OMNI

US-NATO-UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR ANTHOLOGY #23:
NAZIS AND NEO-NAZIS IN UKRAINE

June 19, 2022

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice and Ecology

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What’s at stake regarding the war.

First, an important motivation of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is the long, active, armed presence of Nazis and then Neo-Nazis there. During WWII--to Russians the Great Patriotic War against the Nazi invasion, let’s not forget, in which Ukrainians fought on the Nazi side--killed some 20 million Russians. The essays explain how Nazi presence in the Ukraine exacerbated Putin’s fear of NATO and helped to motivate his invasion of Ukraine. Second, the war has nothing to do with our or the world’s urgent problems at home, except to make all of them worse! And the war could have been prevented, then and still now stopped.

Second, Bacevich’s essay at the end makes the case that “fascists” abroad offer no existential threat to the United States. The US constitutional system is threatened, but that threat is within, including an attempted coup.

You might want to take several months to read these critically, but scan this Contents to glimpse the history of US warfare against the Soviet Union, a history that has been so grossly under-reported by the US mainstream media that now our leaders and our nation are going to war yet again based upon ignorance and bigotry induced by the US propaganda system.

Here are a few articles giving Ukraine’s history from pre-WWII to present, but most of them deal with the civil war beginning 2014 between the Ukrainian breakaway provinces, supported by Russia, following the coup against the elected pro-Russian president, and the main Ukrainian “Maidan” government in Kiev.

[The “Maidan” uprising of 2014 is named after Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv and refers to the anti-Russian citizens including neo-fascists who threw out the elected pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in a coup and installed the anti-Russian “Maidan” regime.]

CONTENTS US, NATO, UKRAINE, RUSSIA #23, Nazis in Ukraine (twenty essays)

Evan Reif. 3-Part Series. I. From Pre-WWII Ukrainian Fascists to Post-WWII Anti-Communist Heroes. [Stepan Bandera was the anti-communist head of the militant wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, and during WWII supported the Nazis.]

II. Yaroslav Stetsko and CIA Secret War Behind Iron Curtain.

[I received a welcome article employing careful analysis of the evidence pertaining to how many ethnic Russians were killed by the Ukrainian army from 2014 to 2022 by Michael Karadjis. Truth is the first and continuing victim of war, leaders lie, and gullible, patriotic populations, the US sometimes foremost, rush to the slaughter. So I believe critical thinking should be taught from K-12. https://mkaradjis.com/2022/06/16/on-the-fantastic-tale-that-the-ukrainian-army-killed-14000-ethnic-russians-in-donbas-between-2014-and-2022/ These 23 anthologies serve that need by resisting the one-sided, militaristc reporting of the 2024- US-NATO-Ukraine-Russia war. of 2014-present. –Dick]

Ben Norton. “Inside Operation Gladio: How [CIA and] NATO Supported Nazis and Terrorists” v. USSR.

2014-

“Stadiums of Hate,” Violent Nazism and Racism in Ukraine.
Caitlin Johnstone. Azov Battalion Drops Neo-Nazi Symbol.

Stepan Malentsov. The War should be for socialism not just the denazification of Ukraine.

Gordon Hahn. “Eight Years Ago in Odessa.” The right-wing murder of pro-Russian protesters of the anti-Russian government that gained power by a coup.

Ron Ridenour. Iceland Welcomes Zelensky, But No Mention of some Inconvenient History.

Voices from Dombas: Malnikov and Katya A (Donetsk), Alexey Albu (Lugansk)

John Parker. Three More on Odessa.

Alexander Rubenstein. US Citizens Fighting with Ukrainian Army.

Caitlin Johnstone. Azov Battalion Removes Neo-Nazi Symbol.

Laurent Brayard. 3-part series on right-wing neo-nazi leaders: Biletsky, Igor Mosiychuk, and Evgueny Karas.

Mehmet Perinҫek. “The Donbas Diaries Part II: The Azov Battalions.”

Jacques Baud. Denounces Western coverage of Ukraine Invasion.”
Lev Golinkin. “Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are on the March in Ukraine.”

Andrew Bacevich. “The F-Word…Repurposed and Misapplied.”
Earlier anthologies contain additional articles on Ukrainian Nazis.

TEXTS: US, NATO, Ukraine, Russia Anthology #23: FROM NAZIS TO NEO-NAZIS IN UKRAINE I have tried to place most of these articles in rough chronological order of the contents of each.

Early History: Pre-WWII to Post-WWII and Into Cold War

Three articles by Evan Reif on Ukrainian Nazi Enemies during WWII became Anti-Soviet Heroes in 1945.

Evan Reif . “How pre-WW II Ukrainian fascists pioneered brutal terror techniques; later improved by CIA, now ironically taught to descendants.” Part I of a 3 Part Series on Ukrainian Fascism and the U.S. The history of Ukraine is long and rich. For millennia, the fertile lands of Ukraine with their black earth and rich seas have been highly contested.

Editor. Mronline.org (6-12-22).

