On July 9, 2014, a well-known Russian nationalist, Roman (Zukhel) Zheleznov, arrived at Boryspil Airport near Kiev, Ukraine.

Zheleznov arrived on a flight from Warsaw and declared to the border guards that he was preparing to fight for the Ukrainian army and request Ukrainian citizenship. Zheleznov is on the wanted list in Russia. He was met in the Kiev airport by representatives of Ukrainian neo-Nazi group “Social-National Assembly” (SNA), whose leaders comprise the leadership of the special battalion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine known as “Azov.” 

According to the media, “Ukrainian activists who met Zukhel explained that he and his people were actively involved in the events of the Euromaidan. Now he is being persecuted in Russia, but in Zukhel’s biography there are dark spots, convictions.”

“In Europe, I learned that my house was searched on June 27, and that I am suspected of “hooliganism” for staging rallies against the war in Ukraine. I plan to get Ukrainian citizenship and join the ranks of the battalion ‘Azov,’” Zheleznov declared to the media.

Zheleznov got into Ukraine on his second try. On July 8, he was denied entry to Ukraine in connection with the ban on entry for Russian male citizens between ages 16 and 60.

Let’s recall that, in late summer 2009, Zheleznov was sentenced to four years in a penal colony for assaulting a person: in January 2009, he shot a minor, Matvey Tal, with a stun gun. On November 4, 2012, and May 1, 2013, he led a column of Wotanjugend at “Russian March” and "Russian May Day”. On May 26, 2013, he was arrested for attempting to steal two kilograms of meat (totaling 2,300 rubles) in the supermarket "Ashan" (according to other sources - Metro). On November 29, 2013, the Nikulinsky district court of Moscow sentenced Zukhel to ten months of imprisonment.