Washington Post: The Biden administration will allow a Ukrainian military unit with a checkered past to use U.S. weaponry, the State Department said Monday, having lifted a ban imposed years ago amid concerns in Washington about the group’s origins.

“The Azov Brigade, known for its tenacious but ultimately unsuccessful defense of the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol early in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, is regarded as a particularly effective fighting force. But it was barred about a decade ago from using American arms because U.S. officials determined that some of its founders espoused racist, xenophobic and ultranationalist views, and U.N. human rights officials accused the group of humanitarian violations,” the Post writes.

To be sure, Azov is a neo-Nazi militarized group who trains to kills “Russian swines” - back in 2022 I’ve posted some pictures here from Azov training base in Mariupol. It was at the time when battle for Mariupol was still on – later, around 2000 Azov fighters surrendered.

In 2022 WaPo described Azov as “far-right nationalist Ukrainian paramilitary and political movement” while describing how Azov has been recruiting militans among neo-Nazi in Europe. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/03/14/neo-nazi-ukraine-war/

Much before 2022, international media was OK to call Azov batallion “neo-Nazi” and critically report on their training methods and the reliance on them of Kyiv’s regular army and political leadership

@RussiaWire