Originally published: CovertAction Magazine on June 9, 2022 (more by CovertAction Magazine) | (Posted Jun 11, 2022)

Fascism, Inequality, Strategy, War Europe, Ukraine Newswire

During and Post-WWII

Evan Reif. How Monsters Who Beat Jews To Death in 1944 Became America’s Favorite “Freedom Fighters” in 1945—with a Little Help from their Friends at CIA. Jun 10, 2022 10:50 am.
Part II of a 3 Part series on Fascism and the CIA in Ukraine

Before long, the monsters who had beaten Jews to death with hammers just years before became America’s favorite “freedom fighters” […]

The post How Monsters Who Beat Jews To Death in 1944 Became America’s Favorite “Freedom Fighters” in 1945—with a Little Help from their Friends at CIA appeared first on CovertAction Magazine.

Read in browser » (Posted Jun 13, 2022)

Originally published: CovertAction Magazine on June 10, 2022 (more by CovertAction Magazine) |

Fascism, Inequality, State Repression, Strategy Americas, Europe, Ukraine, United States Newswire Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Nazi

Series on Fascism and the CIA in Ukraine

Yaroslav Stetsko, left, with bust of him in Ternopil in Ukraine. [Source: forward.com]

After the end of the Second World War, American intelligence immediately set about the work of rehabilitating the world’s fascists to fight the new war on Communism. From the transformation of the bloody “Devil of Showa” Nobusuke Kishi into the hand-picked Prime Minister of Japan, to Emil Augsburg, the architect of the Holocaust described as “Honest and idealist … enjoys good food and wine…unprejudiced mind…” by the CIA, it seems that Langley never met a fascist it couldn’t do business with.

Such was the case with Yaroslav Stetsko and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). Stetsko spent the war in the shadow of Stepan Bandera but eventually Stetsko would far surpass his friend in terms of prominence. Before long, the monsters who had beaten Jews to death with hammers just years before became America’s favorite “freedom fighters” and took their business global.

The Principality of Yaroslav
Therefore, I stand at the establishment of the extermination of the Jews and the expediency of transferring to Ukraine the German methods of exterminating Jews, excluding their assimilation. —Yaroslav Stetsko [I deleted photos.]

At the direction of Nazi war criminal Alfred Rosenberg, the Committee of Subjugated Nations was formed in 1943, with the idea to unite all anti-Soviet partisans under one banner. In reality, the bulk of its members were OUN soldiers, and its leader was the second-in-command of the OUN, Yaroslav Stetsko. CSN changed its name to the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations or ABN in 1946. The name ABN will be used for the sake of consistency.

Stetsko was a close friend of OUN-B founder Stepan Bandera. Like Bandera he was a militant anti-Semite equating Marxism with Judaism, while calling for the extermination of both. Even after the war, when his American bosses forced him to soften his public statements, he still called for an “ethnically pure” Ukraine, purged of Jews, Poles and Russians.

Stetsko believed that his own Galician Ukrainians were the direct descendants of the Rus, the Norse conquerors who eventually became the first Tsars under Rurik. These Nordic people were Stetsko’s master race, imbued with all the qualities you would expect.

On the other hand, Stetsko considered Russians to be Asiatic rather than European. Russians were seen as the descendants of the Mongols and Huns, making them naturally tyrannical, cruel and deceitful. Stetsko’s ideology would become the foundation on which modern Ukrainian fascists have built their movements. The parallels to Nazism are obvious enough that it is surprising to see this ideology find a home in the Wall Street Journal today.

In 1944, sensing the imminent demise of Nazi Germany, the OUN reached out to British intelligence. The two sides met at the Vatican, not long after which OUN’s leadership surrendered to the Americans. Spirited away to Munich, their Western patrons provided them luxury apartments and SS bodyguards. In the immediate aftermath of Nazi Germany’s defeat, many of OUN’s soldiers worked as hitmen in the vast network of “displaced persons” camps under the command of MI6.

It was the British and Germans who were the primary patrons of the old OUN at this moment. Notorious Nazi spymaster Reinhard Gehlen was not just the handler for Stetsko and Bandera, but also their friend. They met while the OUN was fighting for the Nazis and remained friends for the rest of their lives.

The first significant American support arrived in 1947, and with it a greatly expanded mandate.

As Peter Grose detailed in his book Operation Rollback: America’s Secret War Behind the Iron Curtain (Boston: Mariner Books, 2001), the CIA covertly provided arms, training and support for operations within the USSR itself where many nationalist forces continued to fight against the Red Army as partisans.

The nationalist forces in Ukraine were an amalgamation of SS remnants, OUN/UPA forces, criminals, and various other collaborator militias. Confined mostly to the forests of western Ukraine, they operated as bandits, raiding collective farms, ambushing soldiers, and assassinating Soviet officials. Jews and CPSU members were particularly coveted targets.

The CIA provided not only weapons but also inserted teams of spies and commandos. Fighting continued until the mid-1950s, with the last stragglers killed or arrested in 1960. MORE https://mronline.org/2022/06/13/how-monsters-who-beat-jews-to-death-in-1944-became-americas-favorite-freedom-fighters-in-1945/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-monsters-who-beat-jews-to-death-in-1944-became-americas-favorite-freedom-fighters-in-1945&mc_cid=0f8e972035&mc_eid=ab2f7bf95e

Part III forthcoming.

