By Tatiana Prophet

According to a report published last September by the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University, since 2018 a paramilitary group with ties to Azov Battalion has taken to social media to publicly congratulate its members who were graduates of officer training with American, Canadian and other NATO armed forces at Ukraine’s National Academy of the Army in Yavoriv, western Ukraine (the same base which was reportedly bombed on March 13 of this year by Russian forces).

It’s hard to imagine how U.S. army officers could be training recruits with ties to violent paramilitary gangs; but in Ukraine, the military and the street gangs are often one and the same (see the absorption of Azov Battalion into the Ukraine National Guard). Further, it is highly unlikely that American and NATO officials encouraged such membership; those who commented for an academic report on the subject said they had expected Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence to screen recruits.