On August 2, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized the Azov Regiment as a terrorist organization and banned it within the territory of Russia.

The recognition of Azov as a terrorist organization means that the soldiers who are in Russian captivity can be sentenced for life without the right to pardon or exchange.

Moreover, in the territory of the so-called ‘L/DNR’, where a significant part of the Azov POWs are kept, they may face the death sentence.

The soldiers of Azov regiment had been defending Mariupol and Azovstal plant for several months. However, when the defenders ran out of ammunition and food, and there were many wounded fighters at the factory, the highest leadership of Ukraine gave the order to surrender to the Russian invaders. The UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross undertook to guarantee the safety of the captive soldiers.

Responding to the Russia’s court verdict, Azov regiment made a statement on Telegram.

The statement says that this way the Russian Federation tries to explain war crimes, in particular the public execution of prisoners of war from the Azov regiment in Olenivka.

‘The empire, which every day threatens to destroy the world with nuclear weapons, whose president called ‘to kill people in toilets’, blew up houses with own citizens, suffocated own and Syrian women and children with poisonous gas, must be punished once and for all’, the statement stressed.

Azov called on the US Department of State and authorized bodies of other countries to recognize the Russian Federation as a terrorist state. The fighters noted that the Russian army commits war crimes every day and has been doing it for many years.

‘The whole world must unite against the terrorist state!’ the statement concluded.