Azov becomes Separate Assault Brigade with Army’s Ground Forces

That’s according to Andriy Biletskyi, founder and first commander of the unit, Ukrinform reports.

"The Azov Specops Regiment is now the Third Separate Assault Brigade as part of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Our combat path begins from the most difficult area, Bakhmut," Biletskyi said.

According to the unit’s first commander, the decisive battle in this war is still ahead, and it needs to be scaled up.

"That's why the military command imposes on us a new responsibility. And therefore, all Russian freshly mobilized troops, convicts, Wagnerites, Solovyovs (a hint to a propaganda TV host), and war reporters will have a lot to make up fables and legends about. We’re preparing plenty of surprises for them. The winter will definitely be hot," Biletskyi wrote.

The Azov Regiment is expanding to a brigade level: "The evolution of the Azov unit within the Armed Forces will continue."

"From now on, we are the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Our updated banners symbolize durability of Ukrainian statehood traditions: from princely times, the Cossack period, and first liberation fights to the present day. Our strength lies in highly motivated and ideological fighters, our strength lies in the fact that the unit was created on the same basis as the most effective combat unit of Ukraine’s defense forces, the Azov Special Operations Regiment, which showed steel resistance while defending Mariupol," says the caption under the video posted on the unit's YouTube channel.

As reported, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said Meta vowed to discontinue the blocking of content about the Azov Regiment and to unblock hundreds of accounts run by the Ukrainian military.

The Azov Battalion was created in 2014 as a volunteer formation. Later, it was reformatted into a regiment and became part of the National Guard. Its fighters took part in the defense of Mariupol in the spring of 2022, which lasted more than 80 days. On May 16, 2022, the evacuation of defenders from the Azovstal plant, their last stronghold encircled by the Russian invaders, began, lasting several days.

On September 21, as a result of the POW exchange, more than 200 Ukrainian defenders were returned from Russian captivity, as well as ten foreign nationals who fought on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Of the Marioupol defenders released from captivity were the commander of the Azov Regiment, Denys Prokopenko ("Redis"), his deputy Sviatoslav Palamar ("Kalyna"), Commander of the 36th Marine Brigade Serhiy Volynskyi ("Volyna"), Azov’s Press Officer Dmytro Kozatsky ("Orest"), and others.

About 2,000 Azovstal defenders remain in Russian captivity, including some 700 Azov fighters.