US admits it had no influence on where weapons ended up in Ukraine
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The United States admits that it had no control over where weapons are going in Ukraine amid concerns it is winding up in the hands of the Azov Battalion.
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A released Ukrainian prisoner with officers of the Azov Battalion stand around him holding the Azov flag in Kiev Boryspil Airport, Ukraine, December 28, 2017 (AP)
The US imposing prohibitions on the provision of arms and assistance to the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion has had no practical effects due to the group's status quo, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing a US State Department spokesperson.
Ukraine has since 2014 been deploying what it labels as "volunteer formations", which include the Azov Battalion, in its attacks on the Donbass republics throughout the years. Kiev even incorporated the neo-Nazi group into the Ukrainian national guard later that year.
The group, with far-right and ultranationalist roots, has been one of Ukraine's most visible military forces fighting Russia in eastern Ukraine.
The Azov Batallion, according to a State Department spokesperson, is now a "different unit".
WashPo further quoted the spokesperson as saying that the Kiev regime "has agreed not to direct US support to any identified units of concern" such as Azov.
Moreover, the US budget for 2023 prohibits any funds from being allocated to the group now seeking to rebuild its ranks after suffering heavy losses to Russia in light of the ongoing war. It is also thinking about leading the expected Ukrainian counteroffensive, The Washington Post added.
The report explained that Kiev has designated the group as one of six "offensive brigades" to spearhead the spring assault, the report added.
It also said the group was hoping to recruit 6,500 new fighters, as more than 1,000 of its troops remain in Russian captivity.
Azov is not ruling out a possible strategy of "capturing small Russian towns," as was done during the First Chechen War, to have "leverage to recover Russian-held areas," the newspaper also said, citing the battalion's interim commander, Bohdan Krotevych.
Russia's Supreme Court designated Ukraine's Azov Battalion as a terrorist organization in August 2022.
The United States appears to have a trend when it comes to the Ukraine war, as it seldom seems to know where the arms and aid it is sending Kiev are going, with various reports coming out from Washington about the White House and the Pentagon not knowing how their arms and monetary aid are being utilized.
Despite countless visual evidence suggesting the opposite, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said during a congressional hearing in late February that the United States is not aware of whether the Azov Battalion has access to American arms provided to Ukraine.
Read next: Pentagon lobbied to remove neo-Nazi battalion ban, succeeded
The Biden administration is running into major obstacles tracking the aid sent from Washington to Kiev, which has amounted to tens of billions of dollars since the start of the Ukraine war, resorting to blockchain technology and Ukrainian personnel to help them track the aid flowing into their country, a State Department cable obtained by Politico said in mid-December 2022.
Furthermore, it was reported in March that a former US soldier who used to be a mercenary for over a year in Ukraine, serving in numerous units said there was prevalent Nazi influence within the Ukrainian armed forces.
"When I came, I was really surprised. Everybody had tattoos and Nazi symbolism," John McIntyre revealed, confessing that he did not believe ultra-right ideology was "that big of a problem" for Ukraine until he experienced the situation first-hand.
The former US soldier admitted that Ukrainian soldiers habitually use civilians as human shields, adding that he knew people who executed prisoners of war.
Despite there being various reports about Nazism within the Ukrainian armed forces, the Pentagon lobbied the House Defense Appropriations Committee to remove the amendment backed by Conyers and Yoho, arguing that such funding was already prohibited under another law.
The battalion's symbol is the neo-Nazi Wolfsangel, a black swastika against a yellow background.
Founded by Andriy Biletsky, who vowed to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade…against Semite-led Untermenschen,” the group is a pack of neo-Nazis working with the US-backed Ukrainian military.
It used to be condemned and labeled with Nazism all over it by Western media and the human rights industry - until the war in Ukraine in February 2022. Azov became the Ukrainian military’s defense of Mariupol, and Western media became suddenly inspired to rebrand Azov as a "misunderstood freedom fighter" and use the Kremlin as the anti-thesis.
Read next: Stanford is supporting neo-Nazi ideology by welcoming Azov: Russia
