Azov Battalion commander found dead 

KYIV – A high-ranking commander of Ukraine’s Azov Battalion has been found dead in his apartment in the town of Bucha, outside Kyiv. The press service of the Azov regiment, formerly a volunteer militia unit, said on Twitter on July 27 that Yaroslav Babych, a deputy chief of Azov’s civil staff, was found hanged in the morning of July 26. No further details were immediately available. Investigations have been launched into the death. The Azov Battalion was formed in 2014 to fight Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Azov is now part of the Internal Affairs Ministry’s National Guard. (RFE/RL, with reporting by UNIAN)