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Victoria Dumych, whose husband serves in the Ukrainian military, holds up a sign in support of Ukrainian soldiers from the Azov Regiment who were captured by Russia in May after the fall of Mariupol. Photo: AP

Russia declares Ukraine Azov regiment as ‘terrorist’ group

  • Classification paves way for captured soldiers to be tried under anti-terror laws and be jailed for up to 20 years
  • The Azov Regiment, which has far-right roots, has been one of the most prominent Ukrainian military formations fighting Russia
Ukraine war

Russia’s Supreme Court declared Ukraine’s Azov Regiment a terrorist organisation, a designation that could lead to terror charges against some of the captured fighters who made their last stand inside Mariupol’s shattered steel plant.

Scores of Azov fighters are being held prisoner by Moscow since their surrender in mid-May. Russian authorities have opened criminal cases against them, accusing them of killing civilians. The addition of terrorism charges could mean even longer prison sentences.

The penalties for a terrorist organisation’s leaders would be 15 to 20 years in prison and five to 10 years for members of the group, Russian state media said.

In its ruling on Tuesday, the Supreme Court banned the Azov Regiment in Russia. That could also outlaw the regiment in areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian or Russia-backed forces, if those places go ahead with plans to become part of Russia.

In a statement, the Azov Regiment dismissed the ruling, accusing the Kremlin of “looking for new excuses and explanations for its war crime”. It urged the US and other countries to declare Russia a terrorist state.

The Azov soldiers played a key part in the defence of Mariupol, holding out for weeks at the southern port city’s steel mill despite punishing attacks from Russian forces. Ukraine’s president hailed them and other defenders at the plant as heroes.

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Moscow has repeatedly portrayed the Azov Regiment as a Nazi group and accused it of atrocities, though no evidence to back up those claims has been made public. In May, Russia’s Prosecutor General’s office filed a motion to designate the regiment a terrorist organisation.

Officials in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Russian-backed entity which claims Mariupol as part of its territory, said in May that captured Azov Regiment fighters could face the death penalty under the self-proclaimed republic’s laws.

Last week, Russia’s embassy in London said in a Twitter post that captive Azov personnel should be hung and that they “deserve a humiliating death”.

The regiment, a unit within Ukraine’s National Guard, has a checkered history. It grew out of a group called the Azov Battalion, formed in 2014 as one of many volunteer brigades assembled to fight Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The Azov Battalion drew its initial fighters from far-right circles and elicited criticism for some of its tactics. Its current members have rejected accusations of extremism.

The regiment’s far-right origins have been seized on by the Kremlin as part of its effort to cast Russia’s invasion as a battle against Nazi influence in Ukraine. Russian state media has repeatedly shown what it claimed to be Nazi insignias, literature and tattoos associated with the regiment.

Last week, dozens of Ukrainian POWs, including defenders of the Mariupol plant, were killed in an explosion at a barracks at a penal colony in Olenivka, an eastern town controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

Moscow and Kyiv have blamed each other for the blast, with Kyiv saying Russia blew up the barracks to cover up torture against the POWs.

Additional reporting by Reuters

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