US lifts ban on Ukraine's Azov Brigade using US weapons

The United States has lifted its ban on the use of American weapons by a high-profile and controversial Ukrainian military unit, the latest U-turn from Washington that could help its ally counter Russia's advance on the battlefield.

The State Department announced Tuesday that it had lifted a decade-old restriction on the transfer of weapons, training and other aid from Washington to the Azov Brigade. The battalion, whose neo-Nazi origins have long been the subject of Kremlin propaganda, is one of kyiv's most battle-hardened and popular units.

The brigade said in a statement on messaging app Telegram on Tuesday that “employees of the US Embassy in Ukraine” had confirmed that the unit had “successfully passed the inspection required by US law and had the right to receive assistance from the United States of America.” in the field of security.

“This is the result of long and careful work,” the press release said.

Russia quickly denounced the decision, calling it a “flirtation” with neo-Nazism.

The State Department confirmed the lifting of the ban in a statement reported by the Associated Press.

The agency applied Leahy's vetting process to the brigade, the AP reported, and found “no evidence of gross human rights violations (GVHR) committed by the 12th Azov Brigade,” according to the press release.

The Leahy Act prohibits the U.S. government from using funds to assist foreign security force units when there is credible information implicating that unit in committing gross human rights violations, according to the State Department .

It is unclear when the ban was lifted.

It is the latest US move that will be welcomed in Ukraine, following the Biden administration's decision earlier this month to allow kyiv to carry out limited strikes inside Russian territory using US weapons.

The move comes as Russia advances east, after claiming a village in the Donetsk region on Monday. Its offensive further north appears to have stalled after kyiv reinforced its troops there, but President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that the eastern Donetsk region is “consistently the most difficult part of the front” at the moment.

“Receiving Western weapons and training from the United States will not only increase the combat capability of Azov, but, more importantly, contribute to the preservation of the life and health of the brigade's personnel,” the statement said of the unit, adding that it was a “new page” in the history of the brigade.

The unit became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance after the Russian invasion in February 2022, with many of its fighters defending the Azovstal steel plant in the occupied city of Mariupol for months. Many of these fighters remain prisoners of war in Russia, but the steadfast defense of Mariupol has propelled the brigade to a new level of fame and respect within Ukrainian society.

Azov was founded in 2014 as a volunteer battalion fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, an eight-year-old conflict that culminated in the full-scale invasion of 2022. Its ranks were filled with members with ultranationalist and far-right views, although its leaders have insisted that Azov has since left these associations.

Last year the unit was absorbed in the Ukrainian National Guard as a special forces brigade and is part of the so-called Assault Guard, one of the most combat-ready units of the Ukrainian army.

NBC News has reached out to the Ukrainian National Guard for further comment.

In April, Azov Commander Denys Prokopenko called for lifting the current ban on the transfer of Western weapons to Azov.

“I emphasize that the very existence of such amendments and bans not only prevents Azov from more effectively carrying out its combat missions, but also constitutes a blow to the defense capability of our country, tarnishes the image of Ukraine at the international level and is humiliating for the whole of Ukraine. Ukrainian Army,” Prokopenko wrote in an editorial at the time.

Russian propaganda often considers the Azov fighters as the best example of what it claims are the Ukrainian government's Nazi tendencies. Azov was declared a terrorist organization and its activities were banned in Russia in 2022.

“The lies about Azov, which the Kremlin regime has been spreading in the West for years, today received a devastating blow,” the brigade said in its statement on Tuesday.

The reaction in Russia was swift.

“We are talking about ultranationalists, ultranationalist armed units,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday. “Such a sudden change in Washington's position suggests that they are ready to do anything to suppress Russia, using the Ukrainian people as an instrument at their disposal. They are even ready to flirt with neo-Nazis.”

Several pro-Kremlin Russian officials also said the move amounted to “sponsorship” and “encouragement” of Nazism.