President Biden has removed restrictions on supplying U.S. military weapons to the Azov Battalion, a Ukrainian military unit with a controversial neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic history.
The State Department announced the change on Monday, which was strongly welcomed by Andry Biletsky, the leader of the Azov Battalion. Biletsky founded the military unit to lead the “white races of the world in a final crusade” against “Semite-led subhumans.”
Nearly a decade ago, U.S. officials barred the Azov Battalion from receiving American arms after determining that the unit espoused racist, xenophobic, and ultranationalist views. Additionally, the unit was accused of humanitarian violations by UN human rights officials, according to the Washington Post.
“This is a new page in our unit’s history,” Azov stated following the State Department’s announcement. “Azov is becoming even more powerful, even more professional and even more dangerous for occupiers.”
“Obtaining Western weapons and training from the United States will not only increase the combat ability of Azov, but most importantly, contribute to the preservation of the lives and the health of personnel,” Azov boasted.
Biletsky, who also leads the National Corps political party, has characterized his ideology as “Ukrainian racial social-nationalism.” Despite his Jewish heritage, President Volodymyr Zelensky relied on Azov for much of the intense combat during the initial phases of the 2022 invasion, recognizing their effectiveness as a fighting force against Russian and separatist forces.
In 2022, Azov attempted to reform its image by claiming to have abandoned its wolf angel, or wolf’s hook, emblem, previously used by the Das Reich division of Adolf Hitler’s Waffen-SS.
Ukrainian officials had pushed for the U.S. to lift the restriction, believing that the Azov Battalion could have defended Azovstal more effectively with American equipment. A Ukrainian source told the Washington Post that Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba discussed lifting the restriction with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his visit to Kyiv last month.
