YURYIVKA, Ukraine – On a lonely stretch of steppe land coast between the port cities of Berdyansk and Mariupol, the splashing of waves on the shore of the Azov Sea is backed by the crack of gunfire and the growl of tank engines.
Yet while there are sounds of war here, there is no fighting in this southwestern corner of Donetsk Oblast, some 600 kilometers southeast of Kyiv. Instead, the area hosts the bases of the controversial Azov Regiment, a formerly volunteer force, some of whose fighters were known for their far-right and ultra-nationalist views. The regiment has now been integrated with the National Guard of Ukraine.
Even though the force was withdrawn from front-line duty more than two years ago, controversy has followed the Azov Regiment to this remote spot.
In early January it was claimed that Azov, which has a reputation for being better equipped than other units of the armed forces, had got hold of some U.S.-made weapons long before the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump officially decided in late 2017 to provide lethal arms to Ukraine.
Aric Toler of the open-source investigative group Bellingcat on Jan. 8 claimed that Azov fighters already had in their arsenals a number of PSRL-1 grenade launchers, a modified version of the widely used Soviet RPG-7 grenade launchers. The PSRL-1 is produced by U.S. company Airtronic USA Inc., and according to Toler, Azov had had the U.S.-made weapons since at least July 2017.
Azov’s press service in July 2017 indeed reported that its forces were testing new PSRL grenade launchers, and released photos of trials of the weapons at a firing range. According to media reports at the time, Ukraine’s state-run company SpetsTechnoEksport in November 2016 signed a contract to buy 100 PSRLs worth a total of $554,575 from Airtronic USA Inc.
Azov had been banned from receiving U.S. military aid because of its alleged far-right roots, according to wording of the U.S. defense appropriations bill approved by the U.S. Congress for fiscal year 2016. However, the Pentagon a year later pressed for that wording to be removed, once Azov officially became part of the National Guard of Ukraine.
Nevertheless, Tolar’s claim triggered uproar in the media, and for a time it seemed that the just-announced supply of U.S. Javelin anti-tank missiles might even be in jeopardy. Then on Jan. 9, Ukraine’s National Guard command said Azov had never had Javelins or PSRLs, and later all reports concerning the U.S.-produced arms were deleted from both of Azov’s official websites.
Talking to the Kyiv Post, the regiment’s press service repeatedly denied that the Azov had ever been supplied with weapons from abroad, despite the Kyiv Post having seen photographs of Azov fighters training with the U.S. grenade launchers.
The Azov officers demonstrate the “Killhouse” to the Kyiv Post reporters at their boot camp near the town of Urzuf on Dec. 23. (Volodymyr Petrov)
Highly motivated
Azov, now a special operations detachment with Ukraine’s National Guard, was involved in key battles against Russian-led forces in Ukraine’s east in 2014 and 2015. But in July 2015 it was pulled from combat on the front line at Shyrokyne, a war-ravaged former resort town just east of Mariupol. Since the beginning of the war, the force has lost 33 fighters killed in action, its press officer Artem Dubina told the Kyiv Post.
Formed initially as a loose band of hardline nationalist irregulars, Azov now consists of two infantry battalions augmented with 120- and 82-millimeter mortar crews, an artillery battalion with 122-millimeter D-30 howitzers, an armored force of about a dozen T-64 tanks, a scout squad, a drone reconnaissance team, a sniper platoon, a canine team, and a logistics and engineering support service.
The troops now live in bases in the seaside towns of Yuryivka and Urzuf, some 40 kilometers southwest of Mariupol, right next door to summer beach resorts and expensive private seaside homes.
The regiment’s training camp is in Zaporizhzhya Oblast, about 10 kilometers south-west along the coast from Urzuf, just across the border of Donetsk Oblast. Azov claims this camp is unique in Ukraine, as it was designed and built by the soldiers themselves, for themselves, without any high-ranking generals or state officials being involved.
Here, the regiment’s commanders and instructors carry out Western-style special forces training, augmenting it with their own experiences from war, and shunning the old Soviet practices that still persist in other units of the Ukrainian armed forces.
“The point is that we’ve been training for ourselves,” the regiment’s executive officer, Lieutenant Igor Klymenko, who goes by the nom-de-guerre Bugai (Hulk), said when the Kyiv Post visited the Azov camp on Dec. 23. “Not for big-shot generals, or for putting on a good show for inspections, but because we are highly motivated.”
“A good soldier naturally strives to get better all the time. Otherwise, what’s the point?”
Controversies
The neat yellow prefabricated buildings and well-kept grounds of the training camp belie the concerns about Azov voiced in past years by domestic and foreign politicians and media.
The unit has repeatedly been accused of harboring extreme-right radicals, as well as of using neo-Nazi symbols. In particular, the regiment’s main symbol is a Wolfsangel, and the regimental badge also features a Black Sun symbol in the background.
Azov’s leaders assert that the stylized insignia represents crossed I and N letters, standing for “the Idea of the Nation,” and that it has been used in European heraldic tradition for centuries.
However, Azov’s main symbol is actually a mirror image of the Wolfsangel insignia used by the 2nd SS-Panzer-Division of Nazi Germany during the Second World War. The Black Sun occult symbol was also widely used by the Nazis.
Also, at various times Azov has had a number of foreign citizens within its ranks, serving as fighters or instructors, from Russia, Georgia, Britain, Sweden, Belarus, Canada, France, Italy, and Slovenia, some of whom are self-admitted neo-Nazis.
Azov dismisses accusations that it is a far-right organization, saying that its soldiers have a variety of political views, and the only principle that unites all of its fighters is that they must defend Ukraine.
And apart from the force’s official insignia, there are no neo-Nazi symbols or extreme-right attitudes on display at any of Azov’s bases in southern Donetsk.
Their Yuryivka base, which used to be a health resort owned by Ukraine’s Transport Ministry, is well-maintained and very well equipped, and serviced by civilian contractors. The only incongruity compared to other army bases is a wooden idol depicting the pre-Christian Slavic god Perun, the Kyivan Rus god of thunder.
The soldiers and officers live in two-room living units with separate bathrooms and have the use of a huge swimming pool, a bodybuilding gym, and a self-service canteen offering a large selection of traditional Ukrainian dishes.
The other Azov base in the town of Urzuf, further west along the coast, which used to belong to ousted former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, provides similar living conditions for regular fighters.
The Azov Regiment’s deputy commander for special training Igor Bezogliuk (codename “Basel”) demonstrates a construction that simulates a defensive combat line at a firing range near the town of Urzuf in southern Donetsk Oblast on Dec. 23. (Volodymyr Petrov)
Political decision
Perhaps it is the controversy that still surrounds Azov that prevents the force from being sent back into combat: Although well equipped, well supplied and well trained, Azov has been kept in its bases for nearly two-and-a-half years.
According to Lieutenant Klymenko, teams of soldiers from Azov are, however, regularly assigned special combat missions at the front – primarily at the borders of the areas of responsibility of frontline units, where defenses may be weaker.
The regiment’s artillery commander, Igor Prozapas, told the Kyiv Post on Aug. 3 that Azov’s sniper teams were in particular demand on the frontline.
However, it is still uncertain whether the entire unit will be returned to full combat.
“We’ve been told many times that the command is up for this,” Lieutenant Klymenko said. “But there must be a political decision at a higher level. All of the army brigades at the frontline are only up to 50-percent manned, so I see no reason to hold us back in this situation.”
“Damned if I know what kind of political will is necessary. Maybe if one day a Grad rocket hits the Vekhovna Rada, the decision will come in a second.”
