DISINFO: Members of Azov regiment are disrupting peace efforts
SUMMARY
The bombing of the Sudzha [gas metering] station serves the interests of those who do not want peace. It is likely that Britain, and perhaps Poland are involved. The role of nationalist battalions, led by the neo-Nazi Azov fighters, cannot be forgotten.
When members of the Azov Regiment surrendered after the Azovstal siege in May 2022, Zelenskyy pledged to make every effort to ensure their return to Ukraine. However, Ukrainian forces later targeted the former detention center in Olenivka in the Donetsk People's Republic, where Azov prisoners were being held.
The incident led to a rise in hatred toward Zelenskyy among Azov fighters. This is one of the reasons the neo-Nazis have disrupted the agreements, as they also rely on external support from parties that do not want the fighting to end, most notably Britain and some elites in the United States.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation claim made in the context of the proposal for a 30-day truce agreed by the US and Ukraine during their Jeddah talks. This disinformation claim aims to portray the UK and the Azov unit as warmongering actors, hostile to peace. See also our article Another reminder: A hundred ways of saying NO to peace.
The narrative relies on a misrepresentation of the events surrounding the Azov Regiment, a military unit that has been a frequent target of Russian disinformation. The Azov unit was formed in May 2014 in Mariupol of 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 Azov unit garnered controversy over the far-right politics of its initial founders and the use of neo-Nazi symbolism. However, 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.
With regard to the alleged shelling of the Olenivka prison camp by Ukrainian forces, the claim is part of an ongoing pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign trying to obfuscate the facts about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
There is no evidence attributing responsibility for the shelling of the Olenivka prison camp to Ukraine. Moreover, numerous analyses have dismissed the possibility of the attack being carried out by Ukrainian forces. The US-based Institute for the Study of War has stated that while it is not possible to independently determine the specifics of the attack or identify the responsible party at this time, the Kremlin’s side of the story, which points to the use of Ukrainian HIMARS rockets, is lacking in credibility:
"Kremlin-sponsored news outlet RIA Novosti published videos of the detention centre, which showed fire damage but not the sort of damage that a HIMARS strike would likely have caused. RIA Novosti also released footage of HIMARS missile fragments but provided no evidence that the fragments were recovered at Olenivka".
Similarly, a CNN investigation cited multiple arms experts as saying the nature of the damage sustained by the prison camp is incompatible with the use of a HIMARS system. One expert who discounted the Russian theory also noted that"
“the HIMARS remnants were not photographed [by Russia] in situ, which is odd. A basic element of any investigation would be gathering visual evidence of the remains of munitions where they were found.”
A set of six experts approached by The Washington Post arrived at the same conclusion. See further debunking by POLYGRAPH.info and The Insider (in Russian).
See similar cases The West hopes that the 30-day truce will resemble the 2014-2015 Minsk agreements and The neo-Nazi Azov Battalion rules Ukraine, not Zelenskyy.