POST-WWII

“Inside Operation Gladio: How NATO Supported Nazis And Terrorists.” By Ben Norton, Multipolarista. Popular Resistance.org (5-10-22). Today, I have on Asa Winstanley to talk about a series that he’s been publishing at his Substack about Operation Gladio, that is the NATO ‘stay behind’ networks in Europe, and that is how in the first Cold War, NATO supported a bunch of former Nazis and fascists to wage a war against the Soviet Union but really it was also a war internally against socialism. And today, we’re going to talk about what Operation Gladio is. This is not that well known even though there’s so many documents that have been released proving definitively that after World War II, NATO, the CIA and European intelligence agencies created a... -more-

Euro 2012 – Stadiums of Hate: Watch the BBC Panorama Documentary [VIDEO]
Regarding violent Nazism and Racism in Ukraine; it is much more widespread than many are being led to believe. This BBC documentary shows thousands of sports fans chanting sig heil and doing the Nazi salute in unison, as well as racist violence and antisemitism, all over Ukraine (and Poland). -Abel

Full film: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x17b7u3?fbclid=IwAR27SGvWKjv4GnX-ANCLHTt_vAP1unnqOLTATBiG-Sfrec6qLAY-zwLa8O0

By World Soccer Talk May 29, 2012

https://worldsoccertalk.com/2012/05/29/euro-2012-stadiums-of-hate-watch-the-bbc-panorama-documentary-video/

An investigate reporter from BBC’s Panorama documentary show recently spent a month in Poland and Ukraine to see whether the issue of racism and hooliganism among ultras fans is as bad as was first feared.

With just days to go before the kick-off of the Euro 2012 championships, Panorama reveals shocking new evidence of racist violence and anti-semitism at the heart of Polish and Ukrainian football and asks whether tournament organiser UEFA should have chosen both nations to host the prestigious event.

Reporter Chris Rogers witnesses a group of Asian fans being attacked on the terraces of a Ukrainian premier league match and hears anti-Semitic chanting at games in Poland. And with exclusive access to a far right group in Ukraine which recruits and trains football hooligans to attack foreigners, Panorama asks: how safe will traveling football teams and their supporters be at this summer’s European festival of football?

CIVIL WAR 2014- BETWEEN KIEV UKRAINE and Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) supported by Russia,

[The complexity of this war is illustrated by a communist’s criticism of Putin and his oligarchs in an argument to reconceive the war for demilitarization and denazification into a struggle for socialism.]
By Stepan Malentsov In Defense of Communism, March 21, 2022 (Posted Mar 25, 2022)

(more by In Defense of Communism) . |

“Stepan Malentsov on Ukraine war: ‘The fundamental solution of the problem is only on the path of socialism.’” Editor. Mronline.org (3-26-22).

Movements, Socialism, Strategy, War Russia, Ukraine Newswire Bandera, Denazification of Ukraine, Donbass, President Vladimir Putin, Russia-Ukraine War, Russian Communist Workers Party, Stepan Malentsov, Ukraine War

Commenting on the developments in the Ukraine war, the First Secretary of the CC of the Communist Workers’ Party of Russia (RWCP) Stepan Malentsov pointed out the following

https://mronline.org/2022/03/25/stepan-malentsov-on-ukraine-war-the-fundamental-solution-of-the-problem-is-only-on-the-path-of-socialism/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=stepan-malentsov-on-ukraine-war-the-fundamental-solution-of-the-problem-is-only-on-the-path-of-socialism&mc_cid=33aa3f82ec&mc_eid=ab2f7bf95e

“Eight years ago in Odessa.” (2014-15). Editor. Mronline.org (5-31-22).

Gordon M. Hahn. “Eight years ago in Odessa.” Russian and Eurasian Politics. May 2, 2022 . (Posted May 30, 2022). Ideology, Inequality, State Repression, Strategy Europe, Russia, Ukraine Newswire Odessa
Eight years ago in Odessa [2014], the neofascist element in Ukrainian politics, then led by Dmitro Yarosh’s Right Sector, burned to death, shot, and otherwise killed at least some 45 anti-Maidan [pro-Russian] regime picketers inside the Trade Union Building. The attack was coordinated by Right Sector and the then chairman of Ukraine’s parliament Andriy Parubiy, a founder of a neo-Nazi party. There is video footage of Parubiy meeting with the leading Right Sector operative in Odessa the day before the same operative could be seen shooting at people in the burning Trade Union Building and talking by walkie-talkie as police and fire units stood by observing the carnage. I enclose in the appendix below a series of videotapes of the attack and other sources. Right Sector twice took ‘credit’ for the terrorist pogrom. The RS website’s first claim of responsibility for the terrorist pogrom was effusive about the atrocity: “May 2, 2014 is another bright page in our national history.” It claimed responsibility by noting that “about a hundred members of ‘Right Sector’ and patriotic-minded Odessa residents countered the rebels” and that “Dmitro Yarosh ignored the ‘expedience’ of the election campaign to coordinate the action against the Russian aggression.” (Eugene Trofymenko, “ATO Po-narodnomu, Abo chomu ne Vladimir Putin ne vviv viyska,” Pravyi Sektor, 2 May 2014, pravyysektor.info; see also gordonhahn.com; pravyysektor.info; gordonhahn.com; pravyysektor.info; and vesti-ukr.com). No one was ever prosecuted for the Odessa terrorist pogrom, and Dmitro Yarosh, whose organization claimed responsibility for “coordinating” the attack became a candidate for the Ukrainian presidency. He was never investigated or forced to go into hiding.

