Battalion, a volunteer unit formed in 2014 to fight against pro-Russian separatists. The even-numbered formation, the 2nd Corps, gets its organizational DNA from a much younger body: a battalion, called Charter, raised, early in 2022, by a wealthy businessman.
From the start, the organizers of the original battalions took pains to establish distinct brands. Where the leaders of the Azov battalion drew heavily upon depictions, in the popular culture of the previous century or so, of Vikings, the founders of Charter, however, presented their handiwork as a crew that managed to be, at once, efficient and edgy, corporate and cool, businesslike and hip.