dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

David Arakhamia, head of Kyiv’s negotiating team, says Azov Regiment has no ties to extremism, as Ukrainian forces hold out in besieged Azovstal complex

A senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that there are dozens of Jewish soldiers fighting in the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

“There are about 40 Jewish heroes protecting Azovstal now,” David Arakhamia, the adviser in charge of Ukraine’s negotiating delegation, told The Times of Israel on Friday.

Arakhamia also heads Zelensky’s ruling Servant of the People party in parliament.

One of the Ukrainian units still holding out in the steel plant is the Azov Regiment, a formation that has been accused since its formation in 2014 of associations with neo-Nazi ideology. These claims have been central to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s justification for the invasion of Ukraine, having said at the outset of the war that Russia’s goal was to “demilitarize and de-Nazify” the country.

The unit was absorbed into the National Guard in September 2014, and Ukrainian officials are adamant that the regiment has been thoroughly professionalized and politicized.

Arakhamia forcefully denied the Russian allegations of neo-Nazism in the Azov Regiment. “Those accusations are absurd by default,” he declared. “Many people know these soldiers and find these accusations offensive.”

The massive Azovstal steel complex is the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol. The plant, with its network of tunnels and bunkers, has sheltered hundreds of Ukrainian troops and civilians during a weeks-long siege. Scores of civilians were evacuated recently, but Ukrainian officials said some may still be trapped there.

One of the Jewish soldiers the Zelensky adviser referenced released a video last week calling on Israel to rescue the besieged Azovstal garrison.

In a message posted by Kyiv-based entrepreneur and activist Ilgam Gasanov, Vitaliy Barabash said in Ukrainian, “It’s hard for me to speak, so my speech for me will be said by my brother, on behalf of all Ukrainian Jews who are together with me here.”

Barabash, also known as Benya, held a Ukrainian flag up to the camera as his friend read his statement, a Star of David tattoo clearly visible on Barabash’s hand.

Addressing “Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, the Knesset, the public of Israel,” and prominent Ukrainian Jews, Barabash’s statement announced that “in the rubble left from Azovstalí, there are Jews like me, like you.”

Earlier this month in a call with the Kremlin, Bennett requested that Putin “examine humanitarian options” for evacuating Mariupol.

The Azov Regiment published photos on its Telegram channel last Wednesday showing wounded soldiers in squalid conditions, many missing limbs.

“Ukraine has never turned its back on Jews, so we believe Israel may not turn its back on the Ukrainian people either, but stand side-by-side against Russian invaders who brought a new tragedy,” read Barabash’s statement.

“Now we, being here, need Israel’s help in withdrawing the entire military garrison of Mariupol and call for rescue.”

Gasanov told The Times of Israel that he has never met Barabash in person, and is doing what he can to help the besieged Azovstal garrison after his friends’ wives reached out to him.

“I know many Jews who are currently at war, and not only in Mariupol,” he said.

According to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which runs the contest, six countries were found to have reported “irregular voting patterns” after the second dress rehearsal of the second semi-final.

As a result of these unexpected findings, the countries of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and San Marino had their countries’ jury votes substituted by aggregate scores at Saturday’s (14 May) grand final.

These substitute scores were calculated by using the voting records of other countries that had voted in similar ways in the past.

A statement for the organisation said: “In order to comply with the Contest’s Voting Instructions, the EBU worked with its voting partner to calculate a substitute aggregated result for each country concerned for both the Second-Semi Final and the Grand Final (calculated based on the results of other countries with similar voting records).

“This process was acknowledged by the Independent Voting Monitor.”

Using the substitute votes submitted by the EBU, the UK’s 2022 entry Sam Ryder received the maximum 12 points from Azerbaijan and Georgia, eight points from each of San Marino, Romania and Poland, and five points from Montenegro.