https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/02/21/explainer-the-story-behind-ukraines-separatist-regions/
When Ukraine’s Moscow-friendly president was driven from office by mass protests in February 2014, Russia responded by annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. It then threw its weight behind an insurgency in the mostly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine region known as Donbas.
In April 2014, Russia-backed rebels seized government buildings in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, proclaimed the creation of “people’s republics” and battled Ukrainian troops and volunteer battalions.
The following month, the separatist regions held a popular vote to declare independence and make a bid to become part of Russia.
After a massive defeat of Ukrainian troops in August 2014, envoys from Kyiv, the rebels and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe signed a truce in September 2014. The deal quickly collapsed and large-scale fighting resumed, leading to another major defeat for Ukrainian forces at Debaltseve in January-February of 2015.
France and Germany brokered another peace agreement, signed in Minsk in February 2015 by representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the rebels.
The 2015 peace deal was a major diplomatic coup for the Kremlin, obliging Ukraine to grant special status to the separatist regions, allowing them to create their own police force and have a say in appointing local prosecutors and judges. It also envisaged that Ukraine could only regain control over the 125-mile border with Russia in rebel regions after they get self-rule and hold local elections — balloting that would almost certainly keep pro-Moscow rebels in power.
The Minsk document helped end full-scale fighting, but the situation has remained tense and regular skirmishes have continued.
One fifth of the eastern region hold Russion passports and speak Russian as their primary language.
When Ukraine’s Moscow-friendly president was driven from office by mass protests in February 2014, Russia responded by annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. It then threw its weight behind an insurgency in the mostly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine region known as Donbas.
In April 2014, Russia-backed rebels seized government buildings in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, proclaimed the creation of “people’s republics” and battled Ukrainian troops and volunteer battalions.
The following month, the separatist regions held a popular vote to declare independence and make a bid to become part of Russia.
After a massive defeat of Ukrainian troops in August 2014, envoys from Kyiv, the rebels and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe signed a truce in September 2014. The deal quickly collapsed and large-scale fighting resumed, leading to another major defeat for Ukrainian forces at Debaltseve in January-February of 2015.
France and Germany brokered another peace agreement, signed in Minsk in February 2015 by representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the rebels.
The 2015 peace deal was a major diplomatic coup for the Kremlin, obliging Ukraine to grant special status to the separatist regions, allowing them to create their own police force and have a say in appointing local prosecutors and judges. It also envisaged that Ukraine could only regain control over the 125-mile border with Russia in rebel regions after they get self-rule and hold local elections — balloting that would almost certainly keep pro-Moscow rebels in power.
The Minsk document helped end full-scale fighting, but the situation has remained tense and regular skirmishes have continued.
One fifth of the eastern region hold Russion passports and speak Russian as their primary language.
|
|
Key parts of article titled: The far-right militia, once banned by the U.S., is part of Ukraine’s National Guard
February 20, 2022
https://corruptionbycops.com/2022/03/20/the-azov-battalion-the-neo-nazis-of-ukraine/
When Russia annexed Crimea in February 2014, it faced no military resistance. Ukraine did not have an adequate number of combat-ready troops to mount a defense. When Russia-backed separatists took over government buildings in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, the Ukrainian military proved unable to quell the rebellion. It was against this background that the Azov Battalion was formed in May 2014.
The Azov began as a military infantry unit made up of civilian volunteers drawn from far-right, neo-Nazi groups that were active in Ukraine. With its highly motivated band of fighters, the Azov unit recaptured the strategic port city of Mariupol. Following this triumph — the Azov unit was integrated into the National Guard of Ukraine in November 2014.
In 2016, the Azov set up its political wing, the National Corps Party, under the leadership of Andriy Biletsky, an ultra-Nationalist who said it is Ukraine’s mission to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade… against Semite-led Untermenschen [inferior humans]”.
The military uniforms of the Azov feature Nazi insignia and its fighters have been photographed with tattoos of Nazi symbols such as the swastika. On the eve of the launch of National Corps, its members took out a Nazi-style raised-fist, torch-lit march through the streets of Kyiv.
Members of the Azov militia also do street patrols where, in the name of enforcing what it calls ‘Ukrainian order’, they have been known to attack Roma and other ethnic minorities and LBGT events.
Different human rights organizations have accused Azov fighters, along with those from other volunteer battalions, of human rights violations, including torture, kidnappings, and extra-judicial executions. Over the years, the U.S. stance on the Azov has swung between banning and collaboration.
In 2015, the U.S Congress passed a resolution stating that military aid for Ukraine cannot be used for funding, arming or training the Azov Battalion. But in 2016, the ban was rolled back, reportedly under Pentagon pressure. Since then, there have been unsuccessful efforts by Congress members — one of whom has described it as a “neo-Nazi paramilitary militia” — to designate the Azov as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization’.
Azov social media channels continue to be rife with videos of militia members training with American-made weapons.
In 2016, Facebook designated the Azov battalion a “dangerous organization”. In 2019, Facebook placed the Azov in the same category as ISIS and banned it. But after the Russian invasion on February 24, Facebook reversed the ban, allowing expressions of praise for the Azov.
Azov regularly conducts military training camps for civilians, including children. Its spokespersons have reiterated their intent to eventually ‘take over’ Kyiv and have said Ukraine needs a dictator to set things right.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” to carry out a “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine, he appeared to be referring to the neo-Nazi militias such as the Azov, who – with the blessings of the Ukrainian state – have been at the forefront of Kyiv’s military campaign.
Until the Russian invasion, many in the Ukrainian mainstream viewed the rise of the Azov with concern. They were a law onto themselves and did not defer to the state. Their military units and their street patrol units did not answer to the police and their defiance of the law went unpunished.
February 20, 2022
https://corruptionbycops.com/2022/03/20/the-azov-battalion-the-neo-nazis-of-ukraine/
When Russia annexed Crimea in February 2014, it faced no military resistance. Ukraine did not have an adequate number of combat-ready troops to mount a defense. When Russia-backed separatists took over government buildings in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, the Ukrainian military proved unable to quell the rebellion. It was against this background that the Azov Battalion was formed in May 2014.
The Azov began as a military infantry unit made up of civilian volunteers drawn from far-right, neo-Nazi groups that were active in Ukraine. With its highly motivated band of fighters, the Azov unit recaptured the strategic port city of Mariupol. Following this triumph — the Azov unit was integrated into the National Guard of Ukraine in November 2014.
In 2016, the Azov set up its political wing, the National Corps Party, under the leadership of Andriy Biletsky, an ultra-Nationalist who said it is Ukraine’s mission to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade… against Semite-led Untermenschen [inferior humans]”.
The military uniforms of the Azov feature Nazi insignia and its fighters have been photographed with tattoos of Nazi symbols such as the swastika. On the eve of the launch of National Corps, its members took out a Nazi-style raised-fist, torch-lit march through the streets of Kyiv.
Members of the Azov militia also do street patrols where, in the name of enforcing what it calls ‘Ukrainian order’, they have been known to attack Roma and other ethnic minorities and LBGT events.
Different human rights organizations have accused Azov fighters, along with those from other volunteer battalions, of human rights violations, including torture, kidnappings, and extra-judicial executions. Over the years, the U.S. stance on the Azov has swung between banning and collaboration.
In 2015, the U.S Congress passed a resolution stating that military aid for Ukraine cannot be used for funding, arming or training the Azov Battalion. But in 2016, the ban was rolled back, reportedly under Pentagon pressure. Since then, there have been unsuccessful efforts by Congress members — one of whom has described it as a “neo-Nazi paramilitary militia” — to designate the Azov as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization’.
Azov social media channels continue to be rife with videos of militia members training with American-made weapons.
In 2016, Facebook designated the Azov battalion a “dangerous organization”. In 2019, Facebook placed the Azov in the same category as ISIS and banned it. But after the Russian invasion on February 24, Facebook reversed the ban, allowing expressions of praise for the Azov.
Azov regularly conducts military training camps for civilians, including children. Its spokespersons have reiterated their intent to eventually ‘take over’ Kyiv and have said Ukraine needs a dictator to set things right.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” to carry out a “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine, he appeared to be referring to the neo-Nazi militias such as the Azov, who – with the blessings of the Ukrainian state – have been at the forefront of Kyiv’s military campaign.
Until the Russian invasion, many in the Ukrainian mainstream viewed the rise of the Azov with concern. They were a law onto themselves and did not defer to the state. Their military units and their street patrol units did not answer to the police and their defiance of the law went unpunished.
Key parts of article titled: Azov fighters are Ukraine's greatest weapon and may be it greatest threat.
September 10, 2014
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/azov-far-right-fighters-ukraine-neo-nazis
"I have nothing against Russian nationalists or a great Russia," said Dmitry. "But Putin's not even a Russian. Putin's a Jew.”
Dmitry, not his real name, is a native of east Ukraine and a member of the Azov battalion, a volunteer grouping that has been doing much of the frontline fighting in Ukraine's war with pro-Russia separatists. The Azov, one of many volunteer brigades to fight alongside the Ukrainian army in the east of the country.
But there is an increasing worry that while the Azov and other volunteer battalions might be Ukraine's most potent and reliable force on the battlefield, they also pose the most serious threat to the Ukrainian government and even the state, when the conflict is over. The Azov causes particular concern due to the neo-Nazi, leanings of many of its members.
