Patriot of Ukraine

The Patriot of Ukraine ( uk, Патріо́т Украї́ни, Patriót Ukrayíny) was an ultranationalist organization in Ukraine founded in 1999, disbanded in 2004, revived in 2005 and defunct since December 2014.

In its original form, it was launched in 1999 and became paramilitary wing of the Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU), and dissolved in 2004 when the latter rebranded in a less extremist form as Svoboda. Members of the Patriot of Ukraine refused to disband, and in 2005 Andriy Biletsky relaunched Pariot of Ukraine and it expanded into a political movement with national reach.

In its 2005 incarnation, it was affiliated to the Social-National Assembly of Ukraine (S.N.A.), an assemblage of far right organizations and groups founded in 2008 that share the social-national ideology and agree upon building a social-national state in Ukraine. Both the Patriot of Ukraine and the S.N.A. engaged in political violence against minorities and their political opponents.

In an interview to the Left Bank on 10 December 2014, Biletsky announced that the Patriot of Ukraine as political organization suspended its activities due to the war situation in the country and dissolved primarily within the Azov Battalion.Shvets, Ye.
Andriy Biletsky: Half of Azov speaks in Russian language. But they die and kill for Ukraine
'. LB.ua. 10 December 2014 The group was one of the constituent elements of the party Svoboda.

In 2016, former members of the Azov Battalions and the Patriot of Ukraine founded a new party named National Corps.

History

1999-2004

The origin of the Patriot of Ukraine can be traced to Lviv where the Association of Support for the Armed Forces and Navy of Ukraine Patriot Ukrayiny ( uk, Товариство Сприяння Збройним силам та Військово-Морському флоту України "Патріот України", Tovarystvo Spryyannya Zbroynym sylam ta Viysʹkovo-Morsʹkomu flotu Ukrayiny "Patriot Ukrayiny") was registered on 10 June 1996 as a civic association, registration number 375.

The First Congress of the Patriot of Ukraine was held in Lviv on 12 December 1999 where it was officially adopted by the Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU) as its paramilitary youth wing. In the evening, around 1500 members of the SNPU and the Patriot of Ukraine staged a torchlight demonstration in the city. The first leader of the organization became Andriy Parubiy, who established a long-lasting tradition of torchlight parades, which became an organizational trademark. At that time Parubiy gained national notoriety in Ukraine after he was put on trial for alleged assault on communist demonstrators in Lviv on 7 November 1997. The main TV channels in Ukraine broadcast footage of Parubiy clashing with the demonstrators. The trial was dragged, moved around, and finally the case was dismissed due to the statute of limitations. A photo of Parubiy leading the Patriot of Ukraine march was placed on the cover of his book published in Lviv in 1999.

The Patriot of Ukraine was dissolved by the SNPU on 14 February 2004, when the Ninth Congress of the SNPU adopted the new name of VO Svoboda and elected Oleh Tyahnybok as its leader. Aiming at building a parliamentary type of political organization with an image of the "party of order", Svoboda had shaken off some old baggage, including Wolfsangel-type logo, which was replaced with the national colors and a trident (trizub) hand gesture (three raised fingers), the so-called "Trident of Liberty". Андрющенко Е. С. Парамілітарні структури українського націоналістичного руху 90-х рр. ХХ ст. (Paramilitary structures of the Ukrainian nationalistic movements in the 1990s) / Е. С. Андрющенко // Наукові праці історичного факультету Запорізького національного університету : збірник / голов. ред. Ф. Г. Турченко. – Запоріжжя, 2011. – Вип. XXХ. – С. 42–51.

The original Patriot of Ukraine organization was also discarded since Svoboda wanted to appeal to a broader base of the Ukrainian electorate. Eventually, while still remaining a radical nationalist party, Svoboda was able to benefit from its new strategy. First, it scored wins at the 2010 Ukrainian local elections.

Re-establishment, 2005

In 2005 the organisation was re-established. The Patriot of Ukraine defined itself as a "revolutionary vanguard of the Ukrainian social-nationalistic movement". The organization uses the Wolfsangel symbol, the difference is the color of the monogram as the SNPU used azure (blue) monogram on gold and the Patriot of Ukraine utilizes sable (black) on gold and gold on sable.

In 2007, the organization officially ended its relationship with Svoboda, a direct descendant to the Social-National Party of Ukraine.Заява Організації „Патріот України” про розрив стосунків з ВО „Свобода”
(Announcement of the Patriot of Ukraine about break-up with VO Svoboda)

In the party statement, it was announced as follows:

Despite the split some prominent Svoboda's members such as Andriy Illienko, Chairman of the Kiev City Branch of the Vo Svoboda (Freedom) All-Ukrainian Union and a member of the Verhovna Rada, continued to advocate social-nationalism and idea of the two revolutions (national and social) which created a common ground with the Patriot of Ukraine.

Some researchers pointed to the fact that even after the declarative break-up, VO Svoboda continued to benefit:

in 2008, Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group issued a public letter, denouncing Patriot of Ukraine's activity in Kharkiv. In it, it compared actions that Patriot of Ukraine had conducted against foreign students to similar behavior in Russia neo-nazi groups. The group noted openly racist and xenophobic writings by Patriot of Ukraine ideologue Oleh Odnorozhenko on the group's website.

Vasylkiv terrorists case, 2011

In August 2011, three Patriot of Ukraine supporters were arrested and convicted in the so-called Vasylkiv terrorists case, in which three members in Kharkiv attempted to blow up a statue of Vladimir Lenin. At the same time, there was an armed assault on the headquarters of Patriot of Ukraine in Kharkiv

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