Azov Battalion is the hope of Mariupol

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has conferred the title of Hero of Ukraine on Denis Prokopenko, commander of the Special Forces of the Azov Military Unit 3057 of the Ukrainian National Guard. The Azov Battalion must stop being called Nazis, as the occupiers do, stop being called infamous, as the Western media still do. It should be called simply: the famous Azov. It is still holding Mariupol, the most important city by the Black Sea.

The myth that the soldiers of the Azov battalion are Nazis and Hitler worshippers was invented and successfully spread by the Russian propaganda system - after the defenders of Mariupol managed to hold the city against the invaders for the first time in 2014. It was the Azov people who managed to drive the separatists out of Mariupol. Less than a hundred men from Berdyansk did it that time. Without serious weapons, without high-grade equipment, but with an abundance of courage and conviction. Convinced nationalists. Azov is now one of the elite combat units, and it is no wonder that Russian propaganda has spent all the years of the war trying to discredit it as much as possible, and continues to do so.

Exposing various lies

After the attack on the Mariupol theatre, Russia declared that the Azov were guilty. They had planted explosives in the building and blown it up. Instead of hiding in the bomb shelter, civilians were held hostage as human shields. They also blew up the 3rd hospital in Mariupol. And the current humanitarian crisis in Mariupol, after countless bombardments by Russian fighter jets and heavy artillery shelling, is the fault of those mysterious Nazis. And the Nazis are also shelling the humanitarian corridors. This is simply an unbelievable lie by the Kremlin, and even more unbelievable is the fact that anyone outside Russia, which is under an information blockade, believes it. A few days ago, the German publication Deutsche Welle again reprinted the Russian drivel about Azov extremists and neo-Nazis with supranational links. The war is also being waged in the information space. Meanwhile, Mariupol is still under an actual blockade and, as in 2014, Azov is the main obstacle to taking the city, for which President Zelensky praises the battalion commander as a Ukrainian hero.

Re:Baltica spreads the Kremlin narrative

Why does the Russian Federation now need Mariupol so desperately that Ukrainians are being murdered left and right? The answer can be found on the map. If Mariupol falls, Ukraine will lose its access to the sea, and Russia will connect Crimea with Donetsk and Luhansk. And that is why the slogan of de-Nazification was chosen. There is nothing more sensible in the Kremlin's propaganda arsenal. It is worth recalling here that Azov is also made out to be the root of evil by Re:Baltica, a Latvian-based investigative journalism company. Formally investigative, but in practice propaganda. In early 2019, just as Ukrainian sailors who suffered in the war against the occupying forces were arriving in Latvia for rehabilitation, Re:Baltica published several pseudo-debunking articles about Azov, also in Russian, and the Kremlin channels were happy to republish this research on the "revival of Nazism", because it covered both the Kremlin-hated Azovites and the no less hated Latvian National Alliance (Nacionālā apvienība). One of the co-authors of the publications, Leonid Ragozin, a Russian citizen, is now expressing his sorrow in the name of the Russian nation after the Russian Federation's re-invasion of Ukraine. He writes about the original sin of Russians and the trauma Putin has caused him. However, the publications that he and Sanita Jemberga wrote after Putin's first invasion and annexation of Crimea have not disappeared anywhere, nor has anything been explained. The defenders of Mariupol are still considered Nazis on this site.

Must be held at all costs

A few years ago, Neatkarīgā had the opportunity to see for itself that Azov and its political offshoot - the National Corps - are not some brainwashed Hitler fans. Nationalists - yes, 100%. But not Nazis. And that is a fundamental difference. At the time, Neatkarīgā reported that Ukrainian soldiers were heading into a political battle. Active hostilities had frozen into a seemingly endless war of positions, Crimea was lost.

Together with the military melee organization "Tēvijas sargi", Neatkarīgā had the opportunity to deliver night vision devices and other items needed for the Ukrainian defenders to their positions. We visited the Azov soldiers in the frontline buffer zone and also at their former headquarters near the National Corps in Mariupol. The main goal of the organization at that time was to raise the self-confidence of the Ukrainian nation, and it worked in many different directions - from caring for the elderly and maintaining memorials to heroes, to involving young people in sports and various national-patriotic activities. Also in policing units. In the Intermarium project, which Re:Baltica mocked, Ukrainian nationalists developed cooperation with related organizations in the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Sea regions. Including Latvia.

Perhaps Ukraine waited too long, played politics too long, and Russia was the first to take the next step. Now the Azov people have reverted from new politicians back to soldiers, and it is on them that the greatest hopes are pinned. Mariupol must be held at all costs.

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