Source: U.S. lifts weapons ban on Ukraine’s Azov Brigade – The Washington Post
U.S. lifts weapons ban on Ukraine’s Azov Brigade. The decision was made following a State Department review of the Azov Brigade, a one-time militia now part of Ukraine’s National Guard.
The Biden administration will allow a Ukrainian military unit with a checkered past to use U.S. weaponry, the State Department said Monday, having lifted a ban imposed years ago amid concerns in Washington about the group’s origins.
Now the brigade, a one-time volunteer militia absorbed into the Ukrainian National Guard in 2015, will have access to the same U.S. military assistance as any other unit. The policy shift was disclosed as Kyiv starts the summer fighting season and faces down a Russian military that has intensified its pressure on objectives in eastern Ukraine and the country’s energy infrastructure.