Azov Regiment becomes assault brigade and already fighting in Bakhmut
Azov Regiment becomes assault brigade and already fighting in Bakhmut (Photo:Полк Азов)
The Azov Special Operations Forces Regiment has become the 3rd separate assault brigade of the Ukrainian Army’s Ground Forces, the founder of the Azov Regiment, Andriy Biletsky, said on the Telegram messenger on Jan. 26.
“Our combat path begins with the most difficult area — Bakhmut,” he said.
Biletsky said that Russian conscripts, convicts, Wagner mercenaries, propagandists, and milbloggers would have something to make up fables and legends about.
“We’re preparing many surprises for them,” he said.
“The winter will be hot.”
The Azov Regiment, formerly known as the Azov Battalion, is a favorite target of Russian propagandists, due to its former links to the far-right in Ukraine.
Biletsky, a far-right politician, and many of the soldiers with far-right political leanings left the unit before it was officially incorporated into the Ukrainian armed forces. Some of the symbols incorporated in the regiment’s insignia are used by neo-Nazi and far-right groups, but regimental spokespeople deny the unit has any political ideology.
The regiment, which was stationed near the city of Mariupol in southern Donetsk Oblast, was involved in the bitter fighting for the city, holding up Russian forces in the south until finally being surrounded in Mariupol’s Azovstal steel mill and being ordered to surrender to Russian forces.
U.S. think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) believes the Ukrainian defense of Bakhmut is likely a strategically sound effort despite its costs for Ukraine.
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