Photo: AP Photo/Evgeniy MaloletkaThe port city of Mariupol is under Russian siege and is threatened with a humanitarian disaster. It stands in the way of a land corridor between Crimea and the self-proclaimed pro-Russian Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republic, which is apparently one of the goals of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Puk Azov, a radical right-wing unit that uses neo-Nazi symbols and is subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, is also involved in the defense of the city.
In the previous days, a cease-fire was agreed between the Russian army and the Ukrainian authorities in the port city of Mariupol on the Black Sea several times so that civilians could be evacuated through an open corridor. Mariupol has been under siege for ten days, electricity, water and heating have been cut off, food is running out. Detonations are constantly echoing. There are many dead. Doctors Without Borders in the city of 440.000 inhabitants warns of a catastrophic situation. Mayor Vodym Boychenko accuses the Russians of a "humanitarian blockade". The Russian side accuses the defense of the city of not adhering to the truce, the Ukrainians accuse the Russian troops.
To establish land corridor between Crimea and the self-proclaimed pro-Russian Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, the Russians must conquer and bring Mariupol under their control.
The German "Spiegel" in its issue of March 4 writes that Mariupol is also defended by the radical right-wing Azov Regiment, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, as part of the territorial defense. This regiment, which uses neo-Nazi symbols, was reported by the BBC and Al Jazeera. Another program of the German public service ZDF reported earlier that German right-wingers were joining the Azov regiment, which was formed during the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
When he talks about "ethnicization" as the goal of the Russian "special operation" in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin is also referring to the Azov Regiment. However, it is certainly not a majority Ukraine, and at this moment President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is of Jewish origin, probably does not care who is fighting against the Russians, as long as he is fighting.
The Azov Regiment, which is a paramilitary unit, is commanded by Andrey Bilecki, born in Kharkiv, a water engineering engineer by profession, who was a member of the Verkhovna Rada - the Parliament of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. He is the leader of the Social-National Assembly, an ultra-nationalist extreme organization that openly follows the ideas of German National Socialism. Bilecki is connected with similar neo-Nazi organizations in the world, including in Germany. The party is close to the controversial music subculture National Socialist Black Metal.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned Puk Azov for evicting residents from some buildings in Mariupol and occupying them for their own purposes.
In 2014, the Azov Regiment consisted of 850 soldiers, 85 of whom were foreigners. Today, the German media reports, it has about 2.500 fighters, the number of foreigners is unknown, but among them is allegedly, as one of the high-ranking officers, the Frenchman Gaston Besson, who lives in Pula, one of the fighters of the war in Croatia. A book about him titled "Gaston Besson fighter against the Serbs" was published in France.
In the coat of arms of the Azov regiment, on a yellow background, there is a symbol that is a crooked, slightly elongated swastika cross with a black line drawn through it. In an earlier report broadcast before the war in Ukraine about that paramilitary unit, the German ZDF showed two of its fighters wearing German helmets with a swastika and SS markings on their heads.
Commander Bilecki stated that he personally is neither racist nor anti-Semitic, and as proof he states that one of his senior officers is a Jew, Natan Hasin. Hasin was one of the commanders of the mass demonstration known as Euromaidan, he comes from an orthodox Jewish family.
Volodymyr Zelenskyi did not comment on the glorification of Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera, who was directly responsible for the mass liquidation of Jews in Ukraine during World War II, nor on the Azov regiment. Zelensky was elected president in 2019 with over 70 percent of the vote, which in itself says that Ukraine is overwhelmingly democratic and pro-Western.
Paramilitary units, such as the Azov Regiment, served as an excuse for Putin to attack Ukraine, which turned from Russia to the West.
JH/Spiegel/ZDF/Zeit/Presse/BBC
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