In 1991, the Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU) was founded.[171] The party combined radical nationalism and neo-Nazi features.[172][173] It was renamed and rebranded 13 years later as All-Ukrainian Association "Svoboda" in 2004 under Oleh Tyahnybok. In 2016, The Nation reported that "in Ukrainian municipal elections held [in October 2015], the neo-Nazi Svoboda party won 10 percent of the vote in Kyiv and placed second in Lviv. The Svoboda party's candidate won the mayoral election in the city of Konotop."[174] In 2015, the Svoboda party mayor in Konotop reportedly had the number "14/88" displayed on his car and refused to display the city's official flag because it contains a star of David, and has implied that Jews were responsible for the Holodomor.[172]
The topic of Ukrainian nationalism and its alleged relationship to neo-Nazism came to the fore in polemics about the more radical elements involved in the Euromaidan protests and subsequent Russo-Ukrainian War from 2013 onward.[173] Some Russian, Latin American, U.S. and Israeli media have attempted to portray the Ukrainian nationalists in the conflict as neo-Nazi.[175] The persons regarded as Ukraine's national heroes and increasingly celebrated in the nationalist revival of the 2014 period — Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevych or Dmytro Klyachkivsky of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) — at times supported and then opposed the presence of the Third Reich in Ukraine.[176][177]
The Azov Battalion, founded in 2014, has been described as a far-right militia,[178][179] with connections to neo-Nazism[180] and members wearing neo-Nazi and SS symbols and regalia, and expressing neo-Nazi views.[181][182]
Ukrainian volunteer battalion members with neo-Nazi Wolfsangel symbol, 24 July 2014
According to Vyacheslav Likhachev of the Institut français des relations internationales, members of far-right (including neo-Nazi) groups played an important role on the pro-Russian side, arguably more so than on the Ukrainian side, especially during the early 2014.[183][184] Members and former members of the National Bolshevik Party, Russian National Unity (RNU), Eurasian Youth Union, and Cossack groups participated in starting branches for the recruitment of the separatists.[183][185][186][187] A former RNU member, Pavel Gubarev, was founder of the Donbas People's Militia and first "governor" of the Donetsk People's Republic.[183][188] RNU is particularly linked to the Russian Orthodox Army,[183] one of a number of separatist units described as "pro-Tsarist" and "extremist" Orthodox nationalists.[189][183] 'Rusich' is part of the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary group in Ukraine which has been linked to far-right extremism.[190][191] Afterward, the pro-Russian far-right groups became less important in Donbass and the need for Russian radical nationalists started to disappear.[183]
The radical nationalists group С14, whose members openly expressed neo-Nazi views, gained notoriety in 2018 for being involved in violent attacks on Romany camps.[192][193][194]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Nazism#Ukraine