The Odessa attack followed the 20 February 2014 Maidan neofascist wing’s snipers massacre that killed over 100 demonstrators and police and wounded many more, in which Right Sector and other neo-fascist Ukrainian groups played a leading role. This terrorist attack was blamed on Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, leading to demonstrators’ seizing government buildings, including the Office of the President, forcing Yanukovych’s exodus from Kiev and removal from power. The Odessa attack was also preceded by the Maidan regime’s ban on the Russian language immediately after securing power in Kiev. This helped the Maidan coup to spark anti-Maidan uprisings in Crimea, Donbass, and Luhansk, including by police in Mariupol. The Odessa attack also followed the 14 April 2014 declaration by the new Maidan government in Kiev of an ‘anti-terrorist operation’ without making any attempt to negotiate with the Donbass rebels. The Odessa attack followed by one day the Ukrainian army’s killing of some 20 police–without any attempt at negotiations–in Mariupol, who declared their support for the anti-Maidan rebels in Luhansk.

The Odessa terrorist attack was ignored at the time by Western governments and described in Western media as a “fire that killed” etc. Not a single international or Western human rights organization investigated the crime. Here we have a second earlier microcosm of the present Russo-Ukrainian War. Already on full display were the Ukrainian Maidan regime’s uncompromising and violent approach to ethnic Russian and Russophone dissent and resistance, Western support for every radical step undertaken by the Maidan regime, and Western media citing only official Ukrainian sources and covering up the full truth about the blood-drenched and fascist-infested aspect of the ‘revolution of dignity’. Then NATO began training Ukrainian forces, some of who were former Right Sector members or members of other similar groups and gave direct assistance to similar groups.

These are uncomfortable facts that few in the West have had to face or ponder. Those who have understand that not only “Putin’s Russia” is to blame for the present war. Violence begets violence. Those who start the violence are often not the ones to put an end to it.

Does Iceland Set Benchmark for Peaceful and Politically Engaged People? By Ron Ridenour, Jun 17, 2022 04:23 pm.

CAM Correspondent Ron Ridenour Gives an Insider Perspective on the Pristine Island-Nation
Part I of II
Contradictions in human behavior came through clearly regarding my titular contention that Iceland might develop into a diplomatic non-military, peace-seeking country when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to Iceland recently. I chose that title before the new world order began on February 24, 2022—the beginning of World War III, I’m afraid.

That day, May 6, was the first time that a foreign head of state delivered a speech in the Althingi (meaning “assembly in the fields” parliament). ^[1]

The state welcomed Zelensky: “Iceland condems the Russian invasion of Ukraine and continues to provide support both with humanitarian efforts and assistance to refugees fleeing the war.”

Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, the country’s president, addressed Zelensky. “On behalf of the people of Iceland, I assure you our support and solidarity in your fight against Russia’s violent aggression…We share the same values, hopes and rights to enjoy freedom and peace.”

Nothing was said about the values, hopes and rights, freedom and peace of a fifth of Ukrainians, ethnic Russians, and others who openly oppose the two fascist parties—Social-Nationalists and Right Sector—which led the 2014 U.S.-backed coup against democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych. These fascist mercenaries form a major part of the official army. Nothing was said either about Zelensky’s advocacy of using nuclear weapons against Russia, or why Ukraine has dozens of U.S.-financed biological warfare laboratories. ^[2]

One of those armed groupings, Azov, is openly fascist. It honors Stepan Bandera, a Nazi-collaborator in WWII, who led the killing of more than one million Jews, ethnic Russians and Poles. Azov is part of the army that has been killing thousands of ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine (Donbas). Even CNN admits this. […]

The post Does Iceland Set Benchmark for Peaceful and Politically Engaged People? appeared first on CovertAction Magazine.

CENSORSHIP for WAR VS. HEARING BOTH SIDES for PEACE

“Voices from Donbass speak to U.S. anti-war movement.”

https://mronline.org/2022/04/09/voices-from-donbass-speak-to-u-s-anti-war-movement/

On March 27, the Socialist Unity Party and Struggle-La Lucha newspaper hosted a webinar called “Stop the War Lies: Voices from Donbass.” This was a unique opportunity for the U.S. anti-war movement to hear directly from people in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), whose voices are silenced by the Western mass media’s pro-Ukraine war propaganda.

