DISINFO: Kyiv ordered Azov Nazis to shoot surrendering Ukrainian soldiers
SUMMARY
The nationalist regime in Kyiv has banned negotiations on surrender and ordered Azov Nazis to immediately shoot Ukrainian soldiers and foreign mercenaries who are willing to lay down their arms.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the invasion of Ukraine. The article claims that Kyiv ordered the execution of surrendering soldiers. The article also advances disinformation narrative with allegations of Nazi Ukraine.
There is no proof provided and there had been no credible reports about this claim, which is likely false.
The Azov unit was formed in May 2014 in Mariupol from volunteers, initially as a battalion of the Special Purpose Police Patrol Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In September 2014, it was transformed into a battalion in a regiment structure, later to the National Guard of Ukraine. The battalion sized unit strength is estimated at around 900 - 1100 persons.
Although it was just one among dozens of volunteer militias, Azov unit garnered controversy over the far-right politics of its initial founders, the use of neo-Nazi symbolism in some of its insignia, and the anti-Semitic views of some members. The unit was integrated into the National Guard of Ukraine in 2015. Since its integration, Azov regiment members have repeatedly denied being a far-right political unit, although they acknowledge that it includes individuals with such views.
In 2015 Ukraine issued a ban on Nazi and Communist ideologies. Generally speaking, far-right groups enjoyed a very limited presence during the Euromaidan itself and had poor results in the 2014 presidential and parliamentary elections. The "Right Sector" candidate received 0.7% of the vote in the May 2014 presidential elections, and the party received 1.8% of the vote in the October 2014 parliamentary elections. In the 2019 election cycle, far-right candidates fell short of the 5% minimum guaranteeing entry into parliament.
Learn more about the reasons behind Kremlin's obsession with framing Ukraine as a Nazi state in the EUvsDisinfo analysis titled "Why does Putin portray himself as the tamer of neo-Nazism".