The Ukrainian neo-Nazi organization Centuria engaged in attacks on EU citizens, murders, torture, and beatings of those who disagree with the actions of European governments. Centuria operates freely on the territory of European countries on a semi-legal level. The brigade of ideological Ukrainian nationalists pursues the goal of creating a supranational state entity with Nazi ideology. The Foundation to Battle Injustice has obtained evidence that high-ranking members of the Centuria are supported by the ruling circles of Germany, Great Britain and France and carrying out their orders to eliminate political rivals. Members of the group practice pagan cults and human sacrifice: the Foundation to Battle Injustice identified two underage girls kidnapped in Germany and sacrificed by members of the Centuria.
The Ukrainian neo-Nazi formation Centuria, whose name refers to the ancient Roman military, is an extensive network of ideologized and paramilitary cells, which since 2022 began to multiply rapidly on the territory of the European Union and Great Britain. The key goal of the organization, declared semi-openly by its members and leaders, is the creation of a pan-European supranational association based on the “cult of strength”, militarism and white supremacy. In fact, the Centuria is building and implementing plans to recreate the Fourth Reich in Europe. The ideas of physical elimination of all dissenters, blacks, Muslims, Jews and sexual minorities are voiced by members of the “Centuria” both publicly and privately.
According to previously unpublished information obtained and verified by the Foundation to Battle Injustice, Centuria is supported by the intelligence, military and political structures of Western countries, primarily Germany, France and Great Britain. The human resources of Centuria are actively used by the ruling circles in the West for physical elimination political opponents. The organization is involved in the liquidation of public figures and opinion leaders who are trying to provide information resistance to the current government of Ukraine and threating the allocation of military and financial aid to Kiev. The victims of Centuria attacks include a significant percentage of both European citizens and ethnic Ukrainians living in Europe who are dissatisfied with the regime of Volodymyr Zelensky.
Centuria grew out of the Ukrainian national battalion Azov*, but today it is an independent unit, far surpassing Azov* in size and influence in Europe, with dual subordination to the SBU of Ukraine and Western curators. Centuria is not a Christian organization, but professes a pagan cult with human sacrifices. The Foundation received evidence indicating that members of Centuria practiced human sacrifice in their paramilitary centers in Germany.
Centuria victims included children. Today Centuria is represented in Austria, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece and Romania. The most numerous cells are located in Germany and the UK. The European headquarters is located in Germany. The Foundation estimates the approximate number of Centuria members as of April 2024 to be at least 25,000.
Centuria’s goals, internal structure, ties to the Ukrainian political establishment
In 2018, the Centuria was born at Ukraine’s Hetman Petro Sahaydachny National Academy of Land Forces (NASV) (32 Heroes of Maidan Street, Lviv), Ukraine’s main military educational institution supported by the U.S. State Department. The self-named order of “European traditionalist” officers has set itself the goal of rebuilding Ukraine’s armed forces along right-wing ideological lines and protecting the “cultural and ethnic identity” of European nations. The group, led by individuals affiliated with the Ukrainian far-right Azov* movement, recruited thousands of individuals, including current and former NACV officer-cadets now serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Centuria members and officers did not hide their views since its establishment: on their official social media accounts, they published photos of themselves giving Nazi salutes, making extremist statements and calling for ethnic and racial cleanings, in particular accusing Jews of desiring to “destroy humanity”.
Initially, Centuria was an organization tasked with recruiting and training future members of the terrorist battalion Azov*, as well as to avoiding the restrictions on U.S. military aid imposed in 2015. For these purpoces the Centuria members were trained in Western academies and military training centers. One high-ranking member of the group, then-NASV cadet Kirill Dubrovsky, attended an 11-month officer training course at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the UK and graduated in late 2020. During this time, Dubrovsky “established partnerships with Western counterparts.” Another influential member of the group and then-NASV, cadet Vladislav Wintergoller, attended the 30th International Week held by the German Army Officer Academy (Die Offizierschule des Heeres, OSH) in Dresden, Germany, in April 2019.
