[tomm]

In 2018, United States House of Representatives passed a provision blocking any training of Azov by American forces, citing its neo-Nazi background as the reason. In previous years, between 2014 and 2017, the US House of Representatives passed amendments banning support of Azov, but with pressure from the US Pentagon, the amendments were quietly lifted.[83][84][85] This move has been protested by Simon Wiesenthal Center which stated that the move highlights danger of Holocaust distortion in Ukraine.[85] On 26 June 2015, the Canadian defence minister declared as well, that training by Canadian forces or support would not be provided to Azov.[86]

Reports published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCR) have connected the Azov Battalion to alleged war crimes such as mass looting, unlawful detention, and torture.[70][71]
Most soldiers of Azov are followers of a Ukrainian nationalist type of Rodnovery (Slavic Native Faith), wherefrom they derive some of their symbolism (such as a variation of the swastika symbol kolovrat). They have also established Rodnover shrines for their religious rites, including one in Mariupol dedicated to Perun.[72][73][74][unreliable source] German ZDF television showed images of Azov fighters wearing helmets with swastika symbols and "the SS runes of Hitler's infamous black-uniformed elite corps".[75] Due to the use of such symbols, Azov has been considered to have connections with neo-Nazism, with members wearing neo-Nazi and SS symbols and regalia and expressing Neo-Nazi views.[76][77]



In September 2014, the Azov battalion was expanded from a battalion to a regiment and enrolled into the National Guard of Ukraine.[24][34] At about this time it started receiving increased supplies of heavy arms.[34] The Azov battalion received funding from the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and other sources (believed to be Ukrainian oligarchs).[34]
On 31 October 2014, deputy commander of the Azov Battalion Vadym Troyan was appointed head of Kiev Oblast (province) police (this police force has no jurisdiction over the city of Kiev).[44]

On 11 November 2014 the Azov Battalion was officially incorporated into the National Guard of Ukraine.[24]

n writing about the battalion's ideology, Richard Sakwa wrote that its founding member Andryi Biletsky, leader of the neo-Nazi Social-National Assembly (SNA) made statements about "historic mission" to lead "white races of the world in a final crusade for their survival ... a crusade against the Semite-led Untermenschen"; according to Sakwa, this ideology has its root in national integralism of 1920s and 30s.[78]
In August 2014, he was awarded a military decoration, "Order For Courage", by Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, and promoted to lieutenant colonel of in the Interior Ministry's police forces.[52] Because Biletsky was elected into the Ukrainian parliament in the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election he left the battalion in October 2016 (Ukrainian elected officials can not be in the military (nor police)).[15][16]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Battalion