Ukrainian general’s rise from far-right wing agitator to war hero
Ukrainian general’s rise from far-right wing agitator to war hero
Sam KileySun, May 3, 2026 at 7:54 AM UTC
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Telephone signals abruptly collapse as we descend into a bunker at a secret location close to Ukraine’s front line with Russia - for a meeting with one of Kyiv’s most ambitious, controversial and successful military commanders.
Easily within reach of medium-range Russian drones and jets, the caution was routine. But it takes on added drama when it emerges that an alleged Ukrainian traitor, working with Russian intelligence, was recently in the area tracking the movements of Brigadier General Andrii Biletskyi.
The spy’s mission was to give real-time targeting information to Russian drone pilots when Biletskyi was visiting a front line location - or to find him in a command centre and send the coordinates to a Russian bomber jet, according to Ukraine’s State Security Service, the SBU - also known as SSU.
“During a pre-emptive operation, the SSU detained an enemy agent who was preparing to coordinate a targeted missile and bomb strike on the location of the Ukrainian general in the combat zone,” the agency said when announcing the arrest of the alleged spy, who has been charged with high treason.
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Ukrainian generals are, like senior Russian officers, often singled out for assassination.
But killing Biletskyi would have been a special prize.
Zelensky posted a picture of himself with Biletskyi and congratulated him on his military success during a visit to the frontline in August 2023 (Facebook/Volodymyr Zelenskyy )
A national, and ultra-nationalist, hero, with a colourful past including a pre-trial stint in jail for assault (he was acquitted), he has only ever given one interview to the foreign media.
That may be a consequence of his own security concerns. It may also flow from the awkward reality that, as a young man and undergraduate historian, he held far-right views that formed the ideology of the (now famous) Azov movement - which he founded and led against Russian invaders in 2014.
Azov attracted nationalists, some right wing foreign volunteers, and grew fast due to its battlefield successes in holding out against Vladimir Putin’s army’s first incursions into Ukraine when Kyiv forces were sclerotic, riddled with Russian sympathizers, and badly led.
“It was a partisan unit that operated in eastern Ukraine in 2014 against the pro-Russian separatists and the first Russian formations,” says Biletskyi.
“This squad was transformed; of course, we were looking for ways to legalize it. At first, it transformed into the Azov Special Purpose Battalion, which I created and commanded during the liberation of Mariupol, the largest city liberated in Ukraine at that time.”
Andriy Biletskyi takes part in a National Corps rally on Independence Square in Kyiv in 2019 (AFP/Getty)
In Ukraine, nostalgia even for Ukrainian units which joined the German Wehrmacht in the 1940s, so long as they fought against the Soviet Union, remains complex.
For anti-Russian nationalists, the organising principle of the 20th century was to rid Ukraine of Soviet dominance. The Kremlin oversaw the murder of up to 7 million people in the Holodomor famine of the early 1930s.
Today, the red and black flag of the Partisan Army of that era, when Ukrainians fought Russia, Germany, and then against Russia for Germany, is flown alongside the Ukrainian flag by many combat units.
Seized upon as “proof” that Ukraine is a Nazi entity by the Kremlin, these nationalistic symbols are not seen by Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, as a serious issue. He is Jewish.
In August 2023, Zelensky posted a picture of himself with Biletskyi on X and wrote: “The 3rd separate assault brigade, excellent fighters. They have stopped the enemy from advancing towards Kostiantynivka and pushed the occupiers back up to 8 kilometers.
“I recently had the honor to visit these brigades and thank the warriors for their bravery and real Ukrainian strength.”
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Biletskyi says he has moved on from his right wing era. And that the Army corps he now leads is now not just holding the line against Russia but starting to drive the Kremlin's forces back in the 12.5 per cent of the battlefront it says it controls.
In and out of parliamentary politics, he served for three years in the Ukrainian parliament in 2014 and officially gave up his leadership of Azov.
Brigadier General Andrii Biletskyi has evolved from far-right agitator to head of one of Ukraine’s most successful armies (The Independent)
When the brigade’s leadership was taken prisoner by Russia after defending Mariupol in the siege of 2022, Biletskyi - who has had no formal military training - formed a new unit, the which evolved into the 3rd Brigade.
It went on to fight in Bakhmut and Avdiivka and numerous intensely bloody battles of recent years, taking heavy casualties, but winning a national reputation for efficiency and success, partly driven by its in-house media production machine feeding social media.
“During this time, the brigade gained the cult status as the most effective brigade of the armed forces. Also, thanks to the large influx of volunteers, it is the largest in the armed forces of Ukraine," he boasts.
His immodest claims are supported by independent data. He now heads up 3rd Corps, which comprises five brigades, including the 3rd Brigade, which has about 10,000 troops - double the number of a normal brigade - and of them 90 per cent of them are volunteers.
Third Corps now operates along a 150km frontline of the areas in eastern Ukraine that Putin most covets and where Russian forces regularly launch assaults.
A drone pilot with callsign Rubik, 22, from the Reconnaissance Company "Only Wars" of the Ukrainian 3rd Army Corps controls a FPV drone during a training flight in an undisclosed location, in eastern Ukraine on August 2025 (AFP/Getty)
In March this year, Kremlin forces attempted to punch through the strategic rail head town of Lyman. A success for Moscow here could have collapsed the defences of Sloviansk and threatened Kramatorsk - the two most important “fortress cities” in Donetsk province.
A statement from 3rd Corps says: “Russian forces attacked simultaneously in seven directions with over 500 troops, 28 armored vehicles, and more than 100 motorcycles and ATVs [quad bikes] Within four hours, the Third Corps units turned the assault into a failure.”
In less than four hours of fighting the Ukrainians claim they “eliminated 405 enemy personnel (288 killed in action, the rest wounded), 84 motorcycles, 11 armored vehicles and three tanks”.
Historically, Ukrainian conscripts are lucky if they get more than a couple of month’s training. Infantry are all too often seen as expendable in ways that might shock a western leader.
Biletski took officers and Non Commissioned Officers, the backbone of every army formation, and seeded them across the four other brigades that make up his new Corps. This was part of a national reform of the Ukrainian armed forces to try to improve the coordination and running of the war.
Members of the 3rd Army Corps Interception Squadron monitor for Russian drone activity at an undisclosed location near the front lines of eastern Uraine, on October 2025 (AFP/Getty)
Many units have been, and some still are, semi-autonomous. They find their own sources of funds to augment what they get from Kyiv. Many of the most highly motivated units also have their roots in right wing groups like Azov.
Key to this success and the future of war is that Biletskyi believes 40 per cent of front line fighting will soon involve ground-based drones - remotely controlled fighting vehicles mounted with machine guns and anti-tank weapons.
As for politics…
Are you going to run for president one day?
“I am a sincere opponent of any talk about elections right now,” he says. “Sincere. We are fighting, and we must finish fighting with what we have.”
So that's not a no.
“That's a sincere answer,” he replies - smiling.
Source: “AOL Breaking”
