Australian Donations Ending Up in the Hands of Neo-Nazis
An Investigation into Defend Ukraine Appeal charity
The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO) has been sending aid to Ukrainian Neo-Nazis through their registered charity the Defend Ukraine Appeal.
This article provides detailed evidence of AFUO sending both financial and non-lethal aid to individuals who have displayed neo-Nazi ideology and groups linked to neo-Nazis, with at least one fundraiser being facilitated by a member of the NSW Labor Party.
These groups include the heir to the Azov Battalion, the 3rd Assault Brigade and the ‘Da Vinci’ Wolves and two individuals, Viktor ‘Blacksmith’ and Sergiy Kononenko who received aid from the Defend Ukraine Appeal.
3rd Assault Brigade Fundraiser
On the 24th of February, AFUO held a rally to commemorate the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. Speakers at the event included NSW Premier Chris Minns, Senator Dave Sharma and several other state and federal politicians.
The rally at St. Mary’s Cathedral featured a short ‘thank you’ video to Australians from members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The video included members of the 3rd Assault Brigade, which received an online fundraising campaign a month earlier hosted by the Defend Ukraine Appeal.
On January 8th, Kateryna Argyrou the co-Chair of the Defend Ukraine Appeal put out a call to arms in the hopes of raising $23,000 for combat medic Elizabeth ‘Liza’ Komar whom she met in Sydney.
This was the second time AFUO had raised funds for Liza’s Batallion, back in 2023 they raised money for a drone which was sent to the 2nd Mechanised Infantry Battalion. A video from the Battalion thanking donors was posted to the Defend Ukraine Appeal Facebook page.
The 3rd Assault is, like its predecessor Azov linked heavily with neo-Nazis. Led by the former commander of the Azov Battalion, neo-Nazi Andriy Biletsky who in 2010 was quoted as saying he believed Ukraine’s mission was to:
“lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans]”.
The commander of the 2nd Mechanised Infantry Battalion which Liza serves in is Denys Sokur, a well known neo-Nazi formerly from the Azov Battalion. Sokur has an ‘88’ tattoo on his leg (a common abbreviation for ‘Heil Hitler”), and a Sonnenrad or black sun tattoo on his elbow.
The Sonnenrad originates from Nazi Germany, it was featured on the marble floor of Wewelsburg castle run by Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS.
The symbol is popular amongst neo-Nazis, it was worn by the Australian neo-Nazi who murdered 51 people at a Christchurch mosque in 2019. It was also emblazoned on the cover of the manifesto he wrote, which has been translated into Ukrainian and distributed by Ukrainian neo-Nazi groups.
Another prominent neo-Nazi from the 3rd Assault Brigade caused controversy last year after visiting Auschwitz concentration camp wearing a shirt from a neo-Nazi black metal band with the inscription ‘Where we are, there is no place for anyone else’, a quote attributed to Adolf Hitler.
Da Vinci Wolves Fundraiser
Just two weeks prior to the St. Mary’s Cathedral rally, the Ukrainian Council of NSW one of the 22 national community organisations that make up AFUO held a movie night fundraiser at NSW Parliament with Stephen Kamper, the state Minister for Multiculturalism.
A screening of the Ukrainian documentary ‘Da Vinci’ was played, which tells the story of Dmytro 'Da Vinci' Kotsiubailo, who was awarded the Hero of Ukraine medal in 2021. Kotsiubailo the youngest commander in Ukraine’s history was killed in 2023 while fighting in the battle of Bakhmut.
The event raised $6,505 through tickets sales and donations directed to the Defend Ukraine Appeal proceeds of which went to the ‘Da Vinci’ Wolves, Kotsiubailo’s old Brigade.
The Brigade is now commanded by neo-Nazi Serhii Filimonov, another who previously served in the Azov Battalion. Filimonov sports multiple neo-Nazi tattoos including the popular Valknut rune, and the Totenkopf, the insignia of Hitler’s 3rd SS Panzer Division.
Filimonov was a leader in violent Dynamo Ultras, an antisemitic group of football hooligans known as the ‘White Boys Club’. The groups emblem includes the image of Prince Sviatoslav a favorite among antisemites for destroying the Khazar empire, which they believe are ‘fake Jews’ trying to infiltrate and destroy Europe and the West.
Viktor ‘Blacksmith’ Fundraiser
Last year AFUO attempted to raise $50,000 dollars for Viktor ‘Blacksmith’, a machine gunner from the 130th Special Reconnaissance Platoon who lost both his legs in Donetsk in September.
Viktor’s social media pages feature videos of him on duty with the Ukrainian Army wearing neo-Nazi patches featuring the Sonnenrad and Valknut rune. He is also tagged in photos with a prominent neo-Nazi from the 3rd Assault Brigade who posts photos of himself proudly giving the Nazi salute and has also posted antisemitic circumcision jokes about Jewish amputees.
Sergiy Kononenko
The Defend Ukraine Appeal also provided ongoing aid to Sergiy Kononenko a member of the 59th Separate Assault Brigade from 2023-24. Konenko is pictured on the Defend Ukraine website with a ‘Terror Uber Alles’ patch which features an Sonnerad and gallows, and wearing a hat with a restyled Reichsadler eagle from Nazi Germany (the Swastika has been replaced by the emblem of Ukraine).
He has posted multiple photos to his social media accounts wearing the Totenkopf patch from the 3rd SS Panzer Division, photos of himself wearing a Nazi uniform from WW2 and holding the red and black flag from the Ukranian Insurgent Army (UPA).
The UPA collaborated with the Nazis during WW2, its soldiers participated in pogroms against Jews during the holocaust and made up a significant portion of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of Hitler’s SS, to which there is an Australian Ukrainian community memorial dedicated to in South Australia.
There has been no accountability from AFUO or the Ukrainian Council of NSW who continue to provide aid to extremist elements of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in plain view of state and federal politicians attending their fundraisers.
The public rallies that the two Ukrainian community groups hold are frequently attended by people waiving UPA flags, and the flag of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion. This was the case at St. Mary’s Cathedral while the NSW Premier and Dave Sharma were giving their speeches.
Under the current laws in NSW, it is illegal to ‘knowingly display, by public act and without reasonable excuse, a Nazi symbol’, but NSW Police are yet to take any action on the Nazi symbols displayed at AFUO events.
The acceptance of far-right extremists in the Australian Ukrainian community isn’t a small issue, there is a significant risk of radicalisation due to the exposure to neo-Nazi ideology.
ASIO has already advised the government to cancel the passport of an Australian neo-Nazi suspected of trying to join the Azov Battalion.
In 2018, the ABC reported on 2 Australian neo-Nazis who had joined other ultranationalist battalions fighting in Ukraine. There are no laws punishing Australians from fighting alongside neo-Nazi groups like Azov or the 3rd Assault Brigade.
For now it seems the fringe members of the Ukrainian community are free to openly support neo-Nazis and display neo-Nazi symbols in public.
In the end turning a blind eye to Nazis only helps Nazis, and by ignoring them it plays into Russian myths about Ukraine being a ‘Nazi state’ and that undermines the cause for Ukrainian liberation.