Former Conservative MP Jack Lopresti has joined the far-Right Ukrainian Azov Brigade. Announcing the news on X this morning, he said: “I am honored to begin my service with the 12th Special Forces Brigade “Azov” of the National Guard of Ukraine, a unit that has become a symbol of resilience and uncompromising principle.”

Lopresti, who represented Filton and Bradley Stoke between 2010 and 2024, last year signed up to the Ukrainian military in its war effort against Russia. He initially volunteered with the International Legion of Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, having served in the British Army Reserve, including five months in Helmand Province in Afghanistan, before his political career.

Azov, founded in 2014 as the Azov Battalion, has been heavily involved in Ukraine’s war effort, notably during the unsuccessful defense of Mariupol in 2022. Its founder, Andriy Biletsky, was previously the leader of the neo-Nazi group Patriot of Ukraine, and has claimed that Ukraine should “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade […] against Semite-led Untermenschen”. Azov has been linked to far-Right extremists not only domestically but also in Russia and the United States, and until 2022 the group used the neo-Nazi wolfsangel on its badges.

Posting on social media today, Lopresti stated that “Azov is built on principle, discipline, and brotherhood. To be an Azov fighter is to hold yourself to the highest standard, to put the mission above self.” Calling the brigade a “benchmark for modern warfare”, he added: “the Ukrainian military is not only defending its own sovereignty, it is also the frontline guarantee of Europe’s security.”

Serving as an intelligence officer in the Ukrainian military, Lopresti witnessed frontline action in the Donbas and volunteered during air raids. In a Times interview last year, he argued that “Europe collectively really does need to step up. Increasing defense spending in three years’ time, that’ll be too late.”

British and American politicians have previously been associated with Azov. In 2024, at an event at the Reform Club in London, former British prime minister Boris Johnson posed with fighters from the brigade, whom he labeled “heroes”. He told attendees: “We should not believe a single word of Putin’s propaganda about the Azov Brigade […] The incredible things you have done. You are fighting for all of Ukraine, for the very idea of democracy, and therefore you are fighting for everyone in this country.” Lopresti was also present, as was former defense secretary Ben Wallace and former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith.

In 2022, fighters from the brigade spoke at a Stanford University event alongside former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. That same year, an Azov delegation traveled to Washington and met members of Congress including California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and Mike Waltz, who was a Florida representative at the time and now serves as Donald Trump’s Ambassador to the United Nations. In 2018, the US Congress banned sending arms to the Azov Battalion on account of the group’s neo-Nazi roots.