The commander of the 12th special purpose brigade "Azov" of the National Guard of Ukraine, lieutenant colonel Denys Prokopenko (with a callsign "Redys") calls on the USA to lift the ban on military aid to "Azov", which was introduced several years ago and is still not canceled, despite the full-scale war.
He notes that from 2017 until now, a number of United States Consolidated Appropriations Bills contain an amendment that prohibits the use of the funds provided by this Act for arming, training or other assistance to the Azov battalion.
In 2015, Congressman John Conyers Jr., D-Michigan, proposed the amendment and Congress approved it, as mainstream media characterized Azov as "neo-Nazi and fascist."
The mentioned amendment is preserved in this yearʼs draft law on defense appropriations.
"This amendment, which moves from one Appropriations bill to another every year, is the reason that in 2022, during the defense of Mariupol, ʼAzovʼ did not have the latest Western weapons. At that time, we held back the overwhelming enemy forces in surrounded Mariupol, using the extremely limited resources we had, and were extremely effective. How many lives of personnel would have been saved and what would have been the results of the cityʼs defense if, in addition to high motivation, coordination and professionalism, ʼAzovʼ fighters had modern armored vehicles and artillery systems at their disposal," Denys emphasizes.
According to him, after 2022, "Azov" still does not have the opportunity to send its fighters to most of the leading Western military exercises and does not receive the necessary weapons that the allies transfer to Ukraine.
"Partly this problem is solved thanks to volunteers and conscientious Ukrainians who do everything possible to help the unit: for example, the volunteer project "Tylovyky" collected 77 million hryvnias for 17 FV432 Bulldog armored personnel carriers for the ʼAzovʼ brigade. But war requires more," explains the commander.
Prokopenko emphasizes that if propaganda theses about "neo-Nazis" had taken place, then delegations of "Azov" fighters would not have been received in the USA, European countries, and Israel.
"This is the absurdity of the situation: Azov is accepted at the highest level throughout the Western world, but they still do not give weapons," Redys summarized.