Dmitry claimed not to be a Nazi, but waxed lyrical about Adolf Hitler as a military leader and believes the Holocaust never happened. Not everyone in the Azov battalion thinks like Dmitry, but after speaking with dozens of its fighters in and around the strategic port city of Mariupol, many of themnhave disturbing political views, and almost all to be intent on "bringing the fight to Kiev".
Many of its members have links with neo-Nazi groups, and even those who laughed off the idea that they are neo-Nazis did not give convincing denials. As for the swastika tattoos on at least one man seen at the Azov base, "the swastika has nothing to do with the Nazis, it was an ancient sun symbol," he claimed.
The Ukrainian armed forces are "an army of lions led by a sheep", said Dmitry. Dmitry said he believes that Ukraine needs "a strong dictator to come to power who could shed plenty of blood but unite the nation in the process”.
Many in the Azov battalion with whom the Guardian spoke shared this view, which is a long way from the drive for European ideals and democracy that drove the protests in Kiev at the beginning. The Russian volunteer fighting with the Azov said he believes Ukraine needs "a junta that will restrict civil rights for a while but help bring order and unite the country".
This week, Amnesty International called on the Ukrainian government to investigate rights abuses and possible executions by the Aidar, another battalion.
"The failure to stop abuses and possible war crimes by volunteer battalions risks significantly aggravating tensions in the east of the country and undermining the proclaimed intentions of the new Ukrainian authorities to strengthen and uphold the rule of law more broadly," said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International secretary general, in Kiev.
As well as their frontline duties, the Azov battalion also functions as "a kind of police unit" said a platoon commander who goes by the name Kirt. A medieval history buff who takes part in Viking battle reenactments, Kirt returned to east Ukraine to join the Azov.
The Azov have been partially brought into the military and officially function as a special police unit. There are discussions that Azov and other battalions could be integrated into the army or special forces when the conflict is over. Some of them, however, are hoping Ukraine will look very different in the not-so-distant future. And while they may be a tiny minority when it comes to Ukraine as a whole, they have a lot of weapons.
President Petro Poroshenko will be killed in a matter of months, Dmitry said, and a dictator will come to power. "What are the police going to do? They could not do anything against the peaceful protesters on Maidan; they are hardly going to withstand armed fighting units."
September 10, 2014
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/azov-far-right-fighters-ukraine-neo-nazis
"I have nothing against Russian nationalists or a great Russia," said Dmitry. "But Putin's not even a Russian. Putin's a Jew.”
Dmitry, not his real name, is a native of east Ukraine and a member of the Azov battalion, a volunteer grouping that has been doing much of the frontline fighting in Ukraine's war with pro-Russia separatists. The Azov, one of many volunteer brigades to fight alongside the Ukrainian army in the east of the country.
But there is an increasing worry that while the Azov and other volunteer battalions might be Ukraine's most potent and reliable force on the battlefield, they also pose the most serious threat to the Ukrainian government and even the state, when the conflict is over. The Azov causes particular concern due to the neo-Nazi, leanings of many of its members.
Dmitry claimed not to be a Nazi, but waxed lyrical about Adolf Hitler as a military leader and believes the Holocaust never happened. Not everyone in the Azov battalion thinks like Dmitry, but after speaking with dozens of its fighters in and around the strategic port city of Mariupol, many of themnhave disturbing political views, and almost all to be intent on "bringing the fight to Kiev".
Many of its members have links with neo-Nazi groups, and even those who laughed off the idea that they are neo-Nazis did not give convincing denials. As for the swastika tattoos on at least one man seen at the Azov base, "the swastika has nothing to do with the Nazis, it was an ancient sun symbol," he claimed.
The Ukrainian armed forces are "an army of lions led by a sheep", said Dmitry. Dmitry said he believes that Ukraine needs "a strong dictator to come to power who could shed plenty of blood but unite the nation in the process”.
Many in the Azov battalion with whom the Guardian spoke shared this view, which is a long way from the drive for European ideals and democracy that drove the protests in Kiev at the beginning. The Russian volunteer fighting with the Azov said he believes Ukraine needs "a junta that will restrict civil rights for a while but help bring order and unite the country".
This week, Amnesty International called on the Ukrainian government to investigate rights abuses and possible executions by the Aidar, another battalion.
"The failure to stop abuses and possible war crimes by volunteer battalions risks significantly aggravating tensions in the east of the country and undermining the proclaimed intentions of the new Ukrainian authorities to strengthen and uphold the rule of law more broadly," said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International secretary general, in Kiev.
As well as their frontline duties, the Azov battalion also functions as "a kind of police unit" said a platoon commander who goes by the name Kirt. A medieval history buff who takes part in Viking battle reenactments, Kirt returned to east Ukraine to join the Azov.
The Azov have been partially brought into the military and officially function as a special police unit. There are discussions that Azov and other battalions could be integrated into the army or special forces when the conflict is over. Some of them, however, are hoping Ukraine will look very different in the not-so-distant future. And while they may be a tiny minority when it comes to Ukraine as a whole, they have a lot of weapons.
President Petro Poroshenko will be killed in a matter of months, Dmitry said, and a dictator will come to power. "What are the police going to do? They could not do anything against the peaceful protesters on Maidan; they are hardly going to withstand armed fighting units."
Key parts of article titled: How many neo-Nazis is the U.S. backing in Ukraine?
April 14, 2017
https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-many-neo-nazis-is-the-us-backing-in-ukraine
Sergeant Ivan Kharkiv of the Azov Battalion is 21 years old but seems years beyond his age. The young officer invites us to walk with him through the yard of the dilapidated former School #61—now an Azov Battalion base on the east side of the city of Mariupol. The Azov is a volunteer militia of the Ukrainian Nation Guard that has proven fiercely effective in battle. It works closely with the Ukrainian intelligence service, handing over prisoners and providing intelligence.
Sergeant Kharkiv said: “If Putin wants to take Mariupol, he must know that at least 10,000 of his guys will die. We know all of Mariupol. We control the roads and the high ground. He may try to use air forces but it does not matter.”
When asked about the separatists’ recent assault on the eastern Ukrainian city of Marinka and media reports about a full-scale Russian invasion, Sergeant Kharkiv sighs, “Our enemy is not so stupid [as to invade]. The international media made Marinka look like a huge war, but it was not. I was there. We see this kind of fighting every day in Shyrokyne.”
Shyrokyne is a small coastal village 10 kilometers east of Mariupol, which has sustained intense shelling from separatist forces and become a flashpoint in this conflict. Despite the Minsk ceasefire agreements, forces on both sides continue shelling and villages like Shyroknyne become collateral damage.
The young sergeant then starts to talk about Nazis, and not the old ones, the new ones, some of whom are in the Azov’s ranks.
“In Europe, Nazis support Putin. They think that he wants to make a white, Slavic Europe,” says Kharkiv. “But the white leader, Putin, kills Slavic people. I don’t know what the separatists are fighting for. But if we destroyed Putin TV [Kremlin news propaganda], then in half a year we could end this war by just talking with civilians. If we are fascist Nazis then why are people like Georgians joining us to fight?”
As he speaks a young soldier walks over. Kharkiv introduces him. While shaking hands a large black tattoo becomes particularly visible on the young man’s extended upper bicep. The tattoo is an image of the Nazi eagle atop a black swastika.
Kharkiv sighs and says, “And yes we also have some guys who support those ideas. But guys with rightist extreme ideologies are in all armies… in the U.S. and in Russia. There are skinheads, for example.
For the Azov, it’s not just a matter of the occasional very confused kid hung up on the Nazi ideology. One could say it goes back to the history of collaboration between some Ukraine nationalists and the Nazis fighting the Soviets during World War II. But more specifically and more recently there is a recurring history of Nazi ideology in the battalion that goes back to its founder, Andriy Biletsky.
Biletsky and the SNA created the Azov Battalion as a volunteer militia. Both the battalion and the SNA sport what is essentially a crude swastika on their logo. Some members of the Azov Battalion even wear the swastika symbol against a yellow background as armbands. A significant portion of the Azov Battalion denies, at least publicly, that it has any neo-Nazi or white supremacist beliefs.
But the numerous swastika tattoos of different members and their tendency to go into battle with swastikas or SS insignias on their helmets make it very difficult for other members of the group to plausibly deny any neo-Nazi affiliations.
It creates a problem for the Ukrainian government which relies immensely on the group as one of its most effective fighting forces to defend the city of Mariupol. Last summer it was the Azov brigade, led by Biletsky, that liberated Mariupol from the Russian-backed separatists.
The United States government is training parts of the Azov Battalion along with other Ukrainian National Guard battalions near the city of Lviv in western Ukraine.
The U.S. government is knowingly training and arming neo-Nazi Ukrainian ultranationalist paramilitary members in broad daylight in an unstable country with an unclear future. Nineteen million dollars of U.S. taxpayers’ money is going into this.
April 14, 2017
https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-many-neo-nazis-is-the-us-backing-in-ukraine
Sergeant Ivan Kharkiv of the Azov Battalion is 21 years old but seems years beyond his age. The young officer invites us to walk with him through the yard of the dilapidated former School #61—now an Azov Battalion base on the east side of the city of Mariupol. The Azov is a volunteer militia of the Ukrainian Nation Guard that has proven fiercely effective in battle. It works closely with the Ukrainian intelligence service, handing over prisoners and providing intelligence.
Sergeant Kharkiv said: “If Putin wants to take Mariupol, he must know that at least 10,000 of his guys will die. We know all of Mariupol. We control the roads and the high ground. He may try to use air forces but it does not matter.”
