Ukraine’s elite Azov unit, which led the defence of Mariupol in 2022, was excluded from the latest United States military aid package because of its historical ties to right-wing extremists, The Times reports.
Fighters of the Azov Regiment confronted insurmountable obstacles for three months in 2022. Their fierce defence of the southern port city, culminating in a final attack on the Azovstal steel plant, became a symbol of Ukraine’s determination to stand up to Russian forces.
The unit, reconstituted as the 12th Azov Special Forces Brigade, is now fighting on the front line in the Serebryansky Forest near Liman as Russia attacks Ukrainian positions in the east of the country.
Unlike regular Ukrainian troops, Azov fighters will be denied supplies from the next US shipment of weapons, including artillery shells, armoured vehicles and communications equipment. The $61 billion aid package was passed by Congress ten days ago after months of stalemate.
Azov has been banned from receiving US weapons since 2017 due to allegations from a decade ago of ties to neo-Nazis. The blocking of American aid has sparked anger among the leadership and fighters of the unit, which is considered heroic and elite in Ukraine.
In addition, the volunteer brigade now includes fighters from different ethnic and religious groups, including Jewish soldiers.
“Raccoon”, a 36-year-old Jewish bookseller from Dnipro who is serving as a member of an Azov 152mm howitzer gun team east of Lyman, said:
“How can Azov be a neo-Nazi unit when there are so many Jews in its ranks? I joined the unit for its professionalism and military ethos, and I’ve never had any prejudice from any of my brother soldiers.”
Brigade officers feel discouraged that the US ban has prevented one of Ukraine’s most experienced units from training with NATO forces in Europe. Illia Samoilenko, a staff officer with the brigade who was authorised to speak about the ban by his commander, Colonel Denys Prokopenko, who led the defence of Azovstal, said:
“We don’t care about the lack of US money or funding — we care much more about being prevented from any ability to train with Nato units outside Ukraine. We are one of few units in Ukraine whose soldiers, NCOs and officers are of Nato standard, yet as a result of the prohibition, we are starved of US weapons and excluded from having any presence in exercises or training packages with American or Nato armies in Europe.”
Prokopenko, 32, who was awarded the Hero of Ukraine medal for his actions near Mariupol, called the USA ban “nonsense” in a message to X ahead of the congressional vote. He wrote:
“Such amendments and prohibitions not only prevent Azov from performing its combat missions more effectively but are a blow to the defence capability of our country.”
The ban on US aid to Azov is a legacy of the unit’s controversial history. The unit was formed as the Azov Battalion in 2014 by various nationalist and right-wing groups, including the right-wing Right Sector coalition and the ultra-nationalist Patriot of Ukraine organisation, whose leader, Andriy Biletsky, was the battalion’s founder and first commander.
At the time, Biletsky, who remains a controversial figure in Ukraine, was an unabashed right-wing extremist and racist whose writings include the 2013 pamphlet “The Word of the White Leader.”
In September 2014, the battalion was re-formed into a regiment and incorporated into the Ukrainian National Guard. A month later, Biletsky left the unit and his influence faded. He also failed to turn his ideology into a political success. In the 2019 parliamentary elections, Biletsky’s political party, the National Corps, failed to win a single seat.
By the time the fighting for Mariupol began, the Azov Regiment had changed its original ethos. Under the command of Colonel Prokopenko, it turned into a multicultural military elite, abandoning its far-right ideology.
Another Azov artilleryman, a 26-year-old sergeant codenamed “Bulba” serving with the same artillery unit as Raccoon, said:
“I joined to be a loyal warrior to Ukraine, inspired by the deeds of Azov in Mariupol. There are people here from both the right and left sides of the political spectrum, just as there are in the US army. Neither race nor religion nor political ideology is very relevant between our soldiers fighting in this war.”
Samoilenko, who by the time he and Colonel Prokopenko were captured during the surrender of Mariupol was already missing an arm and an eye, called the neo-Nazis idiots. He said:
“Some of the original shady elements and weirdos in Azov’s foundation days might have thought that Ukrainian independence could be manifested through neo-Nazism, which was idiotic. They were the ones who caused us the original trouble and yet they have nothing to do with the unit now.”
Almost destroyed near Mariupol, the Azov Regiment was re-formed last year, this time into the 12th Azov Special Forces Brigade. Prokopenko, who has legendary status among his fighters, was released from a Russian prison in September 2022, first in exile in Turkey. Returning to Ukraine last July, he once again led the unit.
More than 900 of his fighters captured near Mariupol remain imprisoned in Russia, where the Azov Regiment has been declared a terrorist organisation.
Interestingly, although the brigade continues to suffer from ties to Biletsky, its founder is not subject to such sanctions. He now commands the 3rd Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian army, one of the most popular and well-equipped military formations in the country, the core of which is made up of many former Azov fighters.
By dropping the word “Azov” from the brigade’s name, the unit appears to have avoided a US ban on military aid. Despite this, Azov fighters remain reluctant to criticise Biletsky and his unit – a caution born more out of a sense of shared camaraderie with many 3rd Brigade fighters than out of affection for its commander. Samoilenko said:
“Soldier to soldier and officer to officer, we have good relations with the 3rd Brigade. We don’t like to criticise them, any more than we’d want to shit in our own bortsch.”
