The US was already arming Azov, but the State Department has now made it official US policy.
This is in stark contrast to a 2018 State Department report on Ukraine that documented numerous gross violations of Human Rights:
Human rights issues included: civilian casualties, enforced disappearances, torture, and other abuses committed in the context of the Russia-induced and -fueled conflict in the Donbas region; abuse of detainees by law enforcement; harsh and life-threatening conditions in prisons and detention centers; arbitrary arrest and detention; censorship; blocking of websites; refoulement; the government’s increasing failure to hold accountable perpetrators of violence against activists, journalists, ethnic minorities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons; widespread government corruption; and worst forms of child labor.
Azov was not specifically named in that report, but there has been a long standing ban on sending weapons to Azov due to their Nazi ideology. This ban was first passed in March 2018 in HR 1625:
Sec. 8129. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to provide arms, training, or other assistance to the Azov Battalion.
While the announcement was just made that the US will no longer ban weapons transfers to Azov, it is clear that they were in violation of this act previously. The official Twitter account of the Azov Brigade, @azov_media, posted on March 24, 2024:
Captain Andrii "Spider" Ihnatiuk, Head of the Humanitarian Support of the Personnel Section of the 12th Special Forces Brigade Azov of the National Guard of Ukraine, has completed the CIMIC (J9) training course. The course was conducted by the U.S. Special Operations Command Europe USA, with the support of instructors from European countries. The participation of Azov Brigade personnel in such courses further deepens the integration of advanced standards of Western armies into the Ukrainian army.
The US does not respect their own laws, let alone any so called international rules based order.
Deranged blue MAGA liberals will dismiss this official policy of arming Nazis as necessary to stop the evil Putin. Putin is clearly no friend to the working class, but if the answer to Putin is propping up and arming Nazis, that’s simply insane. As is the notion that Russia is the fascist state, not Ukraine. Putin is an anti-communist and Russia can be viewed as a Bonapartist regime, but to claim that Ukrainian Nazis are the lesser of two evils is simply absurd.
Stephen Cohen dismantled the fear mongering around Russia in an article for The Nation in 2018. And Marlene Laruelle has debunked Russia as a fascist state here.
There is very little nuance to be had here. While people may say not everything is black and white, when it comes to arming Nazis, that is clearly bad. There can be no circumstance where arming Nazis is acceptable. Even if they were using the weapons to kill other Nazis, it would not be helpful to give them more weapons. Yet the Biden regime has chosen to arm them and the entire Democratic Party including faux-socialists AOC and Bernie Sanders have backed this decision. This illustrates the bankrupcy of the Democratic Party.
No war but the class war.
Further Information
GT investigates: Evidence suggests US may have supported neo-Nazi Azov Battalion
Azov Brigade Invades London, Greeted as Liberators
Azov Brigade commander thanks US for authorising use of US-supplied weapons – video