A Russian military court has handed down long prison sentences to several members of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, which led the defense of the key city of Mariupol during the early months of the war. The defendants were convicted on Wednesday of charges including violent seizure of power and participation in a terrorist organization and given prison terms ranging from 13 to 23 years, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia. Russia has sought to paint the Azov Regiment as made up of Nazis and nationalists, allegations the group denies, and the US last year lifted a ban on supplying them weapons. The city of Mariupol became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance, after Ukrainian soldiers, including members of the Azov unit, and residents sheltered for weeks underground in 2022 at the city’s massive Azovstal steelworks plant refusing to surrender to Russian forces. The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don announced…
