Peskov: nationalists like "Azov" are gaining strength in Ukraine

Nationalist groups such as the Azov Battalion (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) are gaining strength in Ukraine. This was announced on March 28 by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

"As [Russian President Vladimir] Putin emphasized yesterday Putin, in fact, nationalist units like Azov are gaining strength, they are exerting more and more influence," he said at a briefing.

Peskov explained this by saying that the Ukrainian authorities are losing control of the situation, which leads to the introduction of nationalist organizations into various spheres of society. The Kremlin's official representative also noted that the Azov is currently undergoing the process of transformation into a division.

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Alexander Bastrykin, Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, announced on March 3 that more than 140 members of the Ukrainian nationalist group Azov had already been convicted in Russia for crimes against civilians in Donbas. In total, the investigation of 423 criminal cases initiated against 566 Ukrainian military and mercenaries has been completed.

Later, on March 26, a court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced 23 Azov militants to prison terms ranging from 13 to 23 years.