A day before the event, organizers learned that the Zoom video conferencing service had suddenly blocked users in the DPR and LPR. Efforts to work around the ban through other services were unsuccessful, but thanks to pre-recorded messages from three speakers, the webinar was held successfully. The webinar was live streamed to Facebook and the full recording is available to watch on YouTube.

The webinar was chaired by John Parker, Socialist Unity Party candidate for U.S. Senate in California, and SLL co-editor Greg Butterfield. Messages of solidarity were delivered by Jacqueline Luqman of the Black Alliance for Peace and Carlos Martinez of the International Manifesto Group. Solidarity messages were also received from the Workers Voice Socialist Movement, Communist Workers League, International Action Center and others.

Special thanks to translators Jane Letova, a Donbass solidarity activist from Moscow, and Leonid Ilderkin, a leader of the Union of Political Refugees and Political Prisoners of Ukraine.

Following are transcripts of the speakers’ remarks.

Kristina Melnikova, journalist in Donetsk

Melnikova has covered Ukraine’s war on Donbass for several years.

Heavy shelling of the Donetsk People’s Republic continues. There are wounded people every day among civilians. There are civilian deaths. I think it’s very important that you get to hear about this, because this is something that is not covered in Western media.

The most civilian casualties are happening in the territories that are being liberated from the Ukrainian military by the army of the Donetsk People’s Republic, such as Mariupol. But in spite of this, shelling of front line cities and villages continues.

The biggest tragedy of the last few days, as you may have heard, is the rocket that fell in the center of Donetsk on March 14. There were over 20 killed and 30 wounded. There is a library next to the site and a lot of public transportation goes through there. MORE https://mronline.org/2022/04/09/voices-from-donbass-speak-to-u-s-anti-war-movement/

Follow Kristina Melnikova’s reporting on Telegram.

Katya A., activist in Donetsk

Katya A. is leader of the Aurora Women’s Club and a feminist, socialist and internationalist organizer.

I have been living in Donetsk for most of my life. I lived through almost the entire war and the economic blockade.

For more than a month we have been living in a phase of active escalation of the conflict. But I want to note that the escalation of the conflict to one degree or another took place through all eight years of the war. Since 2017, the intensity of shelling has gradually decreased, but people continued to die–from artillery shelling, mines and even from snipers. I’m talking about the civilian population of Donbass.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) report says that in the “territories not controlled by Ukraine” (LPR and DPR) since 2017, three times more civilians have suffered from the war than in the controlled ones. I do not take into account now the destruction of infrastructure, residential buildings and psychological harm.

According to official data, more than 1,600 residential buildings, more than 400 infrastructure facilities, including hospitals, schools, gas supply and water supply facilities, have been damaged in the DPR since Feb. 17 this year. The threat of complete disconnection of the republic from the water supply is hanging over us. You can imagine what this means in a pandemic.

People in frontline areas especially suffer from this situation. For example, in the Petrovsky district of Donetsk, the shelling is non-stop. In some areas, there’s been no water supply at all for a long time. This situation places a heavy burden on the shoulders of women, who still do most of the housework.

Our authorities have also been evacuating people since Feb. 17. But many people decided to stay. Many have elderly relatives who find it extremely difficult to make such trips. Some refused to go because they had already experienced the terrible phases of the 2014-2015 war. Some are afraid of the unstable refugee status. MORE https://mronline.org/2022/04/09/voices-from-donbass-speak-to-u-s-anti-war-movement/

Alexey Albu, political refugee, Lugansk

Albu is a coordinator of the Marxist organization Borotba (Struggle), banned in Ukraine. He is a survivor of the May 2, 2014, massacre at the Odessa House of Trade Unions.

I’m pleased to have the opportunity to speak to you, comrades.

In the Lugansk People’s Republic, life has changed a lot since the beginning of the joint military operation by Russia and the Donbass republics. The shelling of cities and towns has been stopped. Terrorist actions have been stopped.

I remember the days when the Ukrainian military was trying to place as many of their forces as possible near the LPR’s borders. And I also remember how, when that happened in January and February, the republic tried to bring it to the world’s attention that the Kiev regime was bringing more and more forces and weapons to the frontline.

The situation reached the point where the army and nazi regiments like Azov Battalion brought their reserves of artillery shells, explosive devices and fuel for their military vehicles to the closest point to the LPR and Lugansk, the capital city. This was clearly preparation for a major assault. It was at this point that the people of the republic began to evacuate their families abroad, to safety. MORE https://mronline.org/2022/04/09/voices-from-donbass-speak-to-u-s-anti-war-movement/

“Empire solves Ukraine’s Nazi problem with a logo change.”

Caitlin A. Johnstone. Mronline.org (6-3-22).

“The Azov Battalion has removed a neo-Nazi symbol from its insignia that has helped perpetuate Russian propaganda about Ukraine being in the grip of far-right nationalism,” The Times informs us.