When asked about the separatists’ recent assault on the eastern Ukrainian city of Marinka and media reports about a full-scale Russian invasion, Sergeant Kharkiv sighs, “Our enemy is not so stupid [as to invade]. The international media made Marinka look like a huge war, but it was not. I was there. We see this kind of fighting every day in Shyrokyne.”
Shyrokyne is a small coastal village 10 kilometers east of Mariupol, which has sustained intense shelling from separatist forces and become a flashpoint in this conflict. Despite the Minsk ceasefire agreements, forces on both sides continue shelling and villages like Shyroknyne become collateral damage.
The young sergeant then starts to talk about Nazis, and not the old ones, the new ones, some of whom are in the Azov’s ranks.
“In Europe, Nazis support Putin. They think that he wants to make a white, Slavic Europe,” says Kharkiv. “But the white leader, Putin, kills Slavic people. I don’t know what the separatists are fighting for. But if we destroyed Putin TV [Kremlin news propaganda], then in half a year we could end this war by just talking with civilians. If we are fascist Nazis then why are people like Georgians joining us to fight?”
As he speaks a young soldier walks over. Kharkiv introduces him. While shaking hands a large black tattoo becomes particularly visible on the young man’s extended upper bicep. The tattoo is an image of the Nazi eagle atop a black swastika.
Kharkiv sighs and says, “And yes we also have some guys who support those ideas. But guys with rightist extreme ideologies are in all armies… in the U.S. and in Russia. There are skinheads, for example.
For the Azov, it’s not just a matter of the occasional very confused kid hung up on the Nazi ideology. One could say it goes back to the history of collaboration between some Ukraine nationalists and the Nazis fighting the Soviets during World War II. But more specifically and more recently there is a recurring history of Nazi ideology in the battalion that goes back to its founder, Andriy Biletsky.
Biletsky and the SNA created the Azov Battalion as a volunteer militia. Both the battalion and the SNA sport what is essentially a crude swastika on their logo. Some members of the Azov Battalion even wear the swastika symbol against a yellow background as armbands. A significant portion of the Azov Battalion denies, at least publicly, that it has any neo-Nazi or white supremacist beliefs.
But the numerous swastika tattoos of different members and their tendency to go into battle with swastikas or SS insignias on their helmets make it very difficult for other members of the group to plausibly deny any neo-Nazi affiliations.
It creates a problem for the Ukrainian government which relies immensely on the group as one of its most effective fighting forces to defend the city of Mariupol. Last summer it was the Azov brigade, led by Biletsky, that liberated Mariupol from the Russian-backed separatists.
The United States government is training parts of the Azov Battalion along with other Ukrainian National Guard battalions near the city of Lviv in western Ukraine.
The U.S. government is knowingly training and arming neo-Nazi Ukrainian ultranationalist paramilitary members in broad daylight in an unstable country with an unclear future. Nineteen million dollars of U.S. taxpayers’ money is going into this.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/03/10/ukraine-azov-brigade-nazis-abuses-separatists/24664937/
March 10, 2015
MARIUPOL, Ukraine — A volunteer brigade with self-proclaimed Nazis fighting alongside government troops against Russian-backed separatists is proving to be a mixed blessing to its cause.
Though the 900-member Azov Brigade adds needed manpower to repulse the rebels, members who say they are Nazis are sparking controversy, and complaints of abuses against civilians have turned some residents against them.
A drill sergeant who would identify himself only as Alex wore a patch depicting Thor's Hammer, an ancient Norse symbol appropriated by neo-Nazis, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
In an interview with USA TODAY, he admitted he is a Nazi and said with a laugh that no more than half his comrades are fellow Nazis. He said he supports strong leadership for Ukraine, like Germany during World War II, but opposes the Nazis' genocide against Jews. Minorities should be tolerated as long as they are peaceful and don't demand special privileges, he said, and the property of wealthy oligarchs should be taken away and nationalized.
He vowed that when the war ends, his comrades will march on the capital, Kiev, to oust a government they consider corrupt.
Russian media exploit such statements to describe the brigade in this port city in eastern Ukraine as a bunch of thugs who menace the population yet are embraced by Ukraine's national government.
Andriy Diachenko, a spokesman for the Azov Brigade, said only 10% to 20% of the group's members are Nazis. "I know Alex is a Nazi, but it's his personal ideology. It has nothing to do with the official ideology of the Azov," Diachenko said. "He's a good drill sergeant and a good instructor for tactics and weapons skills."
The brigade's deputy commander, Oleg Odnorozhenko, complained that Alex does not speak for the group. "If he has his own sympathies, it's his own matter," Odnorozhenko said in a former high school serving as a base. "But he has no right to make statements in a way they can be construed as the position of the regiment. He will be dealt with severely for his lack of discipline."
Col. Oleksiy Nozdrachov, a member of the Ukrainian Armed Services' General Staff in Kiev, defended the brigade's members as patriots. "They are volunteers who decided to sacrifice their lives to the country," Nozdrachov said. "They are tough and fierce in battle who stand and fight and won't give up soil."
He conceded that abuses by the brigade could hurt the nationalist cause among residents. "If any cases of misbehavior by Azov Brigade are brought by the local population, it will be investigated," he said.
In one case of alleged abuse, shop owner Svetlana Gudina, 51, said Azov troops detained her two sons, ages 28 and 32, and seized their cars, cash, flash drives and documents while searching for separatists last September. The men were released, and she managed to recover the cars and money, but the experience destroyed her trust in Ukrainian authorities.
"If they have come to defend us, let them defend," Gudina said. "But when they come to molest and humiliate civilians, it's wrong."
Spokesman Diachenko said he was unfamiliar with the incident, but "such episodes happen because this is war."
Nozdrachov offered to send an investigator to look into Gudina's claims, an offer she accepted.
Similar incidents have been attributed to armed units on both sides of the war. A report March 5 by the United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights described "credible allegations of arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearances, committed mostly by the armed groups but in some instances also by the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies."
9/10/14
https://www.newsweek.com/evidence-war-crimes-committed-ukrainian-nationalist-volunteers-grows-269604
Ukrainian Nationalist Volunteers Committing 'ISIS-Style' War Crimes
Groups of right-wing Ukrainian nationalists are committing war crimes in the rebel-held territories of Eastern Ukraine, according to a report from Amnesty International, as evidence emerged in local media of the volunteer militias beheading their victims.Armed volunteers who refer to themselves as the Aidar battalion "have been involved in widespread abuses, including abductions, unlawful detention, ill-treatment, theft, extortion, and possible executions", Amnesty said.
The organisation has also published a report detailing similar alleged atrocities committed by pro-Russian militants, highlighting the brutality of the conflict which has claimed over 3,000 lives.
Shortly after, Kiev-based news network Pravilnoe TV reported that it had spoken with one of the mothers of the victims who confirmed her son was a rebel, captured during fighting in Donetsk.
She said she had received her son's head in a wooden box in the post, blaming nationalist volunteers for her son's death. Newsweek has not been able to verify the report independently.
There are over 30 pro-nationalist, volunteer battalions similar to Aidar, such as Ukraina, DND Metinvest and Kiev 1, all funded by private investors.
The Aidar battalion is publicly backed by Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi, who also allegedly funds the Azov, Donbas, Dnepr 1, Dnepr 2 volunteer battalions, operating under orders from Kiev. Last spring Kolomoyskyi offered a bounty of $10,000 of his own money for each captured Russian "saboteur".
Newsweek subscription offers >A warrant for Kolomoyskyi's arrest was issued in Russia in July for "organising the killing of civilians," through his sponsorship of volunteer militants.
"According to the government these volunteers always operate under an overall command and control of one of their regular forces," Denis Krivosheev of Amnesty International told Newsweek.
Amnesty's report, however, indicates Kiev's loose regulation on volunteer groups and its "members... act with virtually no oversight or control".
https://www.newsweek.com/evidence-war-crimes-committed-ukrainian-nationalist-volunteers-grows-269604
Ukrainian Nationalist Volunteers Committing 'ISIS-Style' War Crimes
Groups of right-wing Ukrainian nationalists are committing war crimes in the rebel-held territories of Eastern Ukraine, according to a report from Amnesty International, as evidence emerged in local media of the volunteer militias beheading their victims.Armed volunteers who refer to themselves as the Aidar battalion "have been involved in widespread abuses, including abductions, unlawful detention, ill-treatment, theft, extortion, and possible executions", Amnesty said.
The organisation has also published a report detailing similar alleged atrocities committed by pro-Russian militants, highlighting the brutality of the conflict which has claimed over 3,000 lives.
Shortly after, Kiev-based news network Pravilnoe TV reported that it had spoken with one of the mothers of the victims who confirmed her son was a rebel, captured during fighting in Donetsk.
She said she had received her son's head in a wooden box in the post, blaming nationalist volunteers for her son's death. Newsweek has not been able to verify the report independently.
There are over 30 pro-nationalist, volunteer battalions similar to Aidar, such as Ukraina, DND Metinvest and Kiev 1, all funded by private investors.
The Aidar battalion is publicly backed by Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi, who also allegedly funds the Azov, Donbas, Dnepr 1, Dnepr 2 volunteer battalions, operating under orders from Kiev. Last spring Kolomoyskyi offered a bounty of $10,000 of his own money for each captured Russian "saboteur".
Newsweek subscription offers >A warrant for Kolomoyskyi's arrest was issued in Russia in July for "organising the killing of civilians," through his sponsorship of volunteer militants.
"According to the government these volunteers always operate under an overall command and control of one of their regular forces," Denis Krivosheev of Amnesty International told Newsweek.
