Ukraine legalizes foreigners in AZOV neo-Nazi regiment

https://www.rt.com/russia/569816-ukraine-legalizes-foreigners-azov/ 13 Jan 23, Citizens of other nations who join the Azov unit will receive benefits on par with regular service members under a new law.

The Ukrainian parliament on Thursday passed a new law that expands perks offered to foreigners who sign up to serve in the country’s military. Sponsors of the bill specifically singled out the controversial Azov regiment as an intended beneficiary of the measure.

Azov originated as a group of far-right volunteers who in 2014 took up arms against Donbass forces with Kiev’s blessing. The unit was incorporated into the National Guard, a structure separate from the army, in November of that year.

The new legislation has added the wording “and other military units” to several laws that previously only covered the main Ukrainian armed forces. A formal justification of the bill said that there are many foreign nationals serving in Azov, but that the existing legal framework makes their presence in Ukraine illegal and does not allow them to request Ukrainian citizenship. The new law is meant to change that.

Azov is arguably the best known internationally of the Ukrainian nationalist units. Before the conflict between Moscow and Kiev escalated into open hostilities last February, Western officials and media outlets acknowledged that many of the unit’s members espoused problematic ideology and that some were neo-Nazis.

An expose published by Time magazine in 2021 called Azov the focal point of “a network of extremist groups stretching from California across Europe to New Zealand.” Over the years, it managed to recruit an estimated 17,000 foreign fighters from 50 nations, the report claimed, before describing the dominant role the Azov extremists play in the movement.

January 13, 2023 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Ukraine, weapons and war

3 Comments »

Ukraine has a law banning all fascist and communist symbols.

The symbols above are not “nazi symbols”. And azov is not a “neonazi regiment”. Do some research now and then before posting and oh, maybe provide proof to such statements and not just repeat 10 year old tired russian propaganda?

also “who in 2014 took up arms against Donbass forces”? What “donbass forces?” You mean the Russian soldiers who invaded and occupied Donbass and claimed to be local freedom fighters and formed a “people’s republic”?

oh, just noticed your “source” is literally Russia today. Hilarious.

Comment by Alex | January 21, 2025 | Reply
- Ii is not “hilarious” that my source on this occasion is Russian. I am well aware of Russian propaganda. It is tragic that the truth about Ukraine is so well suppressed by Western propaganda. What Donbass forces? Perhaps much of the Russian-speaking Donbass population, who were fed up with the oppressive regime of Kiev , that refused to give them access to public services, to pay civil servants’ salaries and pensions to the elderly and, ultimately, bombing their cities – all of which went on for the 8 years following the Minsk agreement – which was supposed to guarantee their status as an autonomous region within Ukraine.
  
  Comment by Christina Macpherson | January 21, 2025 | Reply
January 1st is a Ukrainian national holiday in commemoration of Stephen Bandera a self proclaimed nazi and the soldiers of Ukraine were allowed to continue using nazi insigniathere is a picture of zelensky personal guard with a totenkopf skull on his armor. it is so normalized even he didn’t have it remover.

azov continued using the insignia amd incorporated blacksun into their logo you are an apologist

Comment by This Guy | January 21, 2025 | Reply