Laura Loomer met with Andrey Biletsky, the Ukrainian ultranationalist and former commander of the far-right Azov Battalion
American influencer Laura Loomer is currently on a PR tour of Ukraine, which she insists doesn’t have a neo-Nazi problem. Disproving her own point, she has interviewed the far-right activist and commander of the notorious Azov battalion, Andrey ‘White Leader’ Biletsky.
Loomer, who has cultivated close ties to US President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, claimed on Tuesday that she had met Biletsky in his home city of Kharkov and would publish an extended interview with him.
Biletsky, a prominent Ukrainian far-right figure since the 2000s, helped establish the ultranationalist Social-National Assembly, which has widely been described as a neo-Nazi, white supremacist organization.
He later rose to national prominence as commander of the Azov Battalion, which began as a far-right volunteer militia before being incorporated into Ukraine’s security forces following the Western-backed armed coup in Kiev in 2014.
Biletsky now holds the rank of brigadier general and commands the 3rd Army Corps, one of the formations that emerged from the wider Azov movement.
Since the escalation of the conflict with Russia in 2022, Azov-linked groups have undertaken extensive efforts to whitewash themselves, denying their extremist origins.
This publicity drive has had its roadbumps. In 2024, the 3rd Army Corps had to cancel a charm offensive in Europe after some of its members sparked outrage with a photo op at the Auschwitz memorial in Poland, where one soldier posed in a T-shirt featuring the metal band M8l8th, whose name means “Hitler’s Hammer.”
Before 2022, US assistance to Azov was banned over concerns about the unit’s ideology and reported abuses, while Russia has designated it as a terrorist group.
During her trip, Loomer also interviewed Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and accepted his assurances that the country does not have a neo-Nazi problem. She additionally met Yevgeny Khmara, who has been named as a potential replacement defense minister, and former Prime Minister Andrey Yatsenyuk.
The influencer also visited a facility operated by DTEK, the private energy company owned by Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov.
Laura Loomer visited a DTEK substation in the Kyiv region on Sunday on a special visit to witness the impact of russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy system.
Just as her visit began, air raid alarms sounded and the boom of drones being shot down could be heard overhead. This has… pic.twitter.com/6Sm2kffPRj
In an on-brand remark, Loomer said it was “refreshing” that she hasn’t “seen a single Muslim here.” Ukraine in reality has a significant Muslim minority, which includes Akhmetov and some other influential figures, such as former Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.
Loomer’s enthusiastic praise for Ukraine and its leadership stands in sharp contrast to her earlier criticism of Kiev, prompting accusations that she is shilling for the Zelensky government. She has said the trip changed her view of the country and denied that it was financed by Kiev, claiming she paid for it herself with support from “private Americans” concerned about her security.