Amnesty's report, however, indicates Kiev's loose regulation on volunteer groups and its "members... act with virtually no oversight or control".
https://frontline.thehindu.com/dispatches/ukraine-conflict-chechen-and-tatar-muslims-take-up-arms/article38461783.ece#!
Ukraine conflict: Chechen and Tatar Muslims take up arms
Deutsche Welle
Published : March 25, 2022 17:30 IST
The number of these fighters deployed to Ukraine is unknown, but their reputation for brutality and ruthlessness in enforcing domestic rule is well-known, and their presence has raised memories of grisly urban combat and guerilla fighting from the Chechen wars in the 1990s and early 2000s. Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov, known as one of the most loyal allies of President Vladimir Putin, announced on his Telegram channels that his men would be fighting in the "hottest hotspots in Ukraine." However, some military analysts have cast doubt on whether his braggadocio on social media has accurately reflected his troops' performance on the battlefield.
Across the frontlines, another group of Chechens has also joined the war — but they intend to defend Ukraine against the Russian invasion. "Dear Ukrainians, please do not see those people as Chechens," said Adam Osmayev, an exiled Chechen leader, in a video published on social media, referring to Kadyrov's soldiers. "They are traitors … puppets of Russia. Real Chechens are standing with you, bleeding with you, as they have in the past eight years," he said, holding a gun and standing next to three other armed men with masked faces.
Osmayev leads the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion, named after the late Chechen rebel leader. The group is one of the two publicly known Chechen volunteer groups fighting against Russian-backed separatists and Russian forces in Ukraine since 2014. The other one is called the Sheikh Mansur Battalion and is headed by a commander called Muslim Cheberloevsky. The identity and the exact number of the Chechen volunteers are unknown. But most of them are believed to be people who left Chechnya either after the end of the war there in 2003 or who have escaped Kadyrov's despotic rule over the past years.
In 2013, the Ukrainian government, then a Moscow ally, imprisoned Osmayev for plotting to assassinate Putin — an accusation he denies. When he was released a year later, he went to the Donbas region to fight the pro-Russian separatists. Both Russian and Western media have reported alleged links between the Sheikh Mansur Battalion and the "Islamic State."
When Putin's army began marching toward Kyiv, leaders of both battalions, along with thousands of other foreign volunteer fighters, announced they would continue to defend Ukraine against "their common enemy." Their determination to assist Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian invasion stems from similarities they see between what Ukrainians are going through and their own fate.
A long, violent history
Chechnya, now a Russian republic, is home to a majority-Muslim population and has a complicated and often violent history with Moscow. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia waged two devastating wars to keep Chechnya from becoming independent, a goal to which it had been aspiring since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The first conflict broke out in 1994 when Russia sent troops to the Chechen Republic to quash its attempt to break away. Fighting paused only two years later, in 1997, following the signing of a peace agreement in August 1996.
But in 1999, the Russian army returned after a series of deadly terror attacks organized by Chechen warlords on the territory of Russia. A new war erupted, lasting 10 years and culminating in the siege of Grozny by the Russian troops, resulting in enormous destruction and tens of thousands of civilian casualties.
The first two years of that war coincided with Putin's ascension to power. The active phase of the war was over in April 2000. Two months later, Putin appointed Akhmad Kadyrov as head of the Chechen Republic, who would rule until he was assassinated by Islamist rebels in 2004. His son Ramzan Kadyrov became Chechen leader in 2007 and has remained in office ever since.
Under Kadyrov's rule, human rights have deteriorated as critics, activists and journalists face clampdowns. He is suspected of having been involved in the killings of several critics outside Chechnya, including Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a former military commander gunned down in Berlin in 2019. "It is safe to say that a great majority of the Chechen diaspora left their homeland after Kadyrov came to power, not during the war," Marat Iliyasov, a researcher at Lithuania's Vytautas Magnus University, told DW.
Bringing back Chechen memories
For many exiled Chechens, Putin is treating Ukrainians the way he treated them. "Moscow's attempts today to impose its control over independent Ukraine resonates in the hearts and minds of many Chechens who remember their struggle for independence against the Russian colonizing machine," Albert Bininachvili, a professor of political science at Bologna University, told DW.
Putin aspires to expand Russia's domination to the Soviet borders, he explained, but without the intention of bringing back the Soviet system, "which in effect leaves us with nothing but Russian colonialism." "Chechens consider the war in Ukraine as a continuation of the war in Chechnya," Iliyasov said. "So they want to contribute to eventual victory against this perceived evil — something not achieved on Chechen soil. That's alongside another motivation, which is a kind of moral obligation to help people who are in such situations, and showing solidarity with them," he added.
Cheberloevsky, the head of the Sheikh Mansur Battalion, also considers the latest fighting as part of a much longer conflict. He said in an interview with Radio Free Europe's Caucasus service, "We have been fighting in Ukraine since 2014 to beat our common enemy." Akhmed Zakayev, the head of the Chechen separatist government in exile, encouraged all Chechens living abroad to fight alongside the Ukrainian government in a video shared on social media.
Discrediting Putin's propaganda
Chechens are not the only Muslim group assisting Ukrainians. Said Ismagilov, one of Ukraine's top Islamic leaders, who is of Tatar origin, posted a picture of himself in a military uniform beside the members of the Territorial Defence Forces in Kyiv. In another video, he called on the Muslims in the world to stand in solidarity with Ukraine.
The Crimean Tatars, a Muslim ethnic minority indigenous to Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, have been resisting Russian occupation since 2015, with some of them fighting in the Ukrainian armed forces. In a video widely shared by Ukrainian media, Ayder Rustemov, the head of Crimea's Muslim community as recognized by Ukraine, urged Ukrainian Muslims to defend their country and called on Russian Muslims to denounce Russia's aggression.
Kadyrov, who adheres to Sufism, a moderate sect of Islam with deep historical roots in Chechnya, tried to brand the battles in Ukraine as jihad, the Islamic term for holy war. "We have an order, we have jihad!" He wrote on his Telegram channel on March 4. Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, have said Kadyrov’s paramilitary forces have a long record of terrorizing, torturing and killing political dissidents claiming they were Islamic rebels.
Kadyrov’s latest claims have particularly come under criticism not just by Muslim activists and leaders but even by believers in the holy war, including jihadis in Syria and Iraq. "Russia has killed thousands of Muslims and is still killing them," wrote Maysara bin Ali, also known as Abu Maria al-Qahtani, a commander of Islamist group Heyaat al Tahrir Sham, on Telegram. "Strengthening Russia in Ukraine means strengthening criminals."
Ukraine conflict: Chechen and Tatar Muslims take up arms
Deutsche Welle
Published : March 25, 2022 17:30 IST
The number of these fighters deployed to Ukraine is unknown, but their reputation for brutality and ruthlessness in enforcing domestic rule is well-known, and their presence has raised memories of grisly urban combat and guerilla fighting from the Chechen wars in the 1990s and early 2000s. Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov, known as one of the most loyal allies of President Vladimir Putin, announced on his Telegram channels that his men would be fighting in the "hottest hotspots in Ukraine." However, some military analysts have cast doubt on whether his braggadocio on social media has accurately reflected his troops' performance on the battlefield.
Across the frontlines, another group of Chechens has also joined the war — but they intend to defend Ukraine against the Russian invasion. "Dear Ukrainians, please do not see those people as Chechens," said Adam Osmayev, an exiled Chechen leader, in a video published on social media, referring to Kadyrov's soldiers. "They are traitors … puppets of Russia. Real Chechens are standing with you, bleeding with you, as they have in the past eight years," he said, holding a gun and standing next to three other armed men with masked faces.
Osmayev leads the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion, named after the late Chechen rebel leader. The group is one of the two publicly known Chechen volunteer groups fighting against Russian-backed separatists and Russian forces in Ukraine since 2014. The other one is called the Sheikh Mansur Battalion and is headed by a commander called Muslim Cheberloevsky. The identity and the exact number of the Chechen volunteers are unknown. But most of them are believed to be people who left Chechnya either after the end of the war there in 2003 or who have escaped Kadyrov's despotic rule over the past years.
In 2013, the Ukrainian government, then a Moscow ally, imprisoned Osmayev for plotting to assassinate Putin — an accusation he denies. When he was released a year later, he went to the Donbas region to fight the pro-Russian separatists. Both Russian and Western media have reported alleged links between the Sheikh Mansur Battalion and the "Islamic State."
When Putin's army began marching toward Kyiv, leaders of both battalions, along with thousands of other foreign volunteer fighters, announced they would continue to defend Ukraine against "their common enemy." Their determination to assist Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian invasion stems from similarities they see between what Ukrainians are going through and their own fate.
A long, violent history
Chechnya, now a Russian republic, is home to a majority-Muslim population and has a complicated and often violent history with Moscow. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia waged two devastating wars to keep Chechnya from becoming independent, a goal to which it had been aspiring since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The first conflict broke out in 1994 when Russia sent troops to the Chechen Republic to quash its attempt to break away. Fighting paused only two years later, in 1997, following the signing of a peace agreement in August 1996.
But in 1999, the Russian army returned after a series of deadly terror attacks organized by Chechen warlords on the territory of Russia. A new war erupted, lasting 10 years and culminating in the siege of Grozny by the Russian troops, resulting in enormous destruction and tens of thousands of civilian casualties.
The first two years of that war coincided with Putin's ascension to power. The active phase of the war was over in April 2000. Two months later, Putin appointed Akhmad Kadyrov as head of the Chechen Republic, who would rule until he was assassinated by Islamist rebels in 2004. His son Ramzan Kadyrov became Chechen leader in 2007 and has remained in office ever since.