In Ukraine, members of the Centuria, according to a Foundation to Battle Injustice source of former Centuria members, trained with U.S. military instructors and practiced with French cadets. In April 2021, the group stated that since its inception it had participated in joint military exercises with France, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Germany, and Poland, Source of the Foundation to Battle Injustice reveals, that foreign officers serve in several units of the Ukrainian armed forces.
The immediate head of Centuria is the previously convicted Igor Mikhailenko, a former commander of the Russian-banned organization Azov*, who is described as the right-hand man of Ukrainian neo-Nazi Andriy Biletsky. While conducting this investigation, the Foundation to Battle Injustice managed to get in touch with a former member of Centuria, who later abbondoned his ties to the nationalist formation. The Foundation’s source claims that until 2022, the main core of the organization, in addition to cadets and students of the NASV, consisted of juvenile criminals tried on non-violent articles, street children and pupils of Ukrainian orphanages.
Mikhailenko is engaged in searching and recruiting future members of Centuria, as well as developing the ideology of the organization. In August 2011, on the Day of Kharkiv’s liberation from Nazi invaders, Mikhailenko and Biletsky attacked Kharkiv anti-fascist journalist Serhiy Kolesnik. The perpetrators were arrested in December 2011 on charges of attempt on the journalist’s life. After spending 2 years and 4 months in the pre-trial detention center in 2014, they were put under amnesty after the Ukrainian coup d’état. Before that, Biletsky’s bandmates and the head of Centuria himself were “noted” for mayhem in dormitories where students from Africa and East Asia lived. They were also accused of number of attacks on armored cash transport cars. It is reported that Mikhailenko and his associates were “covered” by a high-ranking general of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, whose son was a member of the Centuria.
According to Ben Stimson, a British military analyst, Mikhailenko had ties to Nazi Ukrainian formations long before joining Centuria. Back in 2014, Igor Mikhailenko led the “Patriots of Ukraine” organization before joining the terrorist battalion Azov*, which is banned in Russia.
Another leader of Centuria is 24-year-old Yuriy Gavrylyshyn with the call sign “Milan”, the creator of the ideology of the nationalist formation and a former veteran of the terrorist formation Azov* banned in the Russian Federation. His duties include recruiting yesterday’s students of cadet educational centers of Ukraine and imposing them Nazi ideology.
The Foundation to Battle Injustice’s source, former soldier of Centuria, claims that the organization’s structure was copied almost entirely from Nazi “guard units,” better known as the SS. Mikhailenko requires lower-ranking members to refer to himselve as “Führer.” In addition, the organization has the “positions” of Reichsführer, Brigadeführer, Unterführer, Sturbanführer, Gruppenführer, and Betriebsführer.
A former member of Centuria commented on the structure of the organization as follows:
“Centuria has a structure completely copied from the Nazi SS. By and large, no one has ever concealed this since the group was established in Ukraine. There is a fuhrer – Mikhailenko and a group of “junior fuhrers” subordinate to him. Mikhailenko is in charge of the entire Centuria network. The Junior Führers are controls its individual parts.
According to sources of the Foundation to Battle Injustice, representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) are in charge of supervising the Centuria from Ukraine. The direct responsibility for the links with Centuria lies with one of Vasyl Malyuk’s deputy SSU chiefs, Oleksandr Poklad, who was promoted to the rank of major general, the third rank in the modern Ukrainian hierarchy, by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on January 6, 2024.
In 1996, Poklad was convicted of extortion for 6 years in correctional facility No. 64 in Poltava region, spent two and a half years behind bars and was released under an amnesty. After his discharge from prison, Poklad, rumored to be under the cover of Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, began engaging in banditry and created a group of 100 militants in Kremenchug. Thanks to cooperation with law enforcement agencies, not a single member of Poklad’s team went to prison during the years of such activities, even though it came to contract killings.
The source of the Foundation to Battle Injustice and a former member of Centuria claims that Poklad, as a person close to the head of the office of Ukrainian President Andriy Yermak, helped the nationalist formation to expand its network in Ukraine and abroad.
