Putin’s ‘bogus’ campaign against Ukraine will be ‘slowed’ by incoming US weapons

Putin’s ‘bogus’ campaign against Ukraine will be ‘slowed’ by incoming US weapons

I spoke to the commander of ground forces General pavuk a couple of days ago who observed that they have lost ground due to the uh the laggardly American debates over providing assistance that assistance has now been authorized it hasn’t significantly arrived on the battlefield yet by which I’m talking about longrange artillery shells and uh anti-aircraft systems it will probably slow the coming Russian offensive that’s expected this summer when President Biden signed a bill into law that provided $61 billion worth of extra Aid to Ukraine there were size of relief in keev the package includes an array of artillery rocket systems anti-tank Munitions and ammunition but one of the of Ukrainian of the Ukrainian Army’s most famous units the as of regiment won’t be getting any of it uh let’s speak to times special correspondent Anthony Lloyd Morning Anthony good morning um now PE many there was a time when we knew a lot about the Azo regimen we we knew about what happened in Mario Paul uh we knew about some of the accusations of their um of of of a Nazi past or Nazi connections but just bring us up to date as to who they are today who the azov regiment are today sure so basically the azov regiment as it is has one entity at the moment which is the 12th a of Special Forces Brigade now that was recreated Ed after the battle of Mario pole when its predecessor the a of regiment was almost annihilated in the last stages of the sieg which three-month long sieg uh the aov regiment had led a a pretty heroic defense of Maria pole before uh the survivors were forced to surrender and over 900 of them still remain in Russian prisons however some of their leadership were subsequently released in prisoner exchanges uh and they were reformed as the 12th aov Brigade now as of a named in the recent Appropriations bill by the Americans as being banned for assistance either the Americans will provide them with no arms no training or other assistance however the unit referred to in that ban is the as of Battalion and it sounds just like a a small difference in definition but in fact it’s a very big difference the azol Brigade today um is is not neonazi as the cause of the American ban is stipulates it is um and in fact it’s Val kind of Multicultural organization it is far removed from a kind of extremist ideology and a kind of um Prides itself on its martial identity it’s got a lot of Jews in it some Muslims in it and it’s it’s very far removed from what the American band relates to which is the as of Battalion and that was formed 10 years ago from a variety of ultra Nationalist and uh an extreme right-wing groups among others that had a very checked past and a very dodgy reputation it seems that the American ban refers to that original unit but has become misappropriated in Banning arms and assistance to the current unit and is there any way around that what and also what kind of impact does that have in terms of their ability to defend Ukraine well the immediate impact for the 12th as of Special Forces Brigade uh will be quite heavy I mean they will receive no American weapons they won’t get any longrange artillery um and more to the point as they said they’re not so much after American Funding they just say look we are among the best if not the best of Ukraine’s uh infantry units and why can’t we go on training courses with NATO and Western Europe and have our our ncos and our officers trained as other Ukrainian officers and ncos are train up in Europe um I don’t think there’s much way around it it requires pres presidential intervention in the US to to lift that block uh and unless there’s a reassessment of who as of are in America it’s very unlikely that that block will be lifted and you’ve spoken too of some of them what did they say they annoyed are they angry yeah they feel very hard done by they feel that there are several Generations removed from the original as of Battalion uh of 10 years ago incident ently the commander of that Battalion 10 years ago who’s the founder of azov who was an extreme uh right-wing politician with you know radical ideology believes in kind of racial Purity in in Ukraine a guy called Andre beletzki he’s still around in Ukraine very much so and he’s gone on to form and found another unit the third assault Brigade which isn’t doesn’t suffer any American blocks and assistance because it hasn’t got the word as of in it H would they ever remove the word a of I I don’t know that’s a good question but I think it’s also really important to mention that this is an extremely contentious subject in Ukraine and and outside Ukraine too because it lies at the heart of the matter of which is B essentially Russia has tried to justify uh a war of aggression to dismantle Ukraine through a propaganda campaign saying it wants to den naify the country now that is a bogus assertion and it’s part of a very aggressive disinformation campaign nevertheless it means one’s got to be very careful in in one’s uh the detail and words using in assessing what as of are and what their influence is someone doesn’t fall prey either to Russian propaganda yes um and just a final point where what is what are your kind of observations of where the war is it it doesn’t seem to have moved on in the last 6 months or so but what do you think I think it has moved on um I think the advantage at the moment is definitively at the moment with the Russians uh as I’m sure many of our listeners will be aware significant ground has been lost over the last weeks over the last couple of months actually by Ukrainian forces I spoke to the commander of the ground forces General pavuk a couple of days ago who observed that they have lost ground due to the uh the laggardly American debates over providing assistance that assistance has now been authorized it hasn’t significantly arrived on the battlefield yet by which I’m talking about long-range artillery shells and uh anti-aircraft systems it will probably slow the coming Russian offensive that’s expected this summer um the war will continue there’s no immediate end in sight and uh the ukrainians have no option other than to fight on at the moment but at the moment the advantage the Strategic advantages with Russia how much that will change Now American weapons and assistance arrive again in numbers in Ukraine we shall see Anthony thank you for that update that is Anthony Lloyd he is the times’s at special correspondent might be fine chilling when you hear someone like him say definitively it is currently Advantage Russia when it comes to the Ukraine war e

“When President Biden signed a bill into law that provided $61 billion worth of extra aid to Ukraine, there were sighs of relief in Kyiv.”

US aid including “an array of artillery, rocket systems, anti-tank munitions and ammunition” will bolster Ukraine’s efforts against Putin’s expected summer offensive, reports The Times’s Anthony Lloyd.

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