Under Kadyrov's rule, human rights have deteriorated as critics, activists and journalists face clampdowns. He is suspected of having been involved in the killings of several critics outside Chechnya, including Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a former military commander gunned down in Berlin in 2019. "It is safe to say that a great majority of the Chechen diaspora left their homeland after Kadyrov came to power, not during the war," Marat Iliyasov, a researcher at Lithuania's Vytautas Magnus University, told DW.
Bringing back Chechen memories
For many exiled Chechens, Putin is treating Ukrainians the way he treated them. "Moscow's attempts today to impose its control over independent Ukraine resonates in the hearts and minds of many Chechens who remember their struggle for independence against the Russian colonizing machine," Albert Bininachvili, a professor of political science at Bologna University, told DW.
Putin aspires to expand Russia's domination to the Soviet borders, he explained, but without the intention of bringing back the Soviet system, "which in effect leaves us with nothing but Russian colonialism." "Chechens consider the war in Ukraine as a continuation of the war in Chechnya," Iliyasov said. "So they want to contribute to eventual victory against this perceived evil — something not achieved on Chechen soil. That's alongside another motivation, which is a kind of moral obligation to help people who are in such situations, and showing solidarity with them," he added.
Cheberloevsky, the head of the Sheikh Mansur Battalion, also considers the latest fighting as part of a much longer conflict. He said in an interview with Radio Free Europe's Caucasus service, "We have been fighting in Ukraine since 2014 to beat our common enemy." Akhmed Zakayev, the head of the Chechen separatist government in exile, encouraged all Chechens living abroad to fight alongside the Ukrainian government in a video shared on social media.
Discrediting Putin's propaganda
Chechens are not the only Muslim group assisting Ukrainians. Said Ismagilov, one of Ukraine's top Islamic leaders, who is of Tatar origin, posted a picture of himself in a military uniform beside the members of the Territorial Defence Forces in Kyiv. In another video, he called on the Muslims in the world to stand in solidarity with Ukraine.
The Crimean Tatars, a Muslim ethnic minority indigenous to Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, have been resisting Russian occupation since 2015, with some of them fighting in the Ukrainian armed forces. In a video widely shared by Ukrainian media, Ayder Rustemov, the head of Crimea's Muslim community as recognized by Ukraine, urged Ukrainian Muslims to defend their country and called on Russian Muslims to denounce Russia's aggression.
Kadyrov, who adheres to Sufism, a moderate sect of Islam with deep historical roots in Chechnya, tried to brand the battles in Ukraine as jihad, the Islamic term for holy war. "We have an order, we have jihad!" He wrote on his Telegram channel on March 4. Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, have said Kadyrov’s paramilitary forces have a long record of terrorizing, torturing and killing political dissidents claiming they were Islamic rebels.
Kadyrov’s latest claims have particularly come under criticism not just by Muslim activists and leaders but even by believers in the holy war, including jihadis in Syria and Iraq. "Russia has killed thousands of Muslims and is still killing them," wrote Maysara bin Ali, also known as Abu Maria al-Qahtani, a commander of Islamist group Heyaat al Tahrir Sham, on Telegram. "Strengthening Russia in Ukraine means strengthening criminals."
An Introductory Overview of Ukraine’s Islamic Militantshttps://offbeatresearch.com/2020/07/an-overview-of-ukraines-islamic-militants/
by Arslon XudosiPosted onJuly 3, 2020
Since the onset of conflict in Ukraine, which has been ongoing since 2014 as Russia began deploying ground forces to the east of the country amid a massive post-Euromaidan revolt, combatants and volunteers from all over the world have sought to join in the fighting between Ukraine, various pro-Ukrainian militias, and Russian-backed separatist groups in the east.Volunteers fighting on the side of Ukraine have come from a wide spectrum of countries and ideologies, both secular and religious, but those fighting in Islamic militias and hailing from predominantly Islamic regions tend to come from areas where Russia has seen a historical involvement in the invasion of neighboring countries. The most prominent volunteers among these groups are fighters who hold some personal connection or affiliation to conquests fought by Russia in recent history, such as the first and second Chechen wars and the 2008 Russo-Georgian war.
As early as 2014, when Russia first began its military intervention on behalf of pro-Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, Chechen battalions were being established to combat Russian-backed militants, with Georgian battalions and Crimean Tatar battalions following closely alongside.
by Arslon XudosiPosted onJuly 3, 2020
Since the onset of conflict in Ukraine, which has been ongoing since 2014 as Russia began deploying ground forces to the east of the country amid a massive post-Euromaidan revolt, combatants and volunteers from all over the world have sought to join in the fighting between Ukraine, various pro-Ukrainian militias, and Russian-backed separatist groups in the east.Volunteers fighting on the side of Ukraine have come from a wide spectrum of countries and ideologies, both secular and religious, but those fighting in Islamic militias and hailing from predominantly Islamic regions tend to come from areas where Russia has seen a historical involvement in the invasion of neighboring countries. The most prominent volunteers among these groups are fighters who hold some personal connection or affiliation to conquests fought by Russia in recent history, such as the first and second Chechen wars and the 2008 Russo-Georgian war.
As early as 2014, when Russia first began its military intervention on behalf of pro-Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, Chechen battalions were being established to combat Russian-backed militants, with Georgian battalions and Crimean Tatar battalions following closely alongside.
The reality of neo-Nazis in Ukraine is far from Kremlin propagandaby Lev Golinkin, opinion contributor - 11/09/17 4:00 PM ET
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/359609-the-reality-of-neo-nazis-in-the-ukraine-is-far-from-kremlin-propaganda/
There are indeed neo-Nazi formations in Ukraine. This has been overwhelmingly confirmed by nearly every major Western outlet. The fact that analysts are able to dismiss it as propaganda disseminated by Moscow is profoundly disturbing. It is especially disturbing given the current surge of neo-Nazis and white supremacists across the globe.
The most infamous neo-Nazi group in Ukraine is the 3,000-strong Azov Battalion, founded in 2014. Prior to creating Azov, its commander, Andriy Biletsky, headed the neo-Nazi group Patriot of Ukraine, members of which went on to form the core of Azov. Biletsky had stated that the mission of Ukraine is to “lead the White Races of the world in a final crusade for their survival … against the Semite-led Untermenschen.”
{mosads}Azov’s logo is composed of two emblems — the wolfsangel and the Sonnenrad — identified as neo-Nazi symbols by the Anti-Defamation League. The wolfsangel is used by the U.S. hate group Aryan Nations, while the Sonnenrad was among the neo-Nazi symbols at this summer’s deadly march in Charlottesville.
Azov’s neo-Nazi character has been covered by the New York Times, the Guardian, the BBC, the Telegraph and Reuters, among others. On-the-ground journalists from established Western media outlets have written of witnessing SS runes, swastikas, torchlight marches, and Nazi salutes. They interviewed Azov soldiers who readily acknowledged being neo-Nazis. They filed these reports under unambiguous headlines such as “How many neo-Nazis is the U.S. backing in Ukraine?” and “Volunteer Ukrainian unit includes Nazis.”
How is this Russian propaganda?
The U.N. and Human Rights Watch have accused Azov, as well as other Kiev battalions, of a litany of human rights abuses. In 2016, the Simon Wiesenthal Center caught Azov trying to recruit neo-Nazis in France; Brazilian authorities have uncovered similar attempts in Brazil. Azov’s official page on VK, a social media site used in Ukraine and Russia, features images of a white power tattoo and the Totenkopf symbol used by SS concentration camp guards and neo-Nazis today.
How is this Russian propaganda?
Ukraine’s far right, which encompasses more than Azov, regularly stages torchlight marches in honor of World War II-era Nazi collaborators (imagine Charlottesville, but with thousands of participants). On Jan. 1, Jewish media reported marchers chanting “Jews Out!” Last month, Radio Free Europe (RFE) — surely not an arm of the Kremlin — reported 20,000 marchers carrying torches in honor of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which, according to RFE, “carried out vicious acts of ethnic cleansing in which tens of thousands of ethnic Poles in the region were killed.” RFE mentioned journalists spotting Nazi salutes during the march.
Kiev’s rehabilitation of Nazi collaborators — a hallmark of European far right movements — has been condemned by Jewish organizations including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry, Yad Vashem, and the World Jewish Congress.
This is not Russian propaganda.
The accusations of being duped by Russia have even extended to Congressman John Conyers (D-Mich.), who cosponsored an amendment barring the U.S. from providing training and support to Azov in 2015. Some bloggers have gone on to insinuate Conyers was “snookered” or, worse, doing Vladimir Putin’s bidding.
I’m not going to speculate on Conyers’ motives. I must, however, point out that he is a civil rights legend who was closely associated with Dr. Martin Luther King, cofounded the Congressional Black Caucus, led the campaign to make MLK Day a national holiday, and employed Rosa Parks for two decades.
Hurling sinister accusations against an African-American lawmaker for voting to prevent U.S. armed forces from aiding a neo-Nazi battalion is a bit strange. Maybe Russia snookered Conyers. Maybe Russia also snookered him into cofounding the Congressional Black Caucus. Or maybe he’s just not a fan of arming white supremacist paramilitaries. We could wager he’d be against arming Richard Spencer’s followers, too.
