Brian McDonald
The United States has lifted restrictions on the supply of weapons and training to the high-level Ukrainian military unit, the Azov Brigade. The US State Department confirmed on Monday that the unit, which played a significant role in Ukraine’s effort to repel the ongoing attack invasion launched by Russia in February 2022, they could now be trained by US military personnel and use US-supplied weapons.
The State Department’s move reversed a decade-old ban imposed on Azov forces under the Leahy Lawwhich prohibits the US from providing weapons or financial assistance “to units of foreign security forces where there is credible information implicating that unit in the commission of serious human rights violations.”
The State Department said it concluded that “there was no evidence of a serious human rights violation committed by the 12th Azov Brigade.”
The Azov Brigade was initially a volunteer force that rose to prominence in 2014 when Russian forces first crossed Ukraine’s eastern border and began seizing land. The following year, he was integrated into the Ukrainian National Guard. Now you will have access to the same US military assistance like any other National Guard unit.
According to The Washington Post, US assistance to the Azov unit was barred under the Leahy Act about a decade ago due to concerns about its founder, ultranationalist Andriy Biletsky, and other members having Nazi sympathies. Some members of what was then known as the Azov Battalion were described as being far-right and xenophobic – a narrative that has been repeatedly promoted by Russian propaganda campaigns to justify the invasion of Ukraine.
The State Department did not say when the ban was lifted, but a spokesman said Monday that the original unit was disbanded years ago and that the current brigade’s investigation found no evidence of serious human rights violations, which led to the abandonment of restrictions.
ROMAN PILIPEY/AFP via Getty Images
The Azov Brigade posted a declaration on social media welcoming a “new page in history” for the unit, saying that “obtaining Western weapons and training from the United States will not only increase Azov’s combat capability, but, most importantly, will contribute to the preservation of the lives and health of personnel.”
In 2022, Russia’s top court officially designated the Azov unit as a terrorist group and, speaking Tuesday in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that “such a sudden change in Washington’s position shows that will do anything to repress Russia… even flirt with neo-Nazis.”
Azov forces played a key role in defending the city of Mariupolrefusing to surrender for 80 days, as they were hidden in a sprawling steel mill with little ammunition and under heavy Russian artillery fire, before finally laying down their weapons.
In Ukraine, Azov troops became a powerful symbol of Ukrainian resistance in the war against Russia, and many remain in Russian captivity.
Oleksii Samsonov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
–Camilla Schick contributed reporting.
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