World Courant
1 hour in the past
By Yaroslav Lukiv, BBC information
AFP through Getty Photos
The Azov Brigade is taken into account one in all Ukraine’s best fight items
The US has lifted its long-standing ban on arms provides and coaching to Ukraine’s Azov Brigade, whose origins had been mired in controversy over alleged hyperlinks to far-right teams.
A Overseas Workplace spokesperson advised the BBC {that a} vetting course of discovered “no proof of gross human rights abuses” by the brigade.
The Azov Brigade, now a unit inside Ukraine’s Nationwide Guard, applauded the transfer, saying Russia’s “lies… suffered a devastating blow.”
Moscow condemned the choice, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying the US was “even keen to flirt with neo-Nazis” to suppress Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly made false claims a few “neo-Nazi regime” in Kiev, in search of first to overturn the annexation of the southern peninsula of Crimea and help for pro-Moscow fighters within the east in 2014. justify, after which launch its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Talking on situation of anonymity, the State Division spokesperson advised the BBC that Washington utilized a vetting course of to Ukraine’s twelfth Particular Forces Azov Brigade Nationwide Guard and located “no proof of gross human rights violations.”
“Russian disinformation seeks to merge the Ukrainian Nationwide Guard unit of the twelfth Particular Forces Brigade Azov with a militia fashioned to defend Ukraine towards the 2014 Russian invasion, referred to as the ‘Azov Battalion,’” the spokesperson added to.
Underneath the US ‘Leahy Act’, backed in 1997 by then-Senator Patrick Leahy, a discovering {that a} overseas navy unit has dedicated gross human rights violations means it may be minimize off from US navy assist.
The US authorities says that in implementing the legislation it considers torture, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and rape to be such violations.
EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
Azov fighters are seen by many in Ukraine as nationwide heroes
Reacting to the US choice, the Azov Brigade mentioned in an announcement: “The lies about Azov, which the Kremlin regime has been spreading within the West for years, have suffered a devastating blow immediately.
“Receiving Western weapons and coaching from the US is not going to solely improve Azov’s fight functionality, however most significantly contribute to preserving the lives and well being of the brigade’s personnel.”
A volunteer militia battalion referred to as Azov was initially fashioned in Could 2014 to fight Russian-backed forces in Ukraine’s jap Donbas area. Later that yr it was briefly integrated as a separate regiment into the Ukrainian Ministry of Inner Affairs earlier than being transferred to the Nationwide Guard.
Some members of the unique battalion had been mentioned to have had ties to far-right and ultranationalist teams on the time, however numerous them, together with the primary commander, later left the unit.
The US banned the regiment from receiving American weapons due to its alleged ties to the far proper.
In 2016, a UN report accused the Azov regiment of “looting civilian property, resulting in displacement” in jap Ukraine.
The present management of the Azov Brigade says its members don’t have any ties to far-right organizations or different extremist teams – a declare that has not been independently verified.
Azov fighters are seen by many in Ukraine as nationwide heroes for spending months defending the southern metropolis of Mariupol towards a brutal Russian assault.
The port on the Sea of Azov was ultimately captured by Moscow in Could 2022.
Many Azov troopers proceed to be held as prisoners of struggle by Russia, amid allegations that Ukrainians have been subjected to torture in captivity.
Ros Atkins on… Putin’s false ‘Nazi’ claims, in a 2022 video