The odious Russian media tried to paint Ukraine as a land of Nazis, though that is patently wrong. Ukraine has a thriving Jewish community, and its far-right is still on the fringe. It’s the same in America. Yet, despite the fact that only a tiny percentage of Americans are neo-Nazis, our pundits and politicians didn’t mince words condemning the Charlottesville march.
It’s difficult, if not impossible, to imagine mainstream media describing reports on Charlottesville as propaganda and questioning the motives of lawmakers who try to counter today’s alarming surge of white supremacy. Why shouldn’t we view Ukraine — a nation to which we send billions in foreign aid — in light of the same standards
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/359609-the-reality-of-neo-nazis-in-the-ukraine-is-far-from-kremlin-propaganda/
There are indeed neo-Nazi formations in Ukraine. This has been overwhelmingly confirmed by nearly every major Western outlet. The fact that analysts are able to dismiss it as propaganda disseminated by Moscow is profoundly disturbing. It is especially disturbing given the current surge of neo-Nazis and white supremacists across the globe.
The most infamous neo-Nazi group in Ukraine is the 3,000-strong Azov Battalion, founded in 2014. Prior to creating Azov, its commander, Andriy Biletsky, headed the neo-Nazi group Patriot of Ukraine, members of which went on to form the core of Azov. Biletsky had stated that the mission of Ukraine is to “lead the White Races of the world in a final crusade for their survival … against the Semite-led Untermenschen.”
{mosads}Azov’s logo is composed of two emblems — the wolfsangel and the Sonnenrad — identified as neo-Nazi symbols by the Anti-Defamation League. The wolfsangel is used by the U.S. hate group Aryan Nations, while the Sonnenrad was among the neo-Nazi symbols at this summer’s deadly march in Charlottesville.
Azov’s neo-Nazi character has been covered by the New York Times, the Guardian, the BBC, the Telegraph and Reuters, among others. On-the-ground journalists from established Western media outlets have written of witnessing SS runes, swastikas, torchlight marches, and Nazi salutes. They interviewed Azov soldiers who readily acknowledged being neo-Nazis. They filed these reports under unambiguous headlines such as “How many neo-Nazis is the U.S. backing in Ukraine?” and “Volunteer Ukrainian unit includes Nazis.”
How is this Russian propaganda?
The U.N. and Human Rights Watch have accused Azov, as well as other Kiev battalions, of a litany of human rights abuses. In 2016, the Simon Wiesenthal Center caught Azov trying to recruit neo-Nazis in France; Brazilian authorities have uncovered similar attempts in Brazil. Azov’s official page on VK, a social media site used in Ukraine and Russia, features images of a white power tattoo and the Totenkopf symbol used by SS concentration camp guards and neo-Nazis today.
How is this Russian propaganda?
Ukraine’s far right, which encompasses more than Azov, regularly stages torchlight marches in honor of World War II-era Nazi collaborators (imagine Charlottesville, but with thousands of participants). On Jan. 1, Jewish media reported marchers chanting “Jews Out!” Last month, Radio Free Europe (RFE) — surely not an arm of the Kremlin — reported 20,000 marchers carrying torches in honor of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which, according to RFE, “carried out vicious acts of ethnic cleansing in which tens of thousands of ethnic Poles in the region were killed.” RFE mentioned journalists spotting Nazi salutes during the march.
Kiev’s rehabilitation of Nazi collaborators — a hallmark of European far right movements — has been condemned by Jewish organizations including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry, Yad Vashem, and the World Jewish Congress.
This is not Russian propaganda.
The accusations of being duped by Russia have even extended to Congressman John Conyers (D-Mich.), who cosponsored an amendment barring the U.S. from providing training and support to Azov in 2015. Some bloggers have gone on to insinuate Conyers was “snookered” or, worse, doing Vladimir Putin’s bidding.
I’m not going to speculate on Conyers’ motives. I must, however, point out that he is a civil rights legend who was closely associated with Dr. Martin Luther King, cofounded the Congressional Black Caucus, led the campaign to make MLK Day a national holiday, and employed Rosa Parks for two decades.
Hurling sinister accusations against an African-American lawmaker for voting to prevent U.S. armed forces from aiding a neo-Nazi battalion is a bit strange. Maybe Russia snookered Conyers. Maybe Russia also snookered him into cofounding the Congressional Black Caucus. Or maybe he’s just not a fan of arming white supremacist paramilitaries. We could wager he’d be against arming Richard Spencer’s followers, too.
The odious Russian media tried to paint Ukraine as a land of Nazis, though that is patently wrong. Ukraine has a thriving Jewish community, and its far-right is still on the fringe. It’s the same in America. Yet, despite the fact that only a tiny percentage of Americans are neo-Nazis, our pundits and politicians didn’t mince words condemning the Charlottesville march.
It’s difficult, if not impossible, to imagine mainstream media describing reports on Charlottesville as propaganda and questioning the motives of lawmakers who try to counter today’s alarming surge of white supremacy. Why shouldn’t we view Ukraine — a nation to which we send billions in foreign aid — in light of the same standards
Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights
Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine
16 November 2015 to 15 February 2016
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Countries/UA/Ukraine_13th_HRMMU_Report_3March2016.pdf
High Commissioner for Human Rights
Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine
16 November 2015 to 15 February 2016
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Countries/UA/Ukraine_13th_HRMMU_Report_3March2016.pdf
https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/07/21/you-dont-exist/arbitrary-detentions-enforced-disappearances-and-torture-eastern
“You Don’t Exist”Arbitrary Detentions, Enforced Disappearances, and Torture in Eastern Ukraine
In April 2015, Vadim, 39, was traveling on a shuttle bus home to Donetsk, the capital of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine. He had boarded in Slovyansk, which is under Ukrainian government control. At a checkpoint manned by Ukrainian forces, a gunman ordered him off the bus. Armed men in camouflaged uniforms without insignia tied Vadim’s hands behind his back, pulled a bag over his head, pushed him to his knees, calling him a “separatist thug,” and questioned him about his connections in Slovyansk. Then, they threw him into the back seat of a car and drove off to a base full of armed people, where he was kept in unacknowledged detention for three days, interrogated, and tortured. Then, his captors transferred him to another unlawful detention facility, apparently maintained by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) personnel. Vadim spent another six weeks there inunacknowledgeddetentionwithout any contact with the outside world. During his time in captivity, Vadim’s interrogators tortured him with electric shocks, burned him with cigarettes, and beat him, demanding that he confess to working for Russia-backed
separatists. Finally, they released him. Vadim returned to Donetsk and was immediately detained by local de facto authorities, who suspected him of having been recruited by the SBU during his time in captivity. He spent over two months in incommunicado detention in an unofficial prison in central Donetsk where his captors, again, beat and ill-treated him.
Both the Ukrainian government authorities and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine have held civilians in prolonged, arbitrary detention, without any contact with the outside world, including with their lawyers or families. In some cases, the detentions constituted enforced disappearances, meaning that the authorities in question refused to acknowledge the detention of the person or refused to provide any information on their whereabouts or fate. Most of those detained suffered torture or other forms of ill-treatment. Several were denied needed medical attention for the injuries they sustained in detention.
In cases documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the Ukrainian authorities and pro-Kyiv paramilitary groups detained civilians suspected of involvement with or supporting Russia-backed separatists, while the separatist forces have detained civilians suspected of supporting or spying for the
Ukrainian government. Vadim’s case stands out because, of all the people we interviewed, he was the only one who was held in secret detention and tortured first by one side, then the other.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch investigated in detail nine cases of arbitrary, prolonged detention of civilians by the Ukrainian authorities in informal detention sites and nine cases of arbitrary, prolonged detention of civilians by Russia-backed separatists. This report details cases that took place mostly in 2015 and the first half of 2016.
Persons held by the warring sides in eastern Ukraine are protected under international human rights and international humanitarian law, which unequivocally ban arbitrary detention, torture, and other ill-treatment. International standards provide that allegations of torture and other ill-treatment be investigated, and that, when the evidence warrants it, the perpetrators be prosecuted. Detainees must be provided with adequate food, water, clothing, shelter, and medical care.
In almost all of the eighteen cases investigated, release of the civilian detainees was at some point discussed by the relevant side in the context of prisoner exchanges. In nine out of the eighteen cases, they were in fact exchanged. This gives rise to serious concerns that both sides may be detaining civilians in order to have “currency” for potential exchange of prisoners.
It is difficult to estimate the total number of civilians who have been the victims of the kinds of abuses documented in this report. However, the Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine 16 February to 15 May 2016 published in June 2016 by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) stated that “arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment remain deeply entrenched practices” in the region, suggesting that these problems are more widespread than the limited number of cases investigated by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Violations by the Ukrainian authoritiesIn most of the nine cases Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch investigated, pro-government forces, including members of so-called volunteer battalions, initially detained the individuals and then handed them over to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), who eventually moved them into the regular criminal justice system. Some were later exchanged for persons held by separatists and others released without trial.
In three cases detailed in this report the SBU allegedly continued the enforced disappearances, keeping the individuals in unacknowledged detention for periods ranging from six weeks to 15 months. One individual was exchanged, the other two simply released without trial. With regard to two of the individuals, there is no record whatsoever of their detention.
The June 2016 UN report noted that the cases of incommunicado detention and torture brought to their attention in late 2015 and early 2016 “mostly implicate SBU” and specifically mentioned the SBU compound in Kharkiv as an alleged place of unofficial detention.
