Russia’s Supreme Court declared on Tuesday of ukraine The Azov Regiment is a terrorist organization, a designation that may lead to terroristic charges against some of the captured fighters who have lost their lives. The Last Stand Inside Mariupol’s Broken Steel Plant,
Moscow has held hundreds of millions of Azov fighters since it surrendered in mid-May. Russian authorities have opened criminal cases accusing him of killing civilians. Adding terrorism charges could mean an even longer prison sentence.
In a statement, the Azov Regiment overruled the High Court’s decision, accusing Russia of “looking for new excuses and explanations for its war crimes”. It urged the US and other countries to declare Russia a terrorist state.
Azov troops played an important role in the defense of Mariupol, staying for weeks at the steel mill of the southern port city, despite punishing attacks by Russian forces. The President of Ukraine honored him and other defenders at the plant as heroes.
Moscow has repeatedly portrayed the Azov Regiment as a Nazi group and accused it of atrocities, although no evidence has been made public to support those claims. In May, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Russia filed a motion to designate the regiment a terrorist organization.
The regiment, a unit within the National Guard of Ukraine, has a checkered history. It evolved from a group called the Azov Battalion formed in 2014, one of several volunteer brigades assembled to fight Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The Azov Battalion attracted some of its early fighters from far-right circles and was criticized for some of its tactics. Its current members have dismissed the allegations of extremism.
The regiment’s far-right origins are confiscated by the Kremlin as part of its attempt to cast the invasion of Russia as a fight against Nazi influence in Ukraine. Russian state media has repeatedly shown that it claimed to have Nazi insignia, literature and tattoos associated with the regiment.
Last week, dozens of Ukrainian POWs, including defenders of the Mariupol plant, were killed in an explosion at a barracks in a penal colony in the eastern city of Olenivka, controlled by pro-Russian separatists. Moscow and Kyiv have blamed each other for the blast, with Kyiv saying Russia blew up the barracks to cover up torture against prisoners of war.
meanwhile, First cargo ship to leave Ukraine Since Russia invaded more than five months ago, Bulgaria was off the coast on Tuesday as it headed toward Istanbul and its final destination, Lebanon, in a bid to unblock Ukraine’s agricultural exports and ease global and tested an agreement signed by Kyiv last month. food crisis.
An estimated 20 million tons of grain have been stuck in Ukraine since the start of the war. UN-broker agreement to issue grain calls for the establishment of safe corridors through mining waters outside Ukraine’s ports.
Rajoni, which left Odessa’s Black Sea port on Monday with more than 26,000 tonnes of corn, was expected to arrive in Istanbul early Wednesday for inspection by Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and UN officials. More ships are expected from Ukraine.
In Odessa alone, at least 16 more ships, blocked since Russia’s invasion on February 24, were waiting their turn, Ukrainian officials said.
Global food prices are rising in the face of war, global supply chain problems and the crisis caused by COVID-19. While Ukraine – and Russia – are major world suppliers of wheat, barley, corn and sunflower oil, the agreement in itself may not make much of a dent in world hunger.
According to David Laborde, an expert at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, most of the grain trapped in Ukraine is meant to feed livestock. There is only 6 million tons of wheat, and half of that is for human consumption, Laborde said. He said Monday’s shipload is actually chicken feed.
“Some ships leaving Ukraine are not going to be game changers,” he said.
The departure of the ship took place against the background of constant fighting, especially in southern and eastern Ukraine.
