He also mentioned the significant and active support from the Ukrainian diaspora in the US.
Those US officials involved in the vetting process obviously have instructions to say that US forces are not training the Azov Battalion as such.
They also say that Azov members are screened out, yet no one seems to know precisely how that’s done.
In fact, given the way the Ukrainian government operates, it’s almost impossible.
When asked how the vetting process weeds out Azov members, for instance, State Department representative and Press Officer Yarina Ferentsevych of the US Embassy in Ukraine said that those who have not committed “gross human rights violations” but identify themselves with the Nazis and even with the SS can get a free pass.
She said that they didn’t individually interview everyone and ask them what their individual philosophies were, because they knew people could lie.
James Bissett, a retired Canadian diplomat who now consults the International Organization of Migration in Moscow, has argued that it would not be possible to detect all the Azov members who have dispersed into the National Guard battalions.
“These militias [such as Azov] are being merged with Ukraine’s military, so we won’t be able to determine who we are training,” he said.
Congressman Charlie Wilson, the godfather of American support for the Afghan mujahedeen, said that “the problem is that the Azov battalion is nuzzled so deeply into the Ukrainian government that they are nearly impossible to weed out…”
