**The National Resistance** (NR) is an Odesa-founded organization with an active activist core in Kyiv. Together with other far-right groups, it is involved in disrupting feminist activities, criticizing ‘cultural Marxism’ and calling for the fight against anti-fascists. At the rallies, they count up to 10–15 people.
The official head of the organization is **Serhiy Khodiak**, the only ‘pro-Ukrainian’ one who is suspected of committing a crime after the tragedy on May 2, 2014, in Odesa. According to the investigation, he shot a ‘pro-Russian’ participant of the Odesa march, wounded a police officer and several passers-by. Currently, Khodiak is at large without pre-trial restrictions. The judges are refusing to issue a sentence in his case. After he was released from any restrictions, Khodiak managed to commit another offense, which resulted in a police officer being injured.
**Oleksiy “Stalker” Svynarenko** is the most active member of the Kyiv branch of the National Resistance. During the war on Donbas, he fought in the St Mary’s battalion and in the infamous Shakhtarsk volunteer battalion. The latter subsequently formed the basis of the Tornado battalion, whose members are responsible for numerous war crimes. On his social media page, Svynarenko stated that he was involved in the murder of at least two Berkut members, however, after the investigation began, he retracted his words. Oleksiy Svynarenko is the chief administrator of the right-wing Telegram channel “Volier” (Enclosure), which publishes photos and personal information of left-wing activists, anti-fascists, members of the LGBT+community and people, critical of far-right civic activists, to easily target them.
Over time, the organization’s activity in Odesa almost disappeared. In Kyiv, however, the National Resistance, despite its small number of members, became one of the main actors in the street confrontation. Members of the National Resistance have repeatedly taken part in rallies against left-wing activists, feminists, and LGBT+ events. They also attacked subcultural youth, bars, and clubs in Podil district in Kyiv, usually together with members of other far-right organizations. At the annual UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) March, the main public event for nationalists, in 2020 and 2021, they unfurled the banner “White lives matter”.
Members of the National Resistance, unlike most Ukrainian nationalists, also directly criticize the EU and so-called Western values. Svynarenko repeatedly appeared at the rallies with the crossed-out EU flag, and also organized a conference dedicated to Soros.
