The Embassy of Ukraine in Spain has stated this Friday that no member of the far-right group Núcleo Nacional has received “any kind of instruction or military training” in the 12th Brigade of Special Forces Azov of the National Guard, and that they also “do not provide service in this unit.”
In its official note, the Ukrainian mission highlights the “exceptional courage and resilience” of the personnel that make up the Azov Brigade, stressing their actions during the siege of Mariúpol and in different combat operations in the region of Donetsk, where, as it recalls, they have “defended Ukraine and all of Europe against Russian aggression.”
The statement is released after the National Police’s large-scale operation in which 14 members of Núcleo Nacional were arrested and after the case file includes a police report that states that members of this organization would have received paramilitary training in Ukrainian territory.
In a judicial ruling, the judge of the Court of Investigation number 1 of Gijón ordered the suspension of Núcleo Nacional’s activities, the closure of its premises, and the blocking of both the content disseminated on social media and the bank account linked to the detainees.
These precautionary measures are added to those already imposed on the main defendants who appeared before the court in Gijón: prohibition on leaving Spain, withdrawal of their passport, and the obligation to appear every Friday in court.
The judge considers there to be indications of possible crimes of incitement to hatred, criminal association, and unlawful possession of weapons, the latter attributed to all of the defendants.
Regarding the armaments, the judicial information details that the charge for unlawful possession is not based on the firearms seized, since nearly all of the suspects have a license and the weapons appear in their corresponding permits, but rather on the intervention of various prohibited weapons, such as brass knuckles and Taser pistols.
This Thursday, the National Police released images of more than two dozen firearms seized from Núcleo Nacional, along with abundant ammunition and numerous bladed weapons, Tasers, and extendable batons, in addition to various paraphernalia linked to supremacist radical ideology.
According to the investigation by the General Information Police Station (CGI), Núcleo Nacional was dedicated to recruiting and indoctrinating young people and minors to push them to carry out "acts of hate, discrimination, and incitement to violence against other vulnerable groups".
In the police operation deployed on November 6, 14 arrests were carried out in Madrid (5), Valladolid (2), Asturias (3), Guadalajara (1), Pontevedra (1), Burgos (1) and Alicante (1), in addition to twelve searches, including that of the group’s central headquarters in Madrid. The arrested individuals are accused of crimes of illegal association and of hate against different vulnerable groups, as well as crimes with an antagonistic ideology.
The investigation by the General Information Police Station of the National Police has also reflected that members of this neo-Nazi group received paramilitary training in Ukraine.