Part of the Ukrainian fighters defending Mariupol is the controversial Azov Battalion, a right-wing group with ties to extremists across Euorpe. Mariupol is one of the worst-hit cities in Ukraine. A short video doing the rounds on the internet shows a screen in what is presumably a Ukrainian military vehicle crossing a village in the area of Mariupol. In a side street, there are armored vehicles, on which a white letter “Z” is visible, the sign of Russian troops in Ukraine. Shots are heard and what is apparently a Russian vehicle opens fire. The notorious so-called Azov Battalion, also known as the Azov Regiment, posted this video earlier this week on its Telegram channel. It announced that it had destroyed three Russian armored vehicles and four infantry fighting vehicles, and killed “many infantry.” Then it released a picture of a dead man in uniform, purported to be a Russian general whom it had killed. It is difficult to verify these claims. The city of Mariupol, which has a population of 500,000, is primarily being defended by the Azov Battalion. This is one of the places, along with Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and the country’s second-largest city Kharkiv, where Russia is conducting its war particularly brutally Since early March, the city has been under siege and subjected to heavy bombardment. There is no electricity, little water, and scarce food supplies.