Ukrainian militants blocked at the Azovstal metallurgical plant began to surrender on May 16.
To date, according to the Ministry of Defense, 1,908 nationalists have already laid down their arms.
Alexander Khodakovsky, the commander of the Vostok battalion, which participated in the blocking of Azovstal, reported in his Telegram channel that by May 16, about 2.5 thousand people could be at the plant.
“The process [of surrender] can take a long time, but even if the latter reports that he is the last one, the final verdict will be made by the cleansing,” says the DPR battalion commander.
"Kraken" sat down in Kharkov
The nationalist formation "Azov" was created in 2014 as a battalion, but over time it was deployed into a regiment and became part of the National Guard of Ukraine.
One of the founders of the formation, the leader of the far-right National Corps party Andriy Biletsky (known in neo-Nazi circles as the White Leader) stated that the regiment included "tens of thousands" of fighters.
On the basis of the armed formation itself, there are also several nationalist movements, including the political movement “Civil Corps “Azov” and “Youth Corps”, which is engaged in the patriotic education of teenagers in the spirit of Ukrainian nationalism.
In addition, the defense units are close to Azov.
“The commanders of the national corps stated that the number of Azov was almost 70,000 people.
Specifically, the regiment itself most likely consists of several thousand people, plus reservists and those mobilized after the start of the special operation, ”Boris Rozhin, an expert at the Center for Military-Political Journalism, tells RT.
He explains that in Mariupol the most combat core of Azov was defeated, but separate units of this formation are preserved in other cities.
“Of course, a significant blow was dealt to the basis of the organization, because many veterans of this movement were captured in Mariupol.
It will be difficult to compensate for these losses.
But still, it’s not necessary to say that Azov has been completely liquidated yet, ”adds Rozhin.
Thus, the active units of "Azov" still remain in the Kharkiv region.
Andriy Biletsky stated that it was in Kharkov that "Ukrainian nationalism was born."
The basis for the future nationalist armed formation "Azov" was, among other things, the Kharkov far-right group of football fans "Sect 82", which supported the local club "Mentalist".
For example, its members Sergei Velichko (callsign Chile) and Konstantin Nemichev command the Kraken battalion, the Kharkiv division of Azov.
This spring, both of them, according to the Russian investigation, participated in the torture of eight Russian prisoners of war.
26-year-old Konstantin Nemichev (left) and 28-year-old Sergei Velichko (callsign Chile).
© Photo: social networks
Footage of brutal abuse of Russian servicemen was published online at the end of March.
In the video, men in Ukrainian army uniforms walk between captives, who are blindfolded and have their hands tied behind their backs, demanding information about the location of the troops, and then shooting them in the legs.
Without proper medical attention, such an injury will almost certainly lead to a slow death from blood loss.
In other frames, a plastic bag is put on the head of a Russian prisoner of war, the “authors” of the video laugh and kick the victim.
In addition, Ukrainian nationalists, many of whom willingly maintain their social networks, regularly published photographs of captive soldiers stripped naked, with their eyes bandaged with tape.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case against Velichko and Nemichev under Art.
317 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (encroachment on the life of military personnel).
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia put them on the wanted list.
It is worth noting that before the start of the special operation, Velichko was under arrest in a pre-trial detention center on charges of fraud and racketeering.
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office, an armed formation led by Chile was engaged in extorting money from medical workers, as well as businessmen from the funeral services sector.
At the same time, the founder of Azov, Andrei Biletsky, gave his arrested colleague the most flattering description.
He noted that Velichko “opposed the Kharkiv Russian spring”, participated in the “anti-terrorist operation” in the Donbass since 2014, and then was engaged in youth and sports in Kharkov.
After Zelensky’s decree on an amnesty for Ukrainians “with experience in combat operations,” Velichko was released and led the Kraken battalion.
Glory to "Azov"
The criminal past for the Azov militants is no exception.
Earlier, RT wrote that the formation has become a refuge, including for Russian neo-Nazis, who are accused in the Russian Federation of serious crimes: murders motivated by racial hatred, kidnappings and demonstrative executions.
So, one of the founders of the battalion in 2014 was the neo-Nazi Sergei Korotkikh, nicknamed Boatswain.
“Well, yes, the backbone of Azov was made up of people like me - football hooligans, right-wing radicals ... I don’t have photos with a swastika, otherwise they would poke me.
But I don't judge those who have them.
Taking a picture with a swastika is a challenge to society,” Korotkikh said in an interview with KP v Ukraine at the end of last year.
Sergey Korotkikh (callsign Boatswain).
© Photo: social networks
In Russia, Korotkikh was arrested in absentia in the case of the demonstrative execution of natives of Tajikistan and Dagestan, which took place 14 years ago.
In 2007, a video was published on YouTube, in which people in balaclavas, standing in front of a flag with a swastika, cut the throat of one man, and the second was shot in the back of the head.
