dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Not Worth Your Sympathy

Part 2 of 2

The evidence of the Azov's true nature, however, is much more visible in the reports by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, not to mention the crime news. Right from the start,Azov was often found in the midst of some of the darkest and grimmest events and news stories in Ukraine, because of its unofficial special status and the status of ‘vatniks’ who were de facto outlawed in Ukraine.

Initially, the unit attracted people of vague and dubious backgrounds. For example, it was in this battalion that the killers of pro-Russian activists Aleksey Sharov and Artyom Zhudov served. The two men were shot dead in street clashes in Kharkov on March 14, 2014 – even before the armed conflict broke out in the Donbass. Their killers were never identified – we don’t know their names, but we know that the activists were shot from the office of The Patriot of Ukraine, while they were standing right in front of it.

The UN reports said that in May 2014, after a short skirmish, acivilian named Vladimir Lobach was murdered near the city of Poltava by Azov Battalion fighters. His killers threatened the police officers who arrived at the crime scene and then simply fled. In June of that year, Azov soldiers in Mariupol abducted a local newspaper editor and journalist named Sergey Dolgov, who sympathized with the idea of federalizing Ukraine. Nothing is known about this man’s whereabouts up to this day.

Arguably Azov's most twisted crime, as reported by the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, was the gang rape of a mentally ill man by about 10 members of the battalion in 2014. The victim was hospitalized with severe physical and psychological trauma. The incident wasn't investigated, and the perpetrators were never brought to justice.

The Azov Battalion has a long record of crimes and offenses of all kinds, from harassment of homosexuals and cases of looting in a war zone, to torture and murder. According to the testimonies of victims, the most common scenario usually involved a random person being kidnapped and taken to a location belonging to the regiment. There,the victim would be tortured and forced to confess to being a member of an insurgent group. After that, the person would be handed over to the SBU, Ukraine’s security service. Moreover, according to victims' reports, SBU officers were often present at the torture sessions.

For example, in May 2017 in Mariupol, Azov fighters used torture and threats to force a woman to sign an interrogation protocol they had written about her alleged involvement in an insurgent cell. The confession was filmed on camera, andthe woman was forcibly stripped naked. Later, she was handed over to the SBU. In another case, a man reported having been subjected to electric shock torture, with wires attached to his genitals.

In the Zaporozhye Region, Azov fighters abducted a woman, had her hands and feet bound with cable ties, kicked her, hit her with rifle stocks, shoved needles under her fingernails and threatened to rape her. A man detained in late January 2015 reported being tortured by oxygen deprivation and electric shocks. After an entire week of this ordeal, he was handed over to the SBU and 'formally' arrested. The UN has published records of numerous similar incidents, but it's safe to say these records amount to only a portion of what actually took place.

This peculiar connection between the neo-Nazis and the SBU is far from a coincidence. Thanks to the Azov Battalion, the Ukrainian security services found the perfect way of proving to their government that they had been successful in dealing with the pro-Russian 'insurgent cells' in Mariupol and Eastern Ukraine – even if such organizations were not actually there.

Most of the real insurgents and their sympathizers had fled to the territories held by the rebels, or at least kept their mouths shut about their allegiances. Yet, somehow, the nationalist regiment was always able to capture the proper number of 'traitors', so that their performance, on paper, looked good.

Even as the bulk of the Azov Battalion’s forces have been defeated and have surrendered in Mariupol, a significant group of nationalists remains at large. For example, the Kraken unit, which was formed in Kharkov, serves as a special forces unit under the Azov Battalion. In recent months, the fighters of this newly formed regiment have already gained infamy for shooting Russian prisoners of war in their legs and filming it on camera.

In short, the Azov Battalion is, despite all the Western and Ukrainian efforts to portray them as heroic defenders of freedom, the most odious group to have operated in the country since 2014.

https://www.rt.com/russia/557589-azov-battalion-documented-crimes/