Azov Battalion
 Azov Battalion    | |
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| Interest of | Andriy Biletsky, Adrien Bocquet, Sergey Korotkikh, Patrick Lancaster, Olena Semenyaka, Natalya Vovk, Maksym Zhorin |
Azov Special Operations Detachment aka Azov Battalion is a right-wing extremist and neo-Nazi unit of the National Guard of Ukraine, based in Mariupol, in the Azov Sea coastal region. The Azov Battalion saw its first combat experience recapturing Mariupol from pro-Russian separatist forces in June 2014. Azov initially formed as a volunteer militia on 5 May 2014 during the Odessa clashes and Azov was incorporated into the National Guard of Ukraine on 12 November 2014.[1]
In 2014, the Azov Battalion gained notoriety after allegations emerged of torture and war crimes, as well as neo-Nazi sympathies and usage of associated symbols by the regiment itself, as seen in their logo featuring the Wolfsangel, one of the original symbols used by the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich. In 2018, a provision in an appropriations bill passed by the US Congress blocked military aid to Azov on the grounds of its white supremacist ideology;[2] in 2015, a similar ban on aid to the group was overturned by the Congress.[3] Members of the regiment come from 22 countries and are of various backgrounds.
In 2017, the size of the Azov regiment was estimated at more than 2,500 members. Its first commander was far-right nationalist Andriy Biletsky, who led the neo-Nazi Social-National Assembly and Patriot of Ukraine. In its early days, Azov was a special police company of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, led by Volodymyr Shpara, the leader of the Vasylkiv, Kyiv, branch of Patriot of Ukraine and Right Sector.
In 2016, veterans of the regiment and members of a non-governmental organization named "Azov Civil Corps" created the political party National Corps.[4]
Related Quotations
| Page | Quote | Author | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corriere della Sera | “The atmosphere is permeated with partisan passion: people ready to die in order not to give up. They are the new models of this armed country, which is cultivating heroic myths to motivate the determination to keep fighting. Marginal and controversial until a few years ago, the Azov volunteers for many are now the example to follow, the inspiration for recruits and volunteers. "Ukraine is our mother and Stepan Bandera is our father", they sing in the second verse, referring to the founding leader of their movement (murdered by a KGB agent in Berlin in 1959), accused by pro-Russians of having collaborated with Nazi Germany to fight the Soviets during the Second World War, and which is now being re-evaluated by the resistance as a patriot of free, unredeemed and democratic Ukraine.” | Corriere della Sera Lorenzo Cremonesi | 5 May 2022 |
| Patrick Lancaster | “I mean I'm just I've been working here on this side of the contact line and the anti-Ukraine government territory so I've only been able to show what happened here, but what I've seen here with my own eyes is indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas year after year by Ukrainian forces. Indiscriminate and targeted in fact, just last month (..) two civilian electric plants targeted by Ukrainian forces. (...)
Now that the war is really hot attacks are coming in every hour, and I mean the only thing that's being shown in the west is the results of Russian attacks on Ukraine, but what the west isn't showing is every day here in Donetsk there is attacks from Ukraine controlled territory Ukraine attacking the civilian population here. In the last 12 days there has been 19 civilians killed. I mean it's not a huge amount like across Ukraine right now but in the last 12 days in the Donetsk people's republic controlled territory there's been 19 civilians killed and I believe 27 injured and these are results of Ukrainian attacks on mostly civilian areas of course battle's been raging on the front line since this new development happened and even before, but so you know a lot of the shells are hitting civilian areas and I assume a lot are hitting military areas as well... Those aren't as free to report on as the other ones.” | Patrick Lancaster Cyrus Janssen | 2022 |
Employee on Wikispooks
| Employee | Job | Appointed | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olena Semenyaka | Head of the International Outreach Office | 2019 | "a formidable power behind the throne" |
Related Documents
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:NATO goes to war against Russia | Statement | 1 March 2022 | World Socialist Web Site | There must be a new mass anti-war movement, based on the international working class. This opposition, however, must be developed as a conscious political movement for socialism. This means the building of the International Committee of the Fourth International and its affiliated Socialist Equality Parties in every country. |
| Document:War Crimes | Article | 9 October 2022 | Jacob Dreizin | An article that was written on the occurrence of the disposal of civilians posted in video by Maksim Zhorin. |
| File:My Encounter with Ukrainian-American Nazi Mark Paslawsky.pdf | article | 2 September 2014 | George Eliason | The encounter that G. Eliason had with Mark Paslawsky and what it means for him. |
References
This page imported content from Wikipedia on 1 March 2022.Wikipedia is not affiliated with Wikispooks. Original page source here
