The leader of the “National Militia” of the “Azov” movement swore his comrades to the final “clash of civilizations” on August 1, 2020 at the edge of a forest near Kiev. “The age of absolute darkness lies before us,” predicted Igor “Tcherkas” Mikhailenko and demanded that the hundreds of mostly masked fighters of his “vigilante group” present would make sacrifices for the idea of a “Greater Ukraine.” He gave a new battle cry: “Aut Caesar, aut nihil!” (all or nothing). By torchlight and with Nazi pomp, which was based on the war aesthetics of ancient Rome, the “Centuria” organization was born – and the “National Militia” was history. Since 2017, they had been practicing brutal vigilante justice in Ukrainian cities and, for example, tyrannizing the LGBTQ scene. “Centuria” has enjoyed the admiration of the small neo-Nazi party “Der III. Weg(The third way)” in this country for years.

The organization (not to be confused with the military order of the same name and also associated with “Azov”, which already existed before 2020) now has an offshoot in Germany: On August 24, 2023, immigrant Ukrainian fascists founded an initiative group in Magdeburg: "Although the Ukrainian youth are not in their homeland, they are starting to unite,” they announced on social media. The “enemies” of their country, whom they want to cause a “hellish storm” against, must understand that “Ukrainian emigrants” are not prepared to “forget their national identity for a few hundred euros.”

Photos and videos show a nationalist rally on the Old Market in Magdeburg on the 32nd anniversary of Ukraine’s independence - as usual unmolested by Antifa and critical media reporting. According to its own information, the march was organized by “Centuria”. The participants posed with a flag of the Bandera wing of the fascist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). The “German-Ukrainian Society of Saxony-Anhalt” is also said to have been involved. Most recently, the group organized a solidarity rally for the “Defenders of Azovstal” in front of the Red City Hall in Berlin on January 27th, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Since its founding, “Centuria Magdeburg” has also been inviting people to go on hikes together in the Harz Mountains. For example, with the nationalist scout association “Plast”, which has been based in Germany since 1951 and had already set up its first tent camp in Mittenwald in 1947. According to its own information, “Centuria Magdeburg” has members in a total of six cities and is networked with Ukrainian organizations throughout Germany. The group is currently raising funds for its parent organization’s combat unit, which has been integrated into the third “Azov” assault brigade of the Ukrainian army under the command of Nazi leader Andriy Biletsky since 2022, and is participating in “information warfare.” Not only against Russia, but also against minorities hated by the fascists: the “German Caliphate”, Palestinians and other migrants from predominantly Muslim regions, as well as “black rapists” who are allegedly protected by the police, and “pedophiles”, as the group calls homosexuals.

“We are creating a new generation of heroes!” they promise. True to its leader Mikhailenko - who wants to “destroy everything anti-Ukrainian” and was head of the Nazi organization “Patriot of Ukraine” in the Kharkiv region and commander of the “Azov” regiment of the National Guard from 2014 to 2016 - the group relies on violence: "Free People have weapons,” it says on her Telegram channel. The German traffic light government supplies these in abundance to the Ukrainian armed forces and thus also to the fascist and other ultra-right units belonging to them. It can therefore be assumed that “Centuria” will be able to expand its structures in Germany unhindered by the local security authorities.