I think there's more than a grain of truth in what Putin says about Nazism in Ukraine. Like the German Nazis, the Azov movement has sought to unify a divided country by means of sophisticated propaganda, as well as violence and intimidation.

They differ from the German Nazis in that their violence has been directed primarily against "separatists", i.e. assertive Russian speakers, rather than against Jewish communities.

Geographically and culturally, Mariupol is part of the Russian-speaking Donbass region, although since 2014 the Azovs and their allies have kept Mariupol politically separated from Donetsk and Lugansk.