(Posted Jun 02, 2022) Originally published: Caitlin A. Johnstone Blog on May 31, 2022 (more by Caitlin A. Johnstone Blog). Fascism, State Repression, Strategy, War Americas, Europe, Russia, Ukraine, United States Newswire Azov Battalion, Denazification of Ukraine, Nazi, NBC News, Neo-Nazi, President Vladimir Putin, propoganda, Reuters, the BBC, The Guardian, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky

Ahh, that’s much better. Problem solved.
British empire smut rag The Times has a new article out titled “Azov Battalion drops neo-Nazi symbol exploited by Russian propagandists,” which has got to be the most hilarious headline of 2022 so far (and I’m including The Onion and other intentionally funny headlines in the running). “The Azov Battalion has removed a neo-Nazi symbol from its insignia that has helped perpetuate Russian propaganda about Ukraine being in the grip of far-right nationalism,” The Times informs us. At the unveiling of a new special forces unit in Kharkiv, patches handed to soldiers did not feature the wolfsangel, a medieval German symbol that was adopted by the Nazis and which has been used by the battalion since 2014. Instead, they featured a golden trident, the Ukrainian national symbol worn by other regiments.

Yeah that’s how you solve Ukraine’s Nazi problem. A logo change.

3 Articles by Laurent Brayard

Laurent Brayard . “Andrei Biletsky, the neo-Nazi father of Azov.” Originally published: Donbass Insider on May 9, 2022 by (more by Donbass Insider) | (Posted May 10, 2022). Ideology, Philosophy, War Europe, Ukraine Newswire Andrei Biletsky, Azov regiment, Neo-Nazi, Russia-Ukraine War

The supreme heroes of the West are the mostly neo-Nazi soldiers of the Azov regiment. These heroes, who smell of sulphur and swastikas, the Western journalists do not want to hear about them, they are only heroic fighters of the free and democratic Ukraine, a fabulous country where life was good before the Russian special operation. To counter this low propaganda broadcast by all the French public or even private media, it is necessary to understand who are the men behind this Azov regiment and first of all, their founder, whose story alone speaks for itself. The truth will come out, sooner or later, and all attempts to hide the thousands of Ukrainian neo-Nazi volunteers are doomed to failure. It was the same with the famous biological weapons that Iraq was supposed to have, and this lie was even attempted against Syria a few years later. Today, French and European journalists are painting a dream picture of this iconic unit, which, let’s remember, was just one of many of its kind, the infamous retaliation battalions, that horribly illustrated themselves in eastern Ukraine and the Donbass, starting in 2014. So who is Andrei Biletsky, the founder of Azov?

Laurent Brayard. “Igor Mosiychuk, ‘Crimea will be Ukrainian or will be depopulated.’” Donbass Insider. May 19, 2022. Editor. Mronline.org (5-21-22). (More by Donbass Insider) (Posted May 20, 2022).

Culture, Ideology, Philosophy, Strategy Europe, Ukraine Newswire Igor Mosyichuk, neo-Nazi party, Pravy Sektor, ultra-nationalist extremists

If you do not know this sordid character, you should know that the man is one of the leaders of the neo-Nazi party Pravy Sektor, a party that is very influential in military circles and very active in repression and assassinations. Pravy Sektor units were at work on the Donbass front, in Mariupol in particular, but also in all the cities of Ukraine to repress and persecute ethnic Russians, who would have had the intention of resisting, even through their culture or their language. Activists of this anti-Semitic and ultra-violent party participated not only in the Mayan, but also in the massacres in Odessa (May 2, 2014), and then in Mariupol (May 9), not to mention of course the Donbass. In my continuing research to try to show that decidedly yes, there are many neo-Nazi and ultra-nationalist extremists, here is now a character who is a caricature in his own right, Igor Mosyichuk. MORE: click on title

Laurent Brayard. “Evgueny Karas, SBU agent and leader of the neo-Nazi group S 14.” Mronline.org (6-14-22).

Among the colorful fauna of Ukrainian neo-Nazism, and as a continuation of my work on the firm establishment of this ideology in Ukraine, here is an investigation into the S 14 group.

Mehmet Perinçek. “The Donbass Diaries Part II: The Azov Battalions – ordinary Fascism.” Editor. Mronline.org (5-15-22).

Originally published: United World on May 13, 2022 by (more by United World) | (Posted May 14, 2022)

War Europe, Russia, Ukraine Newswire Russia-Ukraine War

We gather around the school in Mariupol. All windows without exception are broken. The rooms inside are fully demolished. The Ukrainian have used the school and its surrounding as defense position. At 09:00 in the morning, humanitarian aid will be distributed. We start talking with Mariupol’s locals.
‘The Azov Battalions have bombarded our house’

The biggest and most urgent problem is housing. A great number of houses and building are in a shape they cannot even be accessed. The Azov Battalions have occupied the houses, forced part of the inhabitants to leave and go to the cellars, while keeping others in the flats on purpose. They have placed weapons into civilian flats–in clear violence of international law of warfare. On the rooftops, they have placed snipers.

The local population says that the Azov Battalions have starting bombing some of the buildings even before the Russian arrived. A woman points with her fingers her own flat. “My mother’s ashes are still there. The Russian were not around yet back then, it was March 10, and they bombarded our house.”