The investigation concluded that one of the participants in the execution was Korotkikh, who was then the closest associate of the Russian neo-Nazi Maxim Martsinkevich (Tesak).
During the eight years of the war in the Donbass, Azov became famous for its cruel treatment of civilians in the south-east of Ukraine, including those whom the nationalists suspected of sympathizing with the “Russian world”.
In March 2019, ex-SBU officer Vasily Prozorov at a press conference in Moscow said that the nationalists had founded an illegal prison called “library” at the Mariupol airport.
There, captured and tortured militiamen of the DPR and civilians, who were suspected of separatism (the nationalists called them "books"), were kept and tortured.
Prozorov also showed photographs of nine prisoners with signs of beatings, including a teenager and two elderly men.
The Investigative Committee of Russia is already conducting an investigation into torture in an illegal prison.
According to the department, evidence was found in the airport building that the building was a prison belonging to the Azov national battalion.
So far, Azov has not been officially banned in Russia, but on May 26, the Supreme Court will consider recognizing the formation as a terrorist organization and banning its activities in Russia.
The corresponding lawsuit was filed by the Prosecutor General's Office.
If a court recognizes a paramilitary association as terrorist, then any of its members in Russia can be convicted of aiding or organizing terrorist activities.
The crimes of the combat formation against civilians of Donbass and prisoners of war have been recognized by the UN for several years now.
So back in 2016, the “Report on the situation with human rights in Ukraine” noted that the Azov militants participated in the looting of the houses of civilians in the Donetsk region and in numerous massive shelling of residential areas.
In May of this year, French journalist Anne-Laure Bonel spoke at an informal meeting of the UN Security Council, citing eyewitness testimony of neo-Nazi crimes.
According to her, local residents told how the Azov militants occupied residential buildings in the city, and also covered themselves with the civilian population, preventing them from evacuating.
“I know for sure that people are not allowed out of their homes, they are beaten with rifle butts and forced to stay at home.
The Azov battalion does not allow either to pass or drive through.
I personally know a person who was simply not allowed to leave, ”said an eyewitness in an interview provided at a UN meeting.
RT has also repeatedly published stories of Mariupol residents who faced the brutality of nationalists from Azov.
The head of the UN monitoring mission, Matilda Bogner, said in May that the organization had “reliable information” about the torture of Russian servicemen by Ukrainian soldiers.
“We have received credible information about the torture, ill-treatment and incommunicado detention by the Ukrainian armed forces of prisoners of war belonging to the Russian armed forces and associated armed groups,” Bogner said at a conference on the situation of civilians in Ukraine, her the words are quoted in the UN report.
"Ideas Spread Like Cancer"
The United States also recognized the connection of the Azov formation with terrorism.
When the U.S. Congress passed the government spending bill in 2018, the document specifically stated that “no funds allocated under this bill may be used to arm, train, or otherwise assist members of the Azov Battalion.”
The following year, a group of congressmen turned to the State Department with a request to recognize the Ukrainian formation as a terrorist organization.
During hearings on internal security in the US Congress, the authors of the appeal noted that “the connection between Azov and the terrorist attacks in America is obvious,” since far-right radicals in the US are inspired, among other things, by the ideas and methods of Ukrainian nationalists from this formation.
“The massacre in New Zealand's Christchurch was a turning point in the fight against terrorism.
In his manifesto, the shooter claimed that he trained with the Azov Battalion in Ukraine and constantly wore neo-Nazi symbols associated with it.
According to shooters from Poway and El Paso, the terrorist attacks in Christchurch had a direct impact on them.
The connection between Azov and the terrorist attacks in America is obvious, ”the American parliamentarians noted at the time.
However, the American authorities did not recognize Azov as a terrorist organization and, together with other NATO countries, continued to supply the militants with weapons and equipment.
“Initially, Azov received money from Ukrainian oligarchs, in particular Igor Kolomoisky.
Later, serious foreign funding was added, - says Boris Rozhin.
“Even when the battalion was integrated into the structure of the National Guard, it, bypassing the entire accepted hierarchy, reported directly to the command of the National Guard, since more than 50% of the funding did not come from Ukraine.”
According to the military expert, right-wing Western European funds took an active part in financing Azov.
“According to the documents leaked to the network, it is clear that European countries have been financing Azov for several years in a row and supplying weapons to the regiment.
By the way, he has been found more than once at the positions of a combat formation, ”the source explains.
As Rozhin notes, after Azov officially became part of the Ukrainian army, radical nationalist ideas gradually spread to the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“This can be compared to how in Nazi Germany the formations of the Wehrmacht and the SS coexisted and intertwined with each other.
Now evidence of neo-Nazi ideology is found both in the [abandoned] positions of the Nazi formations and the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
For example, Nazi literature and other paraphernalia were found at the location of the 81st brigade in Izyum, although this is the numbered brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
This shows that radical nationalist ideas have penetrated beyond the Nazi formations and spread throughout the military structure of Ukraine like a cancer,” summed up Boris Rozhin.