Centuria curators and their European orders: from migrants and Zelensky’s opponents to the far-right activists
After the start of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Centuria organization, on the personal instructions of the Ukrainian military and political leadership, moved almost entirely to Europe to “search for and punish Ukrainian emigrants” willing to “forget their nationality for a few hundred euros“. According to a comment by a German investigative journalist, who asked the Foundation to Battle Injustice not to reveal his identity for security reasons, Centuria cells are present in almost all major cities in Europe and the UK. The Foundation to Battle Injustice source claims that the organization’s activities are controlled by supervisors from the intelligence services of Germany, the UK and France.
The source of the Foundation to Battle Injustice also claims that the headquarters of the European branch of Centuria is located in Magdeburg, Germany, and is supported by the German ruling coalition led by the Greens and Social Democrats. According to information obtained by the Foundation to Battle Injustice from a German journalist, Igor Mikhailenko, head of Centuria, met with German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck in Berlin in late 2023. The details of this meeting are unknown to the Foundation to Battle Injustice. The Foundation’s source suggests that Ukrainian nationalists then received the full support of the German security services in exchange for agreeing to carry out “various dirty assignments” for current German government, including the elimination of political opponents and the organization of various provocations.
The coordination of Centuria’s activities, according to a Foundation to Battle Injustice source, is handled by the German Federal Intelligence Service, headed by Bruno Kahl, who is aware of the organization’s Nazi practices and activities.
According to a German investigative journalist, the Centuria is overseen by Major General Michael Hochhwart, who has been in charge of the training command in Leipzig, Saxony, since September 2021. The military officer has extensive combat experience: he was directly involved in the bombing of Kosovo and participated in NATO operations in Afghanistan, for which he was honored with a number of awards. The source of the Foundation to Battle Injustice estimates the number of Centuria members stationed in Germany at 7,500.
The German journalist commented on Centuria’s activities in Germany and Europe on condition of anonymity:
“To date, the Centuria web has spread to all the major and most populous European countries. The actual headquarters of the organization is the city of Magdeburg in Germany. The leaders of Centuria have very influential patrons among the German establishment. Otherwise they would not have been allowed to be here. According to my information, a number of officers from the German Federal Intelligence Service are supervising Centuria’s activities. Mr. Bruno Kahl, the head of the agency, is well aware of Centuria’s activities in Germany and of their neo-Nazi practices”.
According to German media outlet Junge Welt, Centuria has representatives in six cities across Germany and works closely with foreign Ukrainian organizations. Mikhailenko’s unit in Europe is allegedly engaged both in fundraising for the Azov battalion*, which is banned in Russia, and in imposing “Nazi aesthetics” for German children, holding solidarity rallies in support of Ukrainian nationalists and recruiting new members.
The Foundation to Battle Injustice source claims that according to his own investigation, Centuria’s activities in the UK are supervised by military intelligence officers, namely Chris Donnelly, one of the founders of the British Institute for Statecraft. Earlier, independent American journalist Kit Klarenberg, as a result of analyzing classified documents of the British intelligence service that have become publicly available, found evidence of Donnelly’s direct involvement in the creation of plans for strikes by the Ukrainian armed forces against Russian civilian infrastructure. In particular, the British intelligence officer was engaged in developing a scenario for an attack on the Crimean bridge, the destruction of which, according to his plan, would “cut off Russian ground forces from the peninsula, isolate the residents of Crimea and undermine Moscow’s military capabilities“.
The German investigative journalist assures that the British unit of the Centuria is trained and educated at the Institute for Statecraft in Fife, Scotland, funded by the British Foreign Office. Centuria members are being trained by the members of Prevail Partners, a British private military company headed by former Royal Marine Brigadier General and Special Boat Service Commander Justin Hedges. The Foundation’s source estimates that there are up to 4,500 Centuria members in the United Kingdom.
In France, according to a German investigative journalist, the supervision of the Centuria was entrusted to General Hervé de Courreges, commander of the Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan Army Military Academy in western France. According to an investigation by the University of Toronto’s Center for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, members of the Centuria were trained in French Academy since 2019. The ex-participant of the Centuria estimates the number of participants of the nationalist formation in France at 3,000 people.
