Azov Militant to Resume Role as Leader of Extremist Military Unit

In July, four Azov* commanders returned from Turkiye to Ukraine. Russia considered the transfer of the Azov leaders by Ankara to Kiev to be a violation of previously reached agreements.

Denys Prokopenko, a notorious Azov fighter, has returned to Ukraine by Turkiye and been restored as the head of the terrorist assault brigade. He is now responsible for training military staff, reports Ihor Klimenko, Ukraine's interior minister.

"Denys Prokopenko runs Azov... He is in charge of personnel training... He is getting into the swing of things to make up for the time he was away," said Klimenko in an interview with a Ukrainian online newspaper.

Prior to being taken prisoner by Russian troops in Mariupol, Prokopenko served as an Azov commanding officer.

Volodymyr Zelensky paid a visit to Turkiye on July 7, which led to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan agreeing to release Azov's top command and return them to Kiev (including Denys Prokopenko, Sviatoslav Palamar, Serhii Volynsky, Oleh Khomenko, and Denis Schlega).

The Azov officers were captured in a raid on the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol last May. Four months later, in September, Russia and Ukraine agreed to a prisoner exchange. The swap resulted in 215 Ukrainian and 56 Russian captives returning home. Under the deal between the two sides, the Azov fighters were supposed to remain in Turkiye until the end of the conflict.

The Kremlin considered the handing over the Azov leadership to be a gross violation of the agreements on Turkiye’s side. According to Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, Ankara was pressured into it. Turkiye’s decision could be attributed to the failed Ukrainian counteroffensive, as well as to the outcome of the NATO summit, held in Vilnius in mid-July 2023.

Last August, the Russian General Prosecutor’s office filed a lawsuit in Russia's Supreme Court with the aim of designating Azov as a terrorist organization and to ban its activities. Experts judged that Azov's ideology includes scientific racism (a belief that the human species can be differentiated into biologically distinct races), legally based racial segregation plans, as well as the denial of democracy, morality, and international law.

According to pundits, members of Azov have targeted their political opponents and ethnic minorities, harassed Russian-speaking Ukrainian citizens, kidnapped and tortured people of Donbass, and been implicated in numerous war crimes.

*Terrorist organization banned in Russia.