The Supreme Court of Russia on Tuesday recognized the Ukrainian Azov Regiment as a “terrorist organization”, reports Reuters.

The Azov Nationalist Regiment was one of the most prominent Ukrainian military formations fighting against Russia in eastern Ukraine.

It was the Prosecutor General of Russia in May who appealed to the Supreme Court to recognize the Azov regiment in Ukraine as a “terrorist organization”, the request was made on the day of the surrender of Ukrainian fighters hidden at the Azovstal metal plant, the last bastion of Ukrainian defense in Mariupol.

Members of an organization recognized by the court as terrorist in Russia are subject to criminal liability. Thus, its leaders are subject to imprisonment for a term of 15 to 20 years and a fine of up to 1 million rubles, and for ordinary participants – imprisonment for a term of 5 to 10 years with a fine of up to 500 thousand rubles, reports TASS.

“Fighters of the Ukrainian battalion “Azov” deserve to die by hanging”

At the end of last week, the Russian Embassy in the UK posted an extremely harsh message on Twitter, which claimed that “members of the Ukrainian Azov Battalion deserve to die by hanging,” according to The Guardian.

• “Azov fighters deserve to be executed, but not by firing squad, but by hanging, because they are not real soldiers. They deserve a humiliating death,” the Russian Embassy in Great Britain said in a Twitter message.

Twitter said the post violated its “hateful conduct” rules, but chose to post a warning instead of removing the post about Ukraine’s Azov battalion, which has been accused of supporting the far right, in its entirety.

The announcement came a day after an attack on a prison in the Russian-controlled east of the country where Ukrainian prisoners of war, many of them soldiers from the Azov Regiment, were being held, killed more than 50 people and injured dozens. Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the attack.

Kyiv’s reaction

Ukrainian officials condemned the message from the Russian embassy in the UK on Saturday. Head of the Administration of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak reacted in Telegram:

• “Russia is a terrorist state. In the 21st century, only savages and terrorists can diplomatically talk about the fact that people deserve to be hanged. Russia is a state sponsor of terrorism. What other evidence is needed?” – he wrote.
• “Read this when you say that Russia should not be isolated. There is no difference between Russian diplomats who call for the execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war and Russian troops who do it at Olenivka. All of them are involved in these war crimes and should be held accountable,” Ukrainian diplomacy spokesman Oleg Nikolenko wrote on Twitter.

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