Based on the research findings detailed in this report, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch believe unlawful, unacknowledged detentions have taken place in SBU premises in Kharkiv, Kramatorsk, Izyum, and Mariupol. We received compelling testimony from a range of sources, including recently released detainees, that as of June 2016 as many as 16 people remain in secret detention at the SBU premises in Kharkiv. Ukrainian authorities have denied operating any other detention facilities than their only official temporary detention center in Kyiv and denied having any information regarding the alleged abuses by SBU
Kyiv and denied having any information regarding the alleged abuses by SBU documented in this report.
Most interviewees told Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch they were tortured before their transfer to SBU’s facilities. Several also alleged that after being transferred to SBU premises they were, variously, beaten, subjected to electric shocks, and threatened with rape, execution, and retaliation against family members, in order to induce them to confess to involvement with separatism-related criminal activities or to provide information.
Abuses by Russia-backed separatistsAmnesty International and Human Rights Watch documented nine cases in which Russia-backed separatists detained civilians incommunicado for weeks or months without charge, including as recently as early 2016, and, in most cases, subjected them to ill-treatment. Two of the individuals remain in custody as of this writing, their respective “trials” pending.
In the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and Luhansk People’s
Republic (LNR), local security services operate with no checks and balances, detain individuals arbitrarily and hold them in their own detention facilities. Four of the individuals whose cases Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch documented were at some point transferred to remand prisons, where two of them were allowed access to a lawyer, but overall the vacuum of the rule of law in separatist-controlled areas deprives individuals held in custody of their rights and leaves them without recourse to any effective remedies.
“You Don’t Exist”Arbitrary Detentions, Enforced Disappearances, and Torture in Eastern Ukraine
In April 2015, Vadim, 39, was traveling on a shuttle bus home to Donetsk, the capital of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine. He had boarded in Slovyansk, which is under Ukrainian government control. At a checkpoint manned by Ukrainian forces, a gunman ordered him off the bus. Armed men in camouflaged uniforms without insignia tied Vadim’s hands behind his back, pulled a bag over his head, pushed him to his knees, calling him a “separatist thug,” and questioned him about his connections in Slovyansk. Then, they threw him into the back seat of a car and drove off to a base full of armed people, where he was kept in unacknowledged detention for three days, interrogated, and tortured. Then, his captors transferred him to another unlawful detention facility, apparently maintained by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) personnel. Vadim spent another six weeks there inunacknowledgeddetentionwithout any contact with the outside world. During his time in captivity, Vadim’s interrogators tortured him with electric shocks, burned him with cigarettes, and beat him, demanding that he confess to working for Russia-backed
separatists. Finally, they released him. Vadim returned to Donetsk and was immediately detained by local de facto authorities, who suspected him of having been recruited by the SBU during his time in captivity. He spent over two months in incommunicado detention in an unofficial prison in central Donetsk where his captors, again, beat and ill-treated him.
Both the Ukrainian government authorities and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine have held civilians in prolonged, arbitrary detention, without any contact with the outside world, including with their lawyers or families. In some cases, the detentions constituted enforced disappearances, meaning that the authorities in question refused to acknowledge the detention of the person or refused to provide any information on their whereabouts or fate. Most of those detained suffered torture or other forms of ill-treatment. Several were denied needed medical attention for the injuries they sustained in detention.
In cases documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the Ukrainian authorities and pro-Kyiv paramilitary groups detained civilians suspected of involvement with or supporting Russia-backed separatists, while the separatist forces have detained civilians suspected of supporting or spying for the
Ukrainian government. Vadim’s case stands out because, of all the people we interviewed, he was the only one who was held in secret detention and tortured first by one side, then the other.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch investigated in detail nine cases of arbitrary, prolonged detention of civilians by the Ukrainian authorities in informal detention sites and nine cases of arbitrary, prolonged detention of civilians by Russia-backed separatists. This report details cases that took place mostly in 2015 and the first half of 2016.
Persons held by the warring sides in eastern Ukraine are protected under international human rights and international humanitarian law, which unequivocally ban arbitrary detention, torture, and other ill-treatment. International standards provide that allegations of torture and other ill-treatment be investigated, and that, when the evidence warrants it, the perpetrators be prosecuted. Detainees must be provided with adequate food, water, clothing, shelter, and medical care.
In almost all of the eighteen cases investigated, release of the civilian detainees was at some point discussed by the relevant side in the context of prisoner exchanges. In nine out of the eighteen cases, they were in fact exchanged. This gives rise to serious concerns that both sides may be detaining civilians in order to have “currency” for potential exchange of prisoners.
It is difficult to estimate the total number of civilians who have been the victims of the kinds of abuses documented in this report. However, the Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine 16 February to 15 May 2016 published in June 2016 by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) stated that “arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment remain deeply entrenched practices” in the region, suggesting that these problems are more widespread than the limited number of cases investigated by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Violations by the Ukrainian authoritiesIn most of the nine cases Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch investigated, pro-government forces, including members of so-called volunteer battalions, initially detained the individuals and then handed them over to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), who eventually moved them into the regular criminal justice system. Some were later exchanged for persons held by separatists and others released without trial.
In three cases detailed in this report the SBU allegedly continued the enforced disappearances, keeping the individuals in unacknowledged detention for periods ranging from six weeks to 15 months. One individual was exchanged, the other two simply released without trial. With regard to two of the individuals, there is no record whatsoever of their detention.
The June 2016 UN report noted that the cases of incommunicado detention and torture brought to their attention in late 2015 and early 2016 “mostly implicate SBU” and specifically mentioned the SBU compound in Kharkiv as an alleged place of unofficial detention.
Based on the research findings detailed in this report, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch believe unlawful, unacknowledged detentions have taken place in SBU premises in Kharkiv, Kramatorsk, Izyum, and Mariupol. We received compelling testimony from a range of sources, including recently released detainees, that as of June 2016 as many as 16 people remain in secret detention at the SBU premises in Kharkiv. Ukrainian authorities have denied operating any other detention facilities than their only official temporary detention center in Kyiv and denied having any information regarding the alleged abuses by SBU
Kyiv and denied having any information regarding the alleged abuses by SBU documented in this report.
Most interviewees told Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch they were tortured before their transfer to SBU’s facilities. Several also alleged that after being transferred to SBU premises they were, variously, beaten, subjected to electric shocks, and threatened with rape, execution, and retaliation against family members, in order to induce them to confess to involvement with separatism-related criminal activities or to provide information.
Abuses by Russia-backed separatistsAmnesty International and Human Rights Watch documented nine cases in which Russia-backed separatists detained civilians incommunicado for weeks or months without charge, including as recently as early 2016, and, in most cases, subjected them to ill-treatment. Two of the individuals remain in custody as of this writing, their respective “trials” pending.
In the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and Luhansk People’s
Republic (LNR), local security services operate with no checks and balances, detain individuals arbitrarily and hold them in their own detention facilities. Four of the individuals whose cases Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch documented were at some point transferred to remand prisons, where two of them were allowed access to a lawyer, but overall the vacuum of the rule of law in separatist-controlled areas deprives individuals held in custody of their rights and leaves them without recourse to any effective remedies.
Ukraine’s ultra-right militias are challenging the government to a showdownBy Joshua Cohen
June 15, 2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2017/06/15/ukraines-ultra-right-militias-are-challenging-the-government-to-a-showdown/
As Ukraine’s fight against Russian-supported separatists continues, Kiev faces another threat to its long-term sovereignty: powerful right-wing ultranationalist groups. These groups are not shy about using violence to achieve their goals, which are certainly at odds with the tolerant Western-oriented democracy Kiev ostensibly seeks to become.
Opinions to start the day, in your inbox. Sign up.The recent brutal stabbing of a left-wing anti-war activist named Stas Serhiyenko illustrates the threat posed by these extremists. Serhiyenko and his fellow activists believe the perpetrators belonged to the neo-Nazi
group C14 (whose name comes from a 14-word phrase used by white supremacists). The attack took place on the anniversary of Hitler’s birthday, and C14’s leader published a statement that celebrated Serhiyenko’s stabbing immediately afterward.
The attack on Serhiyenko is just the tip of the iceberg. More recently C14 beat up a socialist politician while other ultranationalist thugs stormed the Lviv and Kiev City Councils. Far-right and neo-Nazi groups have also assaulted or disrupted art exhibitions, anti-fascist demonstrations, a “Ukrainians Choose Peace” event, LGBT events, a social center, media organizations, court proceedings and a Victory Day march celebrating the anniversary of the end of World War II.
According to a study from activist organization Institute Respublica, the problem is not only the frequency of far-right violence, but the fact that perpetrators enjoy widespread impunity. It’s not hard to understand why Kiev seems reluctant to confront these violent groups. For one
thing, far-right paramilitary groups played an important role early in the war against Russian-supported separatists. Kiev also fears these violent groups could turn on the government itself — something they’ve done before and continue to threaten to do.
To be clear, Russian propaganda about Ukraine being overrun by Nazis or fascists is false. Far-right parties such as Svoboda or Right Sector draw little support from Ukrainians.
Even so, the threat cannot be dismissed out of hand. If authorities don’t end the far right’s impunity, it risks further emboldening them, argues Krasimir Yankov, a researcher with Amnesty International in Kiev. Indeed, the brazen willingness of Vita Zaverukha – a renowned neo-Nazi out on bail and under house arrest after killing two police officers — to post pictures of herself after storming a popular Kiev restaurant with 50 other nationalists demonstrates the far right’s confidence in their immunity from government prosecution.
It’s not too late for the government to take steps to reassert control over the rule of law. First, authorities should enact a “zero-tolerance” policy on far-right violence. President Petro Poroshenko should order key law
enforcement agencies — the Interior Ministry, the National Police of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Prosecutor Generals’ Office (PGO) — to make stopping far-right activity a top priority.
