Andriy Biletsky. Ukrainian military officer and politician.
Born in Kharkiv on August 5, 1978.
As a child, he practiced boxing, fencing, and shooting.
Education.
In 2001, he graduated with honors from the History Department of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. His thesis was devoted to the activities of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
After graduating from university, he worked as a lecturer at Kharkiv universities and continued to study the military history of Ukraine.
Start of political activity.
During his student years, he participated in nationalist groups
In 2001, he took part in the March protests in Kyiv as part of the “Ukraine Without Kuchma” campaign, during which he was detained by the police and placed under administrative arrest.
From 2002, he led the Kharkiv unit of the Bandera-named paramilitary organization “Trident.”
In 2006, he founded the organization “Patriot of Ukraine” in Kharkiv.
In 2008, he initiated the creation of and became the leader of the Social-National Assembly (SNA).
Imprisonment.
In 2011, a conflict broke out at the office of the Kharkiv branch of “Patriot of Ukraine.” Two members of the organization were slightly injured, and the man who committed the act, Serhiy Kolesnyk, was hospitalized with head injuries. The injured men were arrested on suspicion of attempting to murder Kolesnik. A few months later, Biletsky was also arrested on charges of attacking Kolesnik. The leaders of the Kyiv and Vasylkiv branches of “Patriot of Ukraine” were also arrested on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack.
Biletsky spent two years and two months in the Kharkiv pretrial detention center from December 2011 to the end of February 2014.
On February 24, 2014, following the victory of the “Euromaidan” and the flight of President Viktor Yanukovych, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a resolution on the release of political prisoners, which included Biletsky and his other imprisoned associates.
“Azov.”
On March 12, 2014, he was appointed head of the “Right Sector–East” military wing, which covered four regions: Kharkiv, Donetsk, Poltava, and Luhansk.[15]
On the night of March 14–15, 2014, Andriy Biletsky led pro-Ukrainian activists in a clash with pro-Russian forces (including “Oplot”) near the office of the “Patriot of Ukraine” organization on Rymarska Street in Kharkiv.
On May 5, 2014, in Berdyansk, Andriy Biletsky founded the “Azov” Territorial Defense Battalion (upgraded to a regiment on September 17) and became its commander. The battalion was formed primarily from members of the SNA, “Patriot of Ukraine,” and the “Automaidan” organization.
"Azov" played a significant role in the liberation of Mariupol during the ATO in June 2014, as well as in the offensive operation in the Shyrokyne area in February 2015, when the front line had shifted slightly away from Mariupol.
Member of the Verkhovna Rada and party chairman.
In the fall of 2014, Biletsky was elected to the Verkhovna Rada from the 217th district in Kyiv (Obolon district). Zoryan Shkiryak, an advisor to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, withdrew his candidacy during the election in favor of Biletsky.
After that, Biletsky stepped down from command of Azov but continued to “oversee” the unit and exert decisive influence there.
In 2015, he became head of the Azov Civil Corps (established as a civic movement), and in late 2016, he became head of the newly formed National Corps party.
The media identified Interior Minister Arsen Avakov as Biletsky’s main political ally, but the politician himself denied this.
For the 2019 parliamentary elections, the “National Corps” decided to form a nationalist bloc with the “Svoboda” party and the “Right Sector,” but under the “Svoboda” brand. Biletsky took second place on the party list. However, in the elections, “Svoboda” received only 2.15% of the vote and failed to enter the Rada.
War. The Third Assault.
With the start of the full-scale invasion, he returned to military service. He established the “Azov-Kyiv” territorial defense unit. After the Russians withdrew from the Kyiv region, the unit, led by Biletsky, was redeployed to the Zaporizhzhia sector and participated in the liberation of the right bank of the Kherson region.
In the summer of 2022, the regiment was reorganized into a brigade, and in early 2023, the regiment was renamed the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade (3rd SASB) and redeployed to Bakhmut, where the unit operated against the forces of the Wagner Group. The brigade was able to stabilize the situation.
In February 2024, the brigade was redeployed to Avdiivka; it was the last unit to leave the city, avoiding encirclement.
Since the summer of 2024, the 3rd ASB has been fighting in the Kharkiv region, holding a 50-km front and eventually managing to stabilize the front near Lyman.
In March 2025, the brigade was expanded into a corps, and Biletsky became its commander.
The brigade is also one of the most well-known units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, conducting its own extensive media and recruitment activities. The unit has been virtually free of scandals related to incompetent leadership or misuse of supplies.
Scandals over political views.
The “Patriot of Ukraine” website features a number of articles, including “Ukrainian Racial Social Nationalism,” authored by Biletsky, in which he rejected democracy and liberalism, advocated for transforming Ukraine into an empire, and called for the “racial cleansing” of the Ukrainian nation.
In 2015, he denied authorship of these articles and claimed that the texts had been fabricated by Russian intelligence agencies.
In a 2010 interview, he stated in Russian that Ukraine should form a confederation with Russia and other Eastern European countries, centered in Kyiv, for geopolitical purposes.
Starting in the mid-2010s, Azov fighters were banned from using American weapons because U.S. officials believed that some of its founders held racist, xenophobic, and ultra-nationalist views, and UN human rights advocates accused the group of violating humanitarian norms. The ban was lifted in 2024.
During Petro Poroshenko’s presidency, he was his political rival, frequently criticized him, and led protests against him over the “Oleg Svinarchuk scandal.”
Family.
He has two sons. Oleksandr is from his first marriage. Andriy-Severin (born 2022) is from his second marriage to journalist Tetiana Danilenko, for whom this is also her second marriage. Her first marriage was to the controversial People’s Deputy and head of the State Agency for Investment Vladislav Kaskiv, who was later detained in Panama and extradited on corruption charges but was never brought to justice.