USA

The United States has raised restrictions to provide weapons and training for the Ukrainian high -profile military unit in the Azov Brigade. The United States Department of State confirmed on Monday that the unit, which has played an important role in Ukraine’s effort to repel the current Invasion launched by Russia In February 2022, it could now be trained by US military personnel and use weapons provided by the United States.

The measure of the State Department reversed a prohibition of a decade imposed on the forces of Azov under the law of Leahy, which prohibits the United States from providing weapons or financial assistance “to the units of foreign security forces where there is credible information that implies that unity in the commission of disgusting violations of human rights.”

The State Department said it had concluded that “there was no evidence of serious violation of human rights committed by the 12th Azov Brigade.”

The Azov Brigade was initially a voluntary force that jumped to fame in 2014, when the Russian forces first crossed the Eastern Ukraine border and began to take advantage of the earth. The following year, he joined the Ukraine National Guard. Now you will have access to the same US military assistance Like any other unit in the National Guard.

According to the Washington Post, American assistance to the Azov unit was prohibited under Leahy’s law approximately a decade, for concerns about its founder, the ultra nationalist Andriy Bilatsky and other members who have Nazi sympathies. Some members of what was then known as the Azov battalion was described as extreme right and xenophobic, a narrative that has been repeatedly promoted by Russian propaganda Campaigns to justify the invasion of Ukraine.

The State Department did not say when the ban was raised, but a spokesman said on Monday that the original unit had dissolved years ago and that the investigation of the current brigade had not found evidence of human rights violations of human rights, which caused the restrictions to be eliminated.

The Azov Brigade published a statement on social networks welcoming a “new page in history” for unity, saying that “obtaining Western weapons and training from the United States will not only increase Azov’s combat capacity, but most importantly, it will contribute to the preservation of the lives and health of the staff.”

In 2022, the Superior Court of Russia officially appointed the Azov unit as a terrorist group, and speaking on Tuesday in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “such a sudden change in Washington’s position shows that he will do anything to suppress Russia … even with neo-nazis.”

Azov’s forces played a key role in the defense of the southern city of Mariupolrefusing to give up for 80 days as they were Adjusting an expanding steel factory with small ammunition and under Russian artillery fire, before eventually Place your weapons.

In Ukraine, Azov troops have become a powerful Ukrainian resistance symbol in the war against Russia, and many remain in Russian captivity.

Camilla Schick contributed to this report.

• Ukraine
• Russia