The legendary Azov Brigade has restored its capacity and is already performing combat missions, Col Mykola Urshalovych, deputy director of the planning department at the National Guard, has said.
"The legendary Azov Special Forces Brigade has restored its capacity and started performing combat missions in the area of the Serebryanske forestry," Urshalovych said.
According to him, Azov fighters are reliably holding fort and inflicting devastating losses in manpower and equipment on Russians.
For instance, on 15 August, the brigade's artillery destroyed a mortar crew and a BAT-2 engineering vehicle in the area of the Serebryanske forestry. Urshalovych noted that both targets were hit directly, which once again confirms the high level of this unit.
In July, National Guard Commander Oleksandr Pivnenko said that Azov commanders were preparing to be dispatched to the front. There is no ban on their participation in combat.
The five Mariupol defenders who were released from Russian captivity in September 2022 were supposed to stay in Turkey until the end of the war, according to an agreement with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. These are the commander of Azov, Hero of Ukraine Denys Prokopenko (Redis), his deputy Svyatoslav Palamar (Kalyna), acting commander of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade Serhiy Volynskyy (Volyna), Oleh Khomenko and Denys Shleha from the National Guard of Ukraine.
However, they were brought home during President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit to Turkey on 8 July.