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The Azov Regiment is a 900 men unit of Ukraine's national gendarmerie (National Guard of Ukraine). First based in Mariupol and initially formed as a volunteer militia during the Russo-Ukrainian war, it has participated in eight engagements. The unit was founded in May 2014 as a volunteer paramilitary militia under the command of Andriy Biletsky to fight pro-Russian forces in the Donbas War, and was formally incorporated into the National Guard on 11 November 2014.
The group has drawn controversy over its early and allegedly continuing association with far-right groups and neo-Nazi ideology, its early use of controversial symbols linked to Nazism (the black sun, the Wolfsangel and the swastika), and allegations that members of the group have participated in torture and war crimes. However, some experts argue that the regiment has evolved beyond its origins as street militia, tempering its neo-Nazi underpinnings as it became part of the Ukranian National Guard.
Since 2014, criticism of the Azov Regiment has been a recurring theme of Russian politics and more recently as Vladimir Putin's justification for invading Ukraine, the prominence of the unit in Ukraine's military forces being expanded and exaggerated by Russian media to this day.
The most recent official Azov Regiment logo now only uses a heavily altered Wolfsangel symbol, while the SSO (special forces) units don't use it at all (they use a tryzub formed out of swords instead).
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