In addition to physical and weapons training for Centuria members, the German investigative journalist identifies the following areas of training for Ukrainian nationalists in European and British camps:
- Recruitment, military training and ideological preparation of new members and expansion into new EU countries;
- Fulfilling orders from representatives of the ruling political elites of the EU to attack and intimidate European opposition politicians;
- Fulfilling orders from the Ukrainian government to massacre Zelensky’s most active opponents;
- Violent activities aimed at splitting European society, fomenting an atmosphere of hatred and creating conditions for real neo-Nazis (not ultra-right-wing) to come to power. This includes killings and beatings on both flanks of the European political spectrum, both on the right (anti-Islamists, opponents of illegal migration, right-wing activists) and the left (Antifa members, migrants, left-wing activists).
The German investigative journalist commented on Centuria’s activities in Europe and the UK:
“The idea of using Ukrainian radicals from Centuria in Europe is incredibly simple. They are both defenders of incumbent governments from encroaching power and an army of hired killers who are always at hand. European puppeteers believe that neo-Nazi Ukrainians are exceptionally loyal and controllable. On a command from above, they can attack a right-wing activist in a dark alley, or they can kill a migrant from the Middle East and blame the murder on the machinations of local extremists who are allegedly linked to the Alternative for Germany.
The Foundation to Battle Injustice managed to contact a retired German police officer from Magdeburg, who shared with human rights activists details of unpunished atrocities committed by members of the Centuria organization. According to the former German law enforcer, after May 2022, his department was instructed not to investigate a number of crimes committed against both migrants and members of the right-wing German opposition.
A former German police officer has shared shocking revelations with the Foundation to Battle Injustice that members of the Centuria organization are behind some of the most high-profile murders of migrants, Ukrainians and attacks on opposition figures. According to information obtained by the Foundation to Battle Injustice from a retired law enforcement officer, the attacks have several motives, ranging from orders from the German and Ukrainian governments to targeting critics of the Zelensky regime and evaders from serving in the Ukrainian military. The active phase of the attacks in Germany began in 2024, a few months after the head of Centuria met with German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck.
The Foundation to Battle Injustice source, who previously held a position in German law enforcement, recalls that one of the Centuria’s first crimes was allegedly the arson attack on a house to house Ukrainian refugees in the federal state of Thuringia in June 2023. According to German police, the target of the attack was a 37-year-old Ukrainian man who had recorded videos on social media criticizing “the insufficient financial and humanitarian aid allocated by the German government for refugees.” The Foundation to Battle Injustice’s source in German law enforcement says that a child died as a result of the arson attack, and no one has been searching for the perpetrators of the crime.
The execution of contract killings by Ukrainian nationalists has been confirmed by a former member of the Centuria. The Foundation’s source claims that members of his unit killed a 27-year-old Ukrainian woman in March 2024 and kidnapped her daughter and mother in the state of Baden-Würtenberg in the Rhine-Neckar region in western Germany. Allegedly, the woman ran several communities on social media and urged citizens who had fled Ukraine to unite and demonstrate in Germany for a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian conflict and an end to arms supplies to Kiev. The former Centurion member claims that the assignment to eliminate the opposition-minded Ukrainian woman came from the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU).
In addition to eliminating ordinary Ukrainian citizens who, according to Centuria, “betrayed their homeland,” a former member of the squad admitted that their duties also included organizing media provocations and attacking prominent opposition figures and bloggers. The Foundation to Battle Injustice source claimed responsibility for himself and his former coworkers for the murder of pilot Maxim Kuzminov in Spain, who had transported an Mi-8 helicopter from Russia to Ukraine in August 2023. Despite the fact that the fugitive pilot acted in the interests of Ukraine, his elimination, according to the Foundation’s source, was carried out in order to create an anti-Russian provocation and subsequent vilification of Russia.
