Ukrainian battalion denied US weapons

AN ELITE Ukrainian force will not receive any support from America’s latest military aid package due to its farright roots.

The Azov Battalion was founded by an antisemitic campaigner, Andriy Biletsky, in May 2014 as a volunteer militia to fight Russia. The activist had previously attacked Jewish oligarchs as his “enemy”.

Integrated unto Ukraine’s armed forces in November 2014, Azov troops have been hailed by Ukrainians as the nation’s “best warriors” and the unit has been decried by Vladamir Putin as emblematic of Kyiv’s alleged far-right ideology.

Extremism researchers have warned that far-right activists from Britain have been recruited by the regiment, while some of its members have been photographed coating their bullets in pig fat for use against Chechen Muslims.

In 2016, the battalion’s military and political wings formally separated, and, its defenders argue, the former moved away from extremism.

In recent months it has been said to have played a key role in the defence of Ukraine’s eastern front against a renewed Russian assault.

The brigade will not receive a share of a new United States $61 billion aid package comprising military equipment and training.

Azov will not be able to benefit thanks

Members coated bullets in pig fat for use against Muslims

to a previous United States government spending bill passed in 2018.

It stipulated that “none of the funds made available by this act may be used to provide arms, training or other assistance to the Azov Battalion”.

Democratic lawmaker Ro Khanna insisted at the time that “white supremacy and neo-Nazism are unacceptable and have no place in our world”. He added: “I am very pleased that the recently passed omnibus prevents the US from providing arms and training assistance to the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion fighting in Ukraine.”

But, speaking in the Times, a Jewish Azov fighter insisted the arms ban was absurd.

“How can Azov be a neo-Nazi unit when there are so many Jews in its ranks?” said the 36-year-old bookseller from Dnipro who goes by the nom de guerre “Racoon”.

“I joined the unit for its professionalism and military ethos, and I’ve never had any prejudice from any of my brother soldiers.”

Artilleryman “Bulba”, 26, told the newspaper: “There are people here from both the right and left sides of the political spectrum.”