To mark the anniversary of the founding of the volunteer formation Azov Brigade — which over the past 12 years evolved into the 12th Special Purpose Brigade Azov and later became the basis for the formation of the 1st Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine Azov — “New Country” dedicated a thematic discussion to how the war has changed from the first combat operations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 2014 to the present day.
“The defence of Mariupol was a true feat, without which our country and our war would have been completely different. It is a symbol. Amid the whirlwind of other events, the memory of it is gradually fading, but these men and women set the tone for resistance and the indomitability of the Ukrainian spirit,” said Ihor Liski, chairman of the supervisory board of EFI Group (which jointly implements the “New Country” project with LB.ua) explaining the choice of topic and speakers for the discussion.
“Azov Brigade is a unit with its own internal training system, one that builds motivation and promotes patriotic education. I believe a new Ukrainian army begins with Azov. And the military are the new elite of Ukraine. It is this elite that should speak about how they see Ukraine five or ten years after victory, what mobilisation should look like, what kind of army Ukraine needs, what role it should play in European security, and so on,” Ihor Liski added.
So what changes has the Ukrainian army already undergone? How has the battlefield evolved? What about troop training and weaponry? What changes are still needed? What should the Ukrainian military look like, what is it lacking, and how can this be fixed? These were among the issues we discussed, alongside the transformation and reform of Azov itself, with:
- Chief Sergeant of the 1st Azov Corps Kyrylo Masalitin, call sign “Maslo”;
- Chief Sergeant of the 12th Special Purpose Brigade Azov Ihor Shelepyonok, call sign “Mactavish”;
- Chief Sergeant of the 2nd Battalion of the 12th Special Purpose Brigade Azov, call sign “Woody”;
- Rina Reznik (“Rina”, Daryna Smolnikova), head of the Azov Brigade Support Service.
Azov is an example of how quickly and effectively a military unit can develop. According to Chief Sergeant of the 1st Azov Corps Kyrylo Masalitin (“Maslo”), after leaving Mariupol in 2022, the unit lost virtually everything, but by 2023 it had already managed to take part in the counteroffensive.
“In 2022, when some officers, sergeants and soldiers were evacuated from Azovstal by helicopter, they were tasked with beginning to rebuild Azov Brigade — what we then called rebuilding it ‘on the mainland’. And when we returned to service after the prisoner exchange in 2023, it was difficult to restore the battalions from scratch — we had lost absolutely everything, there was nothing left. But we got back into formation fairly quickly. We started forming the battalion in early 2023, in January-February, and by early June we were already carrying out our first combat mission. That was during the counteroffensive. And now we’ve reached the point where we are already a corps. We have five brigades under our command, a sixth is being formed, and many other units are being created as well,” said “Maslo”.
According to Chief Sergeant of the 12th Special Purpose Brigade Azov Ihor Shelepyonok (“Mactavish”), the training of servicemen has changed significantly since 2014.
“When I joined the unit, driven purely by internal motivation and the desire to defend the state, our training lasted just two weeks. And it was not any kind of systematic preparation: basically, whoever knew something shared it, and that was it — then you were sent to the unit, given some minimal training, and immediately assigned combat and service missions.
“…Now there is an understanding of what a serviceman actually needs to be taught. The realities of war have become clearer. Because back then, when I joined the unit after training, after preparation, I did not even understand what awaited me next. …Under current conditions, every fighter or recruit who joins a unit already understands about 90% of the realities of modern warfare on the ground,” noted Ihor Shelepyonok (“Mactavish”).
“The fighters who are now fighting and managing to survive are ‘Swiss Army knife’ soldiers — with an enormous range of skills. And this knowledge base is not just about survival, but about being an effective fighter, a reliable person for their comrades, capable of carrying out assigned tasks. An infantryman gives blood on positions, operates a drone like the Avata for reconnaissance of forward positions before an assault or clearing operation, acts as an electronic warfare operator, rides an ATV to move, uses any weapon available and engages with it. This is the baseline today,” added Chief Sergeant of the 2nd Battalion of the 12th Special Purpose Brigade Azov Brigade, call sign “Woody”, to the discussion on modern training of servicemen. “What has changed in our modern army, and where everyone is heading — some faster, some slower — is the emphasis on making the soldier primarily intelligent.”
The role and capabilities of medical services in the military are also changing, noted Rina “Rina” Reznik, head of the Support Service of the Azov Brigade. She explained in detail how it works in her brigade.
“We were lucky — we have excellent leadership in the healthcare sphere in the brigade, and therefore medicine for us covers everything related to life and health. It’s not only about the wounded, but also sick soldiers, soldiers with chronic somatic conditions, maintaining their health during training, and a huge analytical component regarding how we transform our approach to training personnel — both soldiers and combat medics,” explains Rina Reznik.
“And the Support Service is our latest addition, and in fact a very strong one. We decided to close the loop: if the main task of military medicine (and we must understand that military and civilian medicine are slightly different) is to return soldiers to service as quickly and as effectively as possible, then we need to cover the entire journey.
“If we look at it institutionally, a brigade is not an active agent in providing assistance to servicemen at the stage when a soldier leaves the stabilization point and goes somewhere — to one hospital or another. That path is often very chaotic, and the Support Service exists as a coordinator and support for existing state systems. When we were created, it was important for us to become a mature institution — not a ‘tribe’ that rushes in and tells everyone how to treat people — but an institution that supports soldiers in this process while keeping them as active subjects in their own treatment. That’s why it’s called the Support Service. There are many different names for such structures, but we chose this one deliberately, because it carries a lot of meaning.
A soldier does not need patronage or guardianship — a soldier needs support, assistance, and navigation, essentially case management. That is what we built the Support Service on,” emphasized Rina Reznik.
The full text version of the discussion will be published soon on LB.ua.