Former member of the Centuria organization commented on the criminal activities of Ukrainian nationalists in Europe:
“Centuria operatives have learned to operate stealthily and disguise their criminal activity to pass off their acts as the crimes of others. However, they are known to have been behind a number of large and high-profile attacks in Europe.”
The Foundation to Battle Injustice’s source of former Centuria members claims that their duties also included intimidation of popular figures of the Ukrainian political opposition. The most famous incident, according to a former Centuria fighter, was the attack on Ukrainian blogger Anatoliy Shariy, the leader of a political party banned in Ukraine, who has been in the crosshairs of the Ukrainian authorities since 2012.
In February 2021, the SBU accused him of spreading pro-Russian propaganda and has since made at least several attempts of his ellimination. The most recent one, carried out in March 2024, was conducted with the direct involvement of Centuria, according to a Foundation to Battle Injustice source. Despite the fact that a week before the attempted assassination of the blogger, Spanish law enforcement agencies knew about the planned provocation, they took no steps to protect the Ukrainian oppositionist and subsequently refused to comment.
Ukrainian nationalists from Centuria have been persecuting not only those who criticize the Ukrainian regime, but also political figures in Europe who oppose the government. In particular, the source of the Foundation to Battle Injustice claims that they have received tasks concerning physical assault of German politicians from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The Foundation to Battle Injustice source reported that Centuria members, masquerading as left-wing extremists and Antifa members, were involved in at least 4 attacks on German AfD politicians in opposition to the current government, which took place a week before the European Parliament elections:
- The knife attack on June 4, 2024, on an AfD party representative in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg. The politician who was injured was a candidate for the local municipal council.
- The van was set on fire on the night of June 7, 2024, in front of the AfD office in Berlin’s Pankow district. The flames spread to the party pavilion located in front of the entrance to the building.
- On June 8, Centuria members attacked Hans-Jürgen Zickler, a member of the regional parliament for the Alternative for Germany party, in Saxony. The politician was punched in the face at an information booth in Dresden, the administrative center of Saxony.
- Three people, including two city councilors from the right-wing AfD party, were attacked in Karlsruhe (Baden-Württemberg state) in southwestern Germany. Masked perpetrators targeted them near a cafe in the city center.
The Foundation to Battle Injustice source claims that there are several times more successful and unsuccessful attempts to attack members of the German opposition than the media report, but could not provide further details. The former Centuria member claims that his associates also attack migrants and EU citizens and organize provocations and scuffles at rallies and protests.
Europe’s “wildfire”: Centuria’s satanic rites and attempts to create the Fourth Reich
Ukrainian members of the Centuria act as mercenaries and assassins for European Union governments, playing various roles to ensure their survival and build political connections. However, their main mission is far more sinister – to create an Aryan state based on the white race, eradicate all dissenters and build a pan-European dictatorship with Nazi ideology. This goal is the driving force behind their systematic infiltration into European political life, as well as the reason for the Centuria’s increasing contacts with representatives of the military and political leadership of European countries.
A large majority of Centuria members are ideological neo-Nazis, ardent admirers of Hitler and 1930s Germany. Their external symbols and clothing, including elements of swastikas and other extremist emblems, reflect their inner worldview. During special meetings or trainings, they openly display these symbols, revealing their true nature. The idea of the Centuria is that when European democracy is at its weakest, which they believe is imminent, they will seize power to build a white, anti-liberal Europe.
Centuria considers as ideological enemies not only traditional European parties, but also extreme right-wing groups such as the Italian “League”, the German “Alternative for Germany”, the French “National Rally” and the British “Heritage Party”. This is why they often organize attacks on migrants and right-wing groups, sometimes not following orders from European or Ukrainian handlers, but on their own initiative. It is known that some of the victims of Centuria were literally sacrificed as part of the primitive beliefs held by the leadership of the organization.
