Ukraine’s manpower crisis has forced Kyiv to adapt in ways it avoided earlier in the war. The latest example: Azov has stood up a unit specifically for foreigners. For years, foreigners found their way into different Ukrainian outfits—sometimes with ease, sometimes through bureaucracy, sometimes under the table. Azov, however, was never structured to absorb outsiders on a large scale. That has changed.

When I was in Ukraine , foreigners weren’t categorically barred from serving in Azov, but there was no real infrastructure for them. A few slipped in, but they were the exception. By contrast, Third Assault Brigade—born out of Azov veterans from the SSO—was more open. It became a sort of “Azov light,” still with its nationalist undertones but ultimately part of Ukraine’s branding push.

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