meanwhile Azov in 2018:

Explaining that strategy, [Olena] Semenyaka, who has been photographed holding a flag with a swastika and making a Nazi salute, said that "more radical" language was used previously, such as during the height of the war in 2014, when the Azov Battalion needed fighters, "because it was required by the situation."

Now, she said, the strategy is to "moderate" in order to appeal to a broader base in Ukraine and abroad. But only to an extent.

"We are trying to become mainstream without compromising some of our core ideas," she continued, adding that "radical statements...scare away more of society."