An old woman tells what happened to her:

“On the very first day of the squirmishes, the Azov have occupied my backyard and placed weapons there. We have become homeless. We lived in an elevator. It was a building with 9 floors, they broke the doors of each apartment and have entered them all. My neighbor had a door made of steel. They used a hand grenade to blow up the door.”

Revenge for the 2014 referendum

“For me, Ukraine as a state is over. I am a citizen of the Ukraine, but for the, that state has ceased to exist.” These are words frequently heard in the streets of Mariupol. A lot of them have not been informed about the humanitarian corridors opened during the clashes. The Azov Battalions stopped those who heard about these corridors and wanted the escape clashes.

There is a specific reason, why the Azov Battalions hate the inhabitants of Mariupol. In 2014, following the Maidan events [coup that threw out the elected, pro-Russian, president], Donetsk declared independence and a referendum was also held in Mariupol. The city back then decided in majority to join the Donetsk People’s Republic. But the forces from Donetsk were not able to hold the city and Mariupol returned back to Ukrainian control.

An older man points to the city lying in ruins and says: “They now wanted to take revenge for that from us”, describing how badly the Azov Battalion treated the population.

We are speaking to a young couple. They tell us that, during clashes, the Azovs have not established any communication with the population, have not helped the inhabitants at all. The Russian soldiers on the other side were all the time helping the population, they tell. MORE click on title

Sun, Apr 10, 2022 at 10:37 AM
Subject: former NATO analyst blows whistle on Ukraine invasion narrative. April 9, 2022

227 Comments on Former NATO Military Analyst Blows the Whistle on West’s Ukraine Invasion Narrative

Jacques Baud, a NATO expert, denounces western coverage of the Ukraine invasion.

https://scheerpost.com/2022/04/09/former-nato-military-analyst-blows-the-whistle-on-wests-ukraine-invasion-narrative/

From Sonny San Juan [I cited Baud in an earlier anthology and thought it worth mentioning again. –D]

Lev Golinkin. “Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are On the March in Ukraine.” FEBRUARY 22, 2019.
A march of the Azov Battalian, Svoboda, and other far-right radical groups in Kiev, October 14, 2017. (Reuters / Gleb Garanich, photo deleted)
Today, increasing reports of far-right violence, ultranationalism, and erosion of basic freedoms are giving the lie to the West’s initial euphoria. There are neo-Nazi pogroms against the Roma, rampant attacks on feminists and LGBT groups, book bans, and state-sponsored glorification of Nazi collaborators. . . .
[This is a major piece of research, like a book proposal. I have indicated its scope by copying the titles of its sub-sections. –D]
A NEO-NAZI BATTALION IN THE HEART OF EUROPE
FAR RIGHT TIES TO GOVERNMENT
STATE-SPONSORED GLORIFICATION OF NAZI COLLABORATORS
BOOK BANS
ANTI-SEMITISM
rOMA POGROMS
LGBT AND WOMEN’S-RIGHTS GROUPS
ATTACKS ON PRESS
LANGUAGE LAWS

THE PRICE OF WILLFUL BLINDNESS

These examples are only a tiny fraction of Ukraine’s slide toward intolerance, but they should be enough to point out the obvious: Washington’s decision to ignore the proliferation of armed neo-Nazi groups in a highly unstable nation only led to them gaining more power. . . .
This easily predictable outcome is in marked contrast to Washington’s enthusiasm over the “Revolution of Dignity.” “Nationalism is exactly what Ukraine needs,” proclaimed a New Republic article by historian Anne Applebaum, whose celebration of nationalism came out right around the time that Ukraine green-lighted the formation of white-supremacist paramilitaries. A mere four months after Applebaum’s essay, Newsweek ran an article titled “Ukrainian nationalist volunteers committing ‘ISIS-style’ war crimes.”

In essay after essay, DC foreign-policy heads have denied or celebrated the influence of Ukraine’s far right. (Curiously, the same analysts vociferously denounce rising nationalism in Hungary, Poland, and Italy as highly dangerous.) Perhaps think-tankers deluded themselves into thinking Kiev’s far-right phase would tucker itself out. More likely, they simply embraced DC’s go-to strategy of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend.” Either way, the ramifications stretch far beyond Ukraine.

America’s backing of the Maidan uprising, along with the billions DC sinks into post-Maidan Kiev, make it clear: Starting February 2014, Ukraine became Washington’s latest democracy-spreading project. What we permit in Ukraine sends a green light to others. By tolerating neo-Nazi gangs and battalions, state-led Holocaust distortion, and attacks on LGBT and the Roma, the United States is telling the rest of Europe: “We’re fine with this.” The implications—especially at a time of a global far-right revival—are profoundly disturbing.

“Lev Golinkin is the author of A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka, Amazon’s Debut of the Month, a Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Writers program selection, and winner of the Premio Salerno Libro d’Europa. Golinkin, a graduate of Boston College, came to the United States as a child refugee from the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov (now called Kharkiv) in 1990. His writing on the Ukraine crisis, Russia, the far right, and immigrant and refugee identity has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, The Boston Globe, Politico Europe, and Time (online), among other venues; he has been interviewed by MSNBC, NPR, ABC Radio, WSJ Live and HuffPost Live.”