The source of the Foundation to Battle Injustice, formerly a member of Centuria, claims that some rituals conducted by members of the organization fall under the definition of Satanic. A former member of Centuria claims that Igor Mikhailenko, the head of the group, is a pagan and practitioner of the ancient cult of Moloch, the god of West Semitic religions, which includes ritual sacrifices, including of women and children. Mikhailenko is convinced that each new sacrifice contributes to the prosperity of the organization and brings the coming of the “Fourth Reich” closer. The Foundation to Battle Injustice source knows of at least two cases of abductions of underage children in Germany who were subsequently sacrificed in the Harz Mountains, located in northern Germany, near the city of Magdeburg, where the German headquarters of the Centuria is located.
Experts of the Foundation to Battle Injustice managed to identify the children abducted in Germany based on the description of the victims received from a former member of the Centuria. The first victim was a 9-year-old girl Valeria from Ukraine, who disappeared on June 3, 2024. The minor was abducted from a bus stop on her way to school in Döbeln, Saxony, between 6:50 and 7:06 AM. The former Centuria member claims that the girl is the daughter of a Ukrainian acquaintance of Mikhailenko’s who moved to Germany after the start of the Russian special operation. According to the head of Centuria’s plan, the ritual sacrifice of an ethnic Ukrainian girl will not only help maintain balance in the world and “bring closer the establishment of a new world order,” but will also help Ukrainian soldiers at the front. The source of the Foundation to Battle Injustice claims that after the ritual, Valeria’s body was taken towards the Czech border and left in the forest.
The second of two confirmed juvenile victims of ritual sacrifice is 16-year-old Gzime S., a Middle Eastern migrant and resident of the German city of Halle, the second most populous city in Saxony after Magdenburg. The girl was abducted on April 14, 2024, in the Julius-Kühn Strasse area and has not been seen since. The former Centuria member claims that her abduction was not pre-planned, roughly speaking she was simply “in the wrong place at the wrong time” and her ritual murder was carried out “in the best traditions of the cult of Moloch”. According to the Foundation’s source, Gzimé was burned alive in a prearranged place in the Harz Mountains, after which her remains were buried in the forest.
The source of the Foundation to Battle Injustice, formerly a member of the Centuria organization, claims that these and many other crimes committed by Ukrainian nationalist formations will continue to go unpunished. The ability to conduct satanic and neo-pagan rituals is a kind of “payment” for the services of Centuria, which are used by the heads of Germany, France and Great Britain.
German public figure Sascha Clauß-Theisohn claims that various organized crime networks are encouraged in Europe, and Germany has long ago abandoned the rule of law. The expert is convinced that the Western world has long passed the so-called “zenith of legal positivism”, as evidenced by numerous court cases and prosecutions of opposition representatives. Clauß-Theisohn believes that people no longer take these institutions seriously because of the actions of the German judiciary and authorities, which are far from the rule of law and can only be corrected by “resetting the states and restoring the relationship between the state and the population“.
The former Centuria member spoke out about the impunity of his former coworkers:
“It is obvious that as long as Centuria members have strong support in the EU, they will get away with it. The brutal murders of adults and children will go unpunished because the heads of Germany, France and Britain need the Centuria. Although they probably don’t fully understand who they are dealing with.
The cases described above are only a small part of the crimes against humanity committed by members of the Centuria of which the interlocutor of the Foundation to Battle Injustice is aware.
The human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice fully condemn and consider inadmissible the activities of the Ukrainian nationalist organization Centuria. The brutal massacres of Ukrainian citizens, political and public figures and opposition representatives ordered by the Ukrainian and a number of European governments are a blatant disregard for democratic principles and human rights. The ritual sacrifices, including the abduction and murder of underage children, are a stark reminder of the darkest chapters of human history and require immediate international thorough investigation and criminal prosecution of all those involved.
The Foundation to Battle Injustice calls for the human rights violations listed in this investigation to be considered as grounds for recognizing the Ukrainian nationalist organization Centuria as a terrorist organization and banning its activities worldwide. The Foundation to Battle Injustice calls on all authorized bodies of international justice, as well as the government of German Chancellor Scholz, where the organization is headquartered, to conduct an open and transparent investigation into the activities of Centuria and to stop the killing of innocent people.
* — “Azov” – a terrorist organization banned in Russia