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Ukraine’s nationalist Azov fighters, once sanctioned by US, strive to clear name

For the Azov team awaiting front-line casualties in its fortified dugout, the conversation shifts from paramedic chitchat to a dramatic change in U.S. policy that lifted restrictions on the fighting unit.

It’s a critical development for a brigade whose controversial antecedent included members with links to far-right groups and alleged neo-Nazi sympathies. But in June, a U.S. State Department vetting process found “no evidence” that Azov had engaged in gross human rights violations, allowing Azov fighters to participate in Western training and use weapons purchased with U.S. funds.

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Ukraine’s Azov Brigade has been much maligned, especially by Russia, for a Nazi-tainted past. But today its renowned fighters proudly and emphatically assert their modern self-definition as patriotic nationalists with a broad appeal.

Azov reached legendary status across Ukraine for the against-all-odds defense of Mariupol in 2022. The soldier-medics in the dugout blame Russian propaganda for maligning their brigade, and say that right-wing connections of early Azov members diminished years ago and are not relevant.

Today Azov units include Jews, Muslims, and other Ukrainian minorities.

“It’s very important to tell about Azov,” says anesthetist Roman Shtybel, who says he has never heard or “felt” neo-Nazi inclinations in Azov.

“We have this idea of the Ukrainian nation, like keeping and preserving Ukrainian nationality,” says an Azov soldier who declined to be named. “That is what we fight for. … We take everyone who feels they are Ukrainian – this is the most important.”

For the Azov Brigade team awaiting front-line casualties in its fortified dugout, the day begins at dawn with a barrage of seven Russian missiles and then seven Grad rockets.

The barrage starts fires that must be put out.

“Now we spend more time as firefighters,” quips anesthetist Roman Shtybel, at this first stop for Ukrainian soldiers severely wounded on the front line. Hours after the Russian attack, some fires still smolder, and smoke filters among the tall pines in eastern Ukraine’s Kreminna Forest.

Why We Wrote This

A story focused on

Ukraine’s Azov Brigade has been much maligned, especially by Russia, for a Nazi-tainted past. But today its renowned fighters proudly and emphatically assert their modern self-definition as patriotic nationalists with a broad appeal.

Inside the bunker, its thick log ceiling protecting three small treatment stretchers and its walls hung with lifesaving trauma gear, the conversation ranges. First, it focuses on paramedic chitchat: the evolution of wound types as Ukraine’s war has ground on more than 2 1/2 years, and the fact that this unit can provide blood transfusions, just 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) from the front.

But the 12th Special Forces Azov Brigade is no typical Ukrainian unit, and talk soon shifts to a dramatic change in U.S. policy. In June, the United States lifted restrictions on Azov receiving American weapons and training.

It’s a critical development for a brigade whose controversial antecedent – founded in 2014 as a volunteer militia – included members with links to far-right groups and alleged neo-Nazi sympathies.

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