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Servicemen of the 12th Special Forces Brigade Azov of the National Guard of Ukraine fire a howitzer towards Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine April 5, 2024.
Washington lifts ban on controversial Ukrainian brigade
The Biden administration haslifted a long-standing ban on funding for Ukraine’s controversial Azov Brigade. Critics of this regiment, not just in Moscow, say some founding members of a volunteer group called the Azov Battalion, formed 10 years ago in response to Russia’s 2014 aggression in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, had links to neo-Nazis, and the US banned all support for the group. Two years later, aUN report accused the Azov group of “looting of civilian property, leading to displacement” in that region.
But today’s Azov Brigade, now part of Ukraine’s National Guard, claims fighters with links to ultra-nationalists long ago left the group, and a State Department spokesman reportedlytold the BBC that a review “found no evidence of gross violations of human rights” by the current group.
It’s one more sign the White House worries that Russia could make big gains in Ukraine this summer and long-stalled US support for Ukraine’s defenses will be partly to blame.
A much bigger boost for Ukraine could come later this week if the US and others agree at the G7 summit to usethe interest from hundreds of billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine's defense and reconstruction.
Ukrainian fighters from the Azov Regiment searched and guarded by Russian troops in Mariupol.
What We’re Watching: Putin’s propaganda, new Iran-Israel feud, Title 42 tussle
Putin’s new (propaganda) weapon
Since Russia’s invasion on February 24, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, not Russia’s Vladimir Putin, has waged a winning “information war.” Zelensky’s video speeches to foreign governments, the UN, and on Monday to the World Economic Forum at Davos have brought his country substantial military, economic, and political support. Stories like Monday’s anti-war resignation of a senior Russian diplomat and the highly publicized conviction of a Russian soldier for a war crime further boost Ukraine’s momentum. But last week’s surrender of hundreds of Ukrainian fighters from a Mariupol steel plant gives Russia a new propaganda weapon Putin could use for weeks or months to come. Many of the captured fighters belong to the Azov Regiment, a group with a history of ultra-nationalist, white-supremacist politics. While Ukraine’s government says it wants to recover these soldiers in exchange for captured Russians, a leader of pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists said Monday that all these prisoners should be tried for war crimes in Donetsk. A highly publicized trial of Ukrainians as right-wing war criminals won’t change many minds on either side about the war itself, but it could provide Putin a powerful distraction from a season of bad news for Russia.
For Israel, is a bad Iran deal better than none at all?
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has vowed to “avenge” the killing of a high-ranking Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps colonel killed over the weekend in a Bond-style drive-by in Tehran. Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodayari, who oversaw the regime’s operations in Iraq and Syria, was shot outside his home by assailants who sped off on motorcycles. It was the highest-profile assassination in Iran since nuclear architect Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed in a high-tech operation in November 2020. Both attacks are suspected internationally as Mossad operations, but Israel never admits to its surreptitious efforts. Timing is key: just last week, Israel said it foiled an attempt by the IRGC to lure Israelis abroad to kidnap or harm them – and that Khodayari was behind that scheme. This flare-up comes amid reports that Iran is on the cusp of having enough enriched uranium to produce four nuclear weapons. Fearing the escalating situation – and the deterioration of nuclear negotiations in Europe – anonymous members of the Israeli security apparatus told the Jerusalem Post on Monday that a sub-par nuclear deal is preferable to no nuclear deal at all. The next few weeks will be crucial.
Is Biden really upset by Title 42 block?
A federal judge in Louisiana has blocked the Biden administration from lifting Title 42, a Trump-era immigration law allowing the US to turn away asylum-seekers at the US-Mexico border on public health grounds. President Biden had long pledged to implement a more humane immigration policy, scrapping the measure that has resulted in tens of thousands of migrants being expelled to oft-dangerous Mexican border towns. Immigration has long been a lightning rod in US politics, culminating in some Republican-led states suing the Biden administration for attempting to lift Title 42, claiming that it would force them to use taxpayer dollars to provide social services for migrants. The Biden administration will appeal the Louisiana verdict, but White House outrage on this can be interpreted — at least in part — as an act of political theater intended to placate the left flank of the Democratic Party. As the appeal makes its way through the courts, Title 42 is unlikely to be lifted before November’s midterm elections, which is politically handy for Biden considering that 60% of Americans say they are quite concerned about illegal immigration.This comes to you from the Signal newsletter team of GZERO Media. Subscribe for your free daily Signal today.
A service member of pro-Russian troops stands guard next to a combat vehicle, with the symbol "Z" seen on its side, in Mariupol, Ukraine.
What We're Watching: A rare win for Putin, Chile drafts constitution, North Korea's COVID catastrophe
Putin enjoys rare win in Ukraine
This week brought more bad news for Vladimir Putin and his invasion. Ukrainian fighters have pushed Russians back from the city of Kharkiv, the fight for the Donbas appears to have stalled, and Russian commentators are becoming more open about their country’s military failures on the internet and even on state-controlled TV. But the surrender of hundreds of Ukrainian fighters from a Mariupol steel plant gives Russia a genuinely important win. First, it clears away the final obstacle to establishing a land bridge that connects Russian-occupied Crimea with the Russian border. Second, it’s a big propaganda win for Putin, who insists the war is aimed partly at “de-Nazifying” Ukraine. Many of those who surrendered belong to the Azov Battalion, a group with a history of ultra-nationalist, white-supremacist politics. Ukraine’s government says it hopes the now-captive troops can be traded for captive Russians, but Russia’s parliament may ban any release of Azov prisoners. Ultimately, Putin will decide their fate. Are they most valuable to him as trophies, or as pawns who provide him with an opportunity to appear magnanimous?
Chile drafts new constitution
Two years ago, the streets of usually staid Chile exploded with inequality protests so big that the government was forced to start the process of rewriting the country’s constitution, a text rooted in the days of Augusto Pinochet’s right-wing dictatorship. Earlier this week, after 10 months of haggling, the constituent assembly made the new draft public. It expands the social safety net, bolsters the power of workers, recognizes Chile’s indigenous population, and establishes rights to healthcare and water. It also streamlines the political system, scrapping the Senate in favor of a single chamber legislature. But it stops short of guaranteeing a right to housing (a major demand of progressive protest leaders), limits state power over the lucrative mining sector, and sticks clearly to the country’s market-based economic model. What happens next? Chileans will vote on a streamlined version of the document in a September plebiscite. So far, support is weak: 46% of those polled said they opposed it, with only 38% in favor. Enthusiasm for the draft will likely grow as the government drums up support, but even if the document is approved, it will probably be by a narrow margin in a deeply polarized society.