On March 2, several thousand members of the nationalist organization National Militia (Natsionalni Druzhyny) silently marched in downtown Kyiv to mark the first anniversary of its creation.
The National Militia is a nationalist organization associated with the Azov volunteer battalion of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry forces. The organization declares that its purpose is to assist law enforcement agencies in maintaining order in Ukrainian cities by sending out street patrols. Its members are mainly young Ukrainian men with nationalist views.
On the anniversary of its creation, the National Militia members have marched from the Maidan Nezalezhnosti Square to the old Kyiv Fortress in Pechersk district where they held the ceremony of accepting the new members. Andriy Biletskiy, a member of parliament and leader of the National Corps political party, delivered a speech at the gathering.
