WASHINGTON, October 14. /TASS/. The United States seems to be increasingly forgetful about the past, and is now ready even to glorify Nazism in its ‘maniacal desire to denigrate’ Russia, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said.

"It seems that in a maniacal desire to "denigrate and abolish" Russia, the United States is ready even to glorify Nazism, against which the peoples of our countries heroically fought during World War II," he said in a statement, released on Thursday.

The statement came in response to the visit of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov battalion members to the United States and their engagement in "educational activities" on the US territory.

"We have noted media reports about the meetings of fighters of the Azov battalion (recognized in Russia as a terrorist organization) with students of top U.S. universities. Representatives of the neo-Nazi paramilitary organization spoke in front of an audience in Stanford University," he said.

"There is no doubt regarding the kind of ideas the Ukrainian terrorists - with blood on their hands from the killings of civilians - are spreading among the youth," he said. "Let us recall the martyrs of Odessa burned alive in the House of Trade Unions in May 2014, the elderly, women and children of Donbass killed in atrocious and barbaric shelling by neo-Nazis."

He reiterated that the organization "professes a misanthropic and fascist ideology, which the West is well aware of." "The official symbol of Azov is a sign of one of the SS divisions of Nazi Germany," Antonov added.

"We would like to remind that American lawmakers appealed to the US Secretary of State in 2019 to include the Azov in the list of foreign terrorist organizations. It was said that congressmen were shocked by the report of Soufan Center that Azov had turned into an international agency for recruiting and training ultra-right radicals around the world," the diplomat continued.

"Is it really for the sake of defeating Russia on the battlefield that Americans will stand in line with the fascist thugs from the Azov battalion and defend the Nazi ideology?" he asked rhetorically.

Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov Battallion was designated as a terrorist organization by Russia’s Supreme Court on August 2, 2022. Its operations in Russia are prohibited.