US lifts weapons ban on Ukraine's Azov brigade

The US has lifted its long-standing ban on weapons provides and coaching to Ukraine’s Azov brigade, whose origins had been mired in controversy over alleged hyperlinks to far-right teams.

A state division spokesman informed the BBC a vetting course of “discovered no proof of gross violations of human rights (GVHR)” by the brigade.

Azov, now a unit inside Ukraine’s Nationwide Guard, hailed the transfer, saying Russia’s “lies… acquired a devastating blow”.

Moscow condemned the choice, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying the US was “even ready to flirt with neo-Nazis” to suppress Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly made false claims a couple of “neo-Nazi regime” in Kyiv to attempt to justify first the annexation of Ukraine’s southern Crimea peninsula and backing of pro-Moscow fighters within the east in 2014, after which his full-scale invasion launched in 2022.

Talking on the situation of anonymity, the state division spokesman informed the BBC that Washington utilized a vetting course of to the Nationwide Guard of Ukraine’s twelfth Particular Forces Azov Brigade and “discovered no proof of gross violations of human rights dedicated”.

“Russian disinformation makes an attempt to conflate Ukraine’s Nationwide Guard Unit of twelfth Particular Forces Brigade Azov with a militia shaped to defend Ukraine in opposition to Russia’s invasion in 2014, referred to as the ‘Azov Battalion’.

Underneath America’s “Leahy Regulation”, sponsored in 1997 by then-Senator Patrick Leahy, a discovering {that a} international army unit has dedicated gross violations of human rights means it may be reduce off from US army help.

The US authorities says it considers torture, extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance and rape as such sorts of violations when implementing the regulation.

Reacting to the US determination, Azov stated in an announcement: “The lies about Azov, which the Kremlin regime have been spreading within the West for years, acquired a devastating blow at the moment.

“Receiving Western weapons and coaching from the US is not going to solely improve the fight functionality of Azov, however most significantly, will contribute to the preservation of the lives and well being of the personnel of the brigade.”

A volunteer militia battalion referred to as Azov was initially arrange in Might 2014 to battle Russian-backed forces in Ukraine’s jap Donbas area. Later that 12 months it was briefly included as a separate regiment in Ukraine’s inside ministry earlier than being transferred to the Nationwide Guard.

Some members of the unique battalion had been reported to have had hyperlinks to far-right and ultra-nationalist teams on the time – however quite a lot of them, together with the primary commander, later left the unit.

The US banned the regiment from receiving US weapons for the alleged hyperlinks to the far proper.

In 2016, a UN report accused the Azov regiment of “looting of civilian property, resulting in displacement” in jap Ukraine.

The present management of the Azov brigade says its members haven’t any ties to far-right organisations or some other extremist teams – a declare that has not been independently verified.

Azov fighters are seen by many in Ukraine as nationwide heroes for defending for months the southern metropolis of Mariupol from a brutal Russian assault.

The port on the Sea of Azov was finally taken by Moscow in Might 2022.

Many Azov troopers are nonetheless being held by Russia as prisoners of conflict, amid accusations that the Ukrainians have been subjected to torture in captivity.