The U.S. has lifted its ban on providing American weapons and training to a Ukrainian military unit whose founders included neo-Nazis but which has since been absorbed into Ukraine's National Guard.
The controversial 12th Special Forces Azov Brigade said Tuesday that the move marked "a new page in the history of our unit" and predicted it would become "even more powerful, even more professional and even more dangerous for the occupiers."
"Receiving Western weapons and training from the US will not only increase the combat capability of 'Azov', but most importantly, will contribute to the preservation of the lives and health of the personnel of the brigade," the unit said in a message posted online.
The State Department said the Azov Brigade had passed vetting that prevents military assistance to foreign military units found to have committed major human rights violations, the Washington Post reported Monday night.
in 2016, Human Rights Watch said there were credible allegations of torture and other "egregious abuses" committed by the Azov Brigade but the State Department said in a statement it found "no violations."
A State Department spokesperson declined to say when the weapons and training ban was lifted or if Azov personnel had already received American weapons to help Ukraine battle the ongoing Russian invasion that began in February 2022, the Post said.
The Azov Brigade grew out of a volunteer group called the Azov Battalion, which was formed in 2014 to fight Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, according to the Associated Press.
On its website, the group said it's been "cleansing itself" of undesirable elements since its first commander left in October 2014, AP said.
Russia has seized on Azov Brigade's origins to portray it as a Nazi group and fuel President Vladimir Putin's claims that Russia invaded Ukraine to remove its "neo-Nazi regime," even though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish and some of his relatives were killed in the Holocaust.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow took an "extremely negative" view of Washington's decision regarding the Azov Brigade, AP said.
Peskov described Azov as an "ultranationalist armed formation" and accused U.S. officials of being "ready to flirt with neo-Nazis."
