Valentina Ocheretna waited in vain for weeks for a call from her son Sasha, who was wounded in combat in March while fighting Russian troops in the city of Mariupol with the Azov battalion, extremists for some, but with a solid reputation among Ukrainians. For eight years, Sasha fought alongside this regiment, a battalion of volunteers originally from the extreme right, later integrated into the National Guard, whose members were accused of having ties to extremists. "Sasha chose to defend his country. And no one can blame him for that," Valentina told AFP in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. This battalion...