![]() ![]() Now the Ukrainians are counterattacking on Bakhmut’s flanks at the same time that a larger Ukrainian force is attacking along several axes in southern Ukraine. “Ukraine is holding Russia’s western advances along the line of Donets-Donbas Canal, turning the waterway into an obstacle as part of a deep defensive zone,” the U.K. When Russian forces finally occupied the ruins of Bakhmut last month, the 3rd Assault Brigade and adjacent units fell back to the Donets-Donbas Canal-then turned and fought. The brigade for months has been fighting in eastern Ukraine. A company of tanks-including a few captured ex-Russian T-90s-supports the three infantry battalions. Its 2,000 or so troopers ride in Western-made M-113 and YPR-765 armored personnel carriers. In any event, the 3rd Assault Brigade more or less is a normal brigade in an army that has dozens of them. But then, it’s equally naive to claim the Ukrainian army harbors more right-wing extremists than the Russian army does. ![]() It’s naive to claim there are no far-right elements in Ukraine’s armed forces-including in the 3rd Assault Brigade. And the Ukrainian government has subjected each generation to a deliberate process of depoliticization that has included the induction and training of new recruits and the replacement of key leaders. Time alone has diluted the Azov units’ far-right ideology. All that is to say, the 3rd Assault Brigade is a third-generation descendent of the far-right Azov Battalion. The army back in December peeled off the regiment’s special operations battalion and formed the 3rd Assault Brigade around it. One of these groups, the Azov Battalion, ultimately evolved into the Azov Regiment, which operates under the banner of the Ukrainian national guard. But it’s true that far-right volunteer groups have fought on the Ukrainian side since Russia first attacked Ukraine in 2014. ![]() To be very clear, Nazis neither govern Ukraine nor dominate its armed forces. Inasmuch as the regime of Russian president Vladimir Putin describes its war on Ukraine as an effort to “denazify” the country, the Azov prisoners are “proof” that Russia is “winning.” In Russian propaganda, all Ukrainian troops are Nazis-but Azov fighters especially are Nazis. The Kremlin at times has been reluctant to free Azov veterans, however. Every Russian the 3rd Assault Brigade captures could be the ticket home for a member of the brigade’s founding unit. It seems several hundred remain in Russian prisons, however. In a series of prisoner-exchanges over the following year, Ukrainian officials freed some of the Mariupol veterans. When the Russians finally captured Mariupol in May 2022, they also captured thousands of Ukrainian troops, including many Azov members. The Azov Regiment and allied forces held out for three months as the Russians effectively demolished the city, killing tens of thousands. Russian troops surrounded Mariupol shortly after Russia widened its war on Ukraine in February 2022. The brigade formed around the survivors of the Azov Regiment, which fought in the brutal siege of Mariupol, Ukraine’s port on the Sea of Azov. Not necessarily out of mercy, but because Russian prisoners are a kind of currency with which Kyiv can buy the freedom of Ukrainian prisoners being held in Russia.įor the 3rd Assault Brigade, potential prisoner-exchanges could be deeply personal. The Ukrainians can be heard giving Russian hold-outs a chance to surrender before grenading them. ![]()
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