“The F-Word (The Other One): Repurposed and Misapplied” BY ANDREW BACEVICH.

Here is Bacevich’s conclusion. To read the entire essay go to https://tomdispatch.com/the-f-word-the-other-one/?utm_source=TomDispatch&utm_campaign=9f98352c92-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_07_13_02_04_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1e41682ade-9f98352c92-308836209#more

What threatens the United States today is not fascism but the continuing erosion of a domestic political consensus without which democratic governance becomes difficult, if not impossible. Surprisingly few politicians appear willing to acknowledge the extent of that danger. Instead, passions unleashed by issues like critical race theory or guaranteed access to assault rifles take over center stage, shrinking the space left for mutual understanding and accommodation.

Considered in this light, embarking on an anti-fascist crusade on the eastern fringes of Europe is unlikely to restore a sense of the common good at home. Waging war on behalf of Ukrainian democracy is more likely to serve as a diversion, an excuse to avoid matters of more immediate relevance to the waning health of our democracy. On that score, the tens of billions of dollars that an otherwise gridlocked Congress has appropriated to arm Ukraine speak volumes about the nation’s actual political priorities.

Ukrainians need, want, and deserve U.S. support in ejecting the Russian invader. But the fate of the American experiment will not be determined in Kyiv. It will be decided right here in the United States of America. When Joe Biden first announced his intention to oust Donald Trump from office, he seemed to understand that. He presented himself as someone voters could count on to bring Americans together and reverse our all-too-obvious decline. With this country having arrived at an “inflection point,” he vowed to guide it along “a path of hope and light” enabling it “to heal, to be reborn, and to unite.”

At some level, Biden surely meant those words, which implied that repairing the domestic disarray Trump had fostered should receive priority attention. But the Biden presidency has not yielded healing, rebirth, and unity – far from it. Now facing the prospect of major losses in this year’s congressional elections and long odds in the 2024 presidential contest, Biden appears intent on employing a familiar tactic in a desperate effort to salvage his political fortunes: using problems abroad to distract attention from challenges at home.

Russia poses one such problem, even if one that policymakers and pundits join in exaggerating, as if criminal misconduct automatically connotes existential threat. Hovering in the background is a much larger problem: China. Given a sufficiently loose definition, it, too, can be described as fascist. So the Biden administration’s confrontational attitude regarding Russia finds its counterpart in an equally hard-nosed policy toward China.

Downplaying the realities of Sino-American mutual interdependence and the imperative of cooperation on issues of common concern such as climate change, the administration appears hellbent on conjuring up yet another axis of evil as a rationale for a fresh round of U.S. muscle-flexing. Once again, as when 9/11 provided a spurious rationale for concocting the previous axis (not to speak of invading Afghanistan and then Iraq), the urge to ignore complexity and downplay risk is sadly apparent.

In Washington, the conviction that military might adroitly applied will restore the United States to a position of global primacy has tacitly found renewed favor. The ostensible lessons of an ongoing conflict in which U.S. forces are participating on a proxy basis superseded any lessons of the recently concluded Afghan War where the United States failed outright. Rarely has the selective memory of the national security apparatus been so vividly on display. Much the same can be said about the Congress, where a no-questions-asked enthusiasm for underwriting the Ukraine War has provided a handy excuse for simply writing off the entire 20-year misadventure in Afghanistan.

The truth is that neither Russian “fascism” nor its Chinese variant poses a significant danger to American democracy, which is actually threatened from within. Joe Biden once appeared to grasp this reality, even if he now finds it politically expedient to pretend otherwise.

Our salvation lies not in flinging around the f-word to justify more wars, but in rediscovering a different lexicon. To start with, consider this precept to which Americans were once devoted: Charity begins at home. Charity, as in tolerance, compassion, generosity, and understanding: that’s where the preservation of our democracy ought to begin.
Copyright 2022 Andrew Bacevich

A few essays on Nazis in Ukraine appeared in earlier anthologies; e.g. Putin’s Aim to De-Nazify Ukraine; Ukrainian and Neo-Nazi Azov Forces.

Check out earlier anthologies also for Solutions to the War, especially #22.

OMNI

US, NATO, RUSSIA, UKRAINE war ANTHOLOGY, #22: peace

June 10, 2022

https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2022/06/omni-us-nato-russia-ukraine-war.html

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology

Omnicenter.org/donate/

END US, NATO, RUSSIA, UKRAINE war ANTHOLOGY, #23: NAZIS IN UKRAINE

OMNI's War and Warming Anthologies

Sunday, June 19, 2022

OMNI US-NATO-UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR ANTHOLOGY #23: NAZIS AND NEO-NAZIS IN UKRAINE

Kristina Melnikova, journalist in Donetsk

Katya A., activist in Donetsk

Alexey Albu, political refugee, Lugansk

“Empire solves Ukraine’s Nazi problem with a logo change.”

THE PRICE OF WILLFUL BLINDNESS

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