By SRH,
The State Department has supplied Ukraine’s ultranationalist and neo-Nazi Azov Brigade with US weapons. Previously, the unit’s vicious ideology prohibited weaponry flow.
The CIA told the Washington Post on Monday, “After thorough review, Ukraine’s 12th Special Forces Azov Brigade passed Leahy vetting as carried out by the US Department of State,” referring to legislation that bans military aid to human rights violators.
The State Department found “no evidence” of Azov’s infractions.
Ukrainian officials made lifting the ban “a top priority” in their lobbying, the Post reported.
The Western-backed Kiev coup in 2014 created Azov, a volunteer brigade that fought the Donbass breakaway republics. Current and past ultranationalist, neo-Nazi, and far-right football hooligans.
In the 2000s, unit co-founder Andrey Biletsky was a white nationalist. He has recently softened his language and denied neo-Nazi links. However, many Azov fighters have Nazi tattoos and emblems. World War II German divisions like the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich utilized the Wolfsangel insignia on their banners, which the brigade still does.
The battalion joined Ukraine’s National Guard in 2015 and has developed tremendously.
The US Congress banned arms sales to the Azov Brigade in 2018 because of its neo-Nazi affiliations. California Democrat Ro Khanna stated that white supremacy and neo-Nazism are repugnant and have no place in our civilization.
ADL, which fights anti-Semitism and monitors hate groups, called the unit a “Ukrainian extremist group” with ties to Atomwaffen and other European white supremacist groups in 2019. In late 2022, the ADL emailed The Grayzone that Azov was no longer a “far-right group it once was.”
During the 2022 siege of Mariupol, numerous Azov fighters surrendered to Russian soldiers. The unit is accused of war crimes, including torture and civilian killing, by Moscow. Source: RT
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