Lieutenant Colonel Denys Prokopenko (alias Redis), Commander of the 12th Azov Special Forces Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine, made a speech by videolink to delegates at the EstMil.tech 2024 military conference in Tallinn, Estonia, on 25 January.
Ukraine had high hopes for 2023. Many dreamed the war would end with Ukraine’s victory and that they would finally be able to visit liberated Crimea after nine years of Russian occupation. Ukraine’s much-anticipated summer counteroffensive, aimed at liberating the south, ultimately failed.
The Azov National Guard Brigade has conducted tactical exercises under the leadership of commander Denys Prokopenko, known by his alias Redis, who recently came back to Ukraine from Türkiye, where he was transferred after being held in Russian captivity.
The senior officers of the former Mariupol garrison, including the commander Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Denys Prokopenko, are permitted to return to the front to fight Russian invasion forces.