Media glorify Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov regiment, deny past coverage

Mainstream media are glamorizing the Ukrainian military’s infamous neo-Nazi Azov regiment in an apparent attempt to whitewash what has been an inconvenient stain on the Russia-Ukraine narrative. 

The Azov battalion is a unit of fighters founded by neo-Nazis and home to neo-Nazis. Its symbol was designed to be reminiscent of the Waffen-SS lightning-bolt logo. 

“The Azov causes particular concern due to the far right, even neo-Nazi, leanings of many of its members,” The Guardian reported in 2014, when the group was formed. “Many of its members have links with neo-Nazi groups, and even those who laughed off the idea that they are neo-Nazis did not give the most convincing denials.” 

The Guardian continued to refer to the Azov regiment as “a notorious Ukrainian fascist militia” in 2018, and as recently as November 2020 called the battalion a “neo-Nazi paramilitary force.” 

But since the war began earlier this year, news outlets began insisting that the regiment has shed itself of its antisemitism and no longer has ties to its neo-Nazism — despite what those news corporations had reported not too long ago. 

In an article last week on the battle of Mariupol, The Guardian waxed lyrical about the Azov battalion, whom it called “the last defenders of Mariupol” and soldiers who “defy [Putin’s] plan” to conquer Ukraine. The news site acknowledged that while Azov used to have “neo-Nazi affiliations”, it has since “been fully integrated into the Ukrainian military” and therefore cannot possibly have any neo-Nazi leanings. In fact, The Guardian believes that Azov’s neo-Nazism is just “the perfect propaganda opportunity” for Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

The Jerusalem Post wrote a similarly glowing article about the Azov regiment last week when it hailed its delegation’s arrival in Israel for a publicity event with Israeli soldiers. Members of Azov compared the battle of Mariupol, where Azov soldiers escaped, were killed, or were taken as prisoners of war, to the last stand at Masada, a 73 CE event where Jews took their own lives rather than be inevitably captured by the Roman army. 

The Post makes a point of noting that “the Azov Regiment today insists that it has largely purged those sentiments from the regiment.” The Israeli news outlet cited quotes from various individuals attesting to Azov’s righteousness (“proud men and good fighters”) and quoted researcher Alexander Ritzmann that “the extremist leadership mostly left the regiment in 2015.” The Post neglected to include another quote from Ritzmann in which he said, “The Azov movement is a dangerous key player of the transnational extreme-right and has served as a network hub for several years now, with strong ties to far-right extremists in many European Union countries and the United States.” 

But as recently as October 2021, just prior to the war, the Jerusalem Post was calling the Azov battalion a “far-right” movement whose “members have been photographed giving Nazi salutes and have made extremist statements online.” 

The Daily Beast, which in May 2022 described Azov’s Nazism in detail, made no attempt to whitewash the unit or claim it had renounced its past, but nevertheless still lionized the regiment. 

“[T]he defenders of Mariupol, spearheaded by the Azov Regiment, have held out against and humiliated a much larger Russian force,” The Daily Beast gushed in May.