June 15, 2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2017/06/15/ukraines-ultra-right-militias-are-challenging-the-government-to-a-showdown/
As Ukraine’s fight against Russian-supported separatists continues, Kiev faces another threat to its long-term sovereignty: powerful right-wing ultranationalist groups. These groups are not shy about using violence to achieve their goals, which are certainly at odds with the tolerant Western-oriented democracy Kiev ostensibly seeks to become.
Opinions to start the day, in your inbox. Sign up.The recent brutal stabbing of a left-wing anti-war activist named Stas Serhiyenko illustrates the threat posed by these extremists. Serhiyenko and his fellow activists believe the perpetrators belonged to the neo-Nazi
group C14 (whose name comes from a 14-word phrase used by white supremacists). The attack took place on the anniversary of Hitler’s birthday, and C14’s leader published a statement that celebrated Serhiyenko’s stabbing immediately afterward.
The attack on Serhiyenko is just the tip of the iceberg. More recently C14 beat up a socialist politician while other ultranationalist thugs stormed the Lviv and Kiev City Councils. Far-right and neo-Nazi groups have also assaulted or disrupted art exhibitions, anti-fascist demonstrations, a “Ukrainians Choose Peace” event, LGBT events, a social center, media organizations, court proceedings and a Victory Day march celebrating the anniversary of the end of World War II.
According to a study from activist organization Institute Respublica, the problem is not only the frequency of far-right violence, but the fact that perpetrators enjoy widespread impunity. It’s not hard to understand why Kiev seems reluctant to confront these violent groups. For one
thing, far-right paramilitary groups played an important role early in the war against Russian-supported separatists. Kiev also fears these violent groups could turn on the government itself — something they’ve done before and continue to threaten to do.
To be clear, Russian propaganda about Ukraine being overrun by Nazis or fascists is false. Far-right parties such as Svoboda or Right Sector draw little support from Ukrainians.
Even so, the threat cannot be dismissed out of hand. If authorities don’t end the far right’s impunity, it risks further emboldening them, argues Krasimir Yankov, a researcher with Amnesty International in Kiev. Indeed, the brazen willingness of Vita Zaverukha – a renowned neo-Nazi out on bail and under house arrest after killing two police officers — to post pictures of herself after storming a popular Kiev restaurant with 50 other nationalists demonstrates the far right’s confidence in their immunity from government prosecution.
It’s not too late for the government to take steps to reassert control over the rule of law. First, authorities should enact a “zero-tolerance” policy on far-right violence. President Petro Poroshenko should order key law
enforcement agencies — the Interior Ministry, the National Police of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Prosecutor Generals’ Office (PGO) — to make stopping far-right activity a top priority.
Ukrainian marchers in Kiev chant ‘Jews out’Demonstrators celebrate the birthday of WWII Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, who fought against Soviet armyBy JTA 3 January 2017, 9:33 p
https://www.timesofisrael.com/ukrainian-marchers-in-kiev-chant-jews-out/
Ukrainian nationalists in Kiev chanted “Jews out” in German at a New Year’s Day march celebrating the birthday of a Nazi collaborator whose troops killed thousands of Jews.
Thousands attended the event in the center of the Ukrainian capital celebrating Stepan Bandera, a leader of Ukraine’s nationalist movement in the 1930s and ’40s. They held up his portrait while an unidentified person shouted the anti-Semitic slogan on a loudspeaker, prompting many participants to repeat it, a video published by the Federal News Agency showed.
Bandera’s movement included an insurgent army which fought alongside Nazi soldiers during part of World War II. Supporters of Bandera claim they sided with the Nazis against the Soviet army, believing that Adolf Hitler would grant Ukraine independence. Bandera was assassinated in 1959 by Russia’s KGB in West Germany.
Oleksandr Feldman, a Ukrainian Jewish lawmaker and president of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, called on authorities to investigate the march and prosecute those responsible for the hateful slogans.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/ukrainian-marchers-in-kiev-chant-jews-out/
Ukrainian nationalists in Kiev chanted “Jews out” in German at a New Year’s Day march celebrating the birthday of a Nazi collaborator whose troops killed thousands of Jews.
Thousands attended the event in the center of the Ukrainian capital celebrating Stepan Bandera, a leader of Ukraine’s nationalist movement in the 1930s and ’40s. They held up his portrait while an unidentified person shouted the anti-Semitic slogan on a loudspeaker, prompting many participants to repeat it, a video published by the Federal News Agency showed.
Bandera’s movement included an insurgent army which fought alongside Nazi soldiers during part of World War II. Supporters of Bandera claim they sided with the Nazis against the Soviet army, believing that Adolf Hitler would grant Ukraine independence. Bandera was assassinated in 1959 by Russia’s KGB in West Germany.
Oleksandr Feldman, a Ukrainian Jewish lawmaker and president of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, called on authorities to investigate the march and prosecute those responsible for the hateful slogans.
10/14/17
Nationalists Mark 75th Anniversary Of Ukrainian Insurgent Army
Thousands of Ukrainian nationalists have marched through the capital, Kyiv, to mark the 75th anniversary of the creation of the controversial Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
March organizers said as many as 20,000 people participated in the October 14 march, which was supported by the right-wing Freedom, Right Sector, and National Corp political parties.
Some 5,000 police were on hand to keep order. Journalists reported seeing some marchers giving Nazi salutes.
Since 2015, the October 14 anniversary has been marked as the Defender of Ukraine Day public holiday.
The UPA was founded in western Ukraine during the Nazi occupation of the country in World War II and fought against both the Nazis and the Soviet Red Army. Tens of thousands of ethnic Poles were killed in what some historians say was ethnic cleansing by the UPA.
When the war ended, many UPA fighters continued to fight a guerrilla campaign against the Soviet authorities into the early 1950s.
Nationalists Mark 75th Anniversary Of Ukrainian Insurgent Army
Thousands of Ukrainian nationalists have marched through the capital, Kyiv, to mark the 75th anniversary of the creation of the controversial Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
March organizers said as many as 20,000 people participated in the October 14 march, which was supported by the right-wing Freedom, Right Sector, and National Corp political parties.
Some 5,000 police were on hand to keep order. Journalists reported seeing some marchers giving Nazi salutes.
Since 2015, the October 14 anniversary has been marked as the Defender of Ukraine Day public holiday.
The UPA was founded in western Ukraine during the Nazi occupation of the country in World War II and fought against both the Nazis and the Soviet Red Army. Tens of thousands of ethnic Poles were killed in what some historians say was ethnic cleansing by the UPA.
When the war ended, many UPA fighters continued to fight a guerrilla campaign against the Soviet authorities into the early 1950s.
World Jewish Congress concerned by Ukraine's decision to rename Kyiv boulevard after ultra-nationalist complicit in murdering Jews during Holocaust
08 Jul 2016
https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/wjc-concerned-by-ukraines-decision-to-rename-kyiv-boulevard-after-ultra-nationalist-complicit-in-murdering-jews-during-holocaust-7-1-2016
World Jewish Congress CEO Robert Singer said Friday that he was deeply concerned by Ukraine’s decision to rename a boulevard in its capital, Kyiv, after a World War II era ultra-nationalist complicit in the wartime murder of Jews and Poles in Ukraine. The WJC “utterly rejects” the idea of elevating the memory of Stepan Bandera as a figure to be honored in modern-day Ukraine, Singer said.
“This is a most disappointing development that calls into question Ukraine’s commitment to an honest confrontation with its own history and to ensuring that an ambiance of pluralism and inclusiveness prevails in which Ukrainians of all religious and ethnic backgrounds are respected," Singer said.
"It is ironic and perplexing that the Kyiv municipality would decide to honor a man whose followers joined the German death squads in murdering the Jews of Ukraine during the Holocaust, at the very same time that it is planning to build Ukraine's first Holocaust museum and whilst preparing for the 75th anniversary commemoration of the massacre of 33,000 Jews at the site of the Babi Yar ravine," Singer added. "We urge the municipality to carefully consider the ramifications of glorifying Bandera."
08 Jul 2016
https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/wjc-concerned-by-ukraines-decision-to-rename-kyiv-boulevard-after-ultra-nationalist-complicit-in-murdering-jews-during-holocaust-7-1-2016
World Jewish Congress CEO Robert Singer said Friday that he was deeply concerned by Ukraine’s decision to rename a boulevard in its capital, Kyiv, after a World War II era ultra-nationalist complicit in the wartime murder of Jews and Poles in Ukraine. The WJC “utterly rejects” the idea of elevating the memory of Stepan Bandera as a figure to be honored in modern-day Ukraine, Singer said.
“This is a most disappointing development that calls into question Ukraine’s commitment to an honest confrontation with its own history and to ensuring that an ambiance of pluralism and inclusiveness prevails in which Ukrainians of all religious and ethnic backgrounds are respected," Singer said.
"It is ironic and perplexing that the Kyiv municipality would decide to honor a man whose followers joined the German death squads in murdering the Jews of Ukraine during the Holocaust, at the very same time that it is planning to build Ukraine's first Holocaust museum and whilst preparing for the 75th anniversary commemoration of the massacre of 33,000 Jews at the site of the Babi Yar ravine," Singer added. "We urge the municipality to carefully consider the ramifications of glorifying Bandera."
Cheri Berens' book,
An American Woman Living in Egypt: Life during an Islamic takeover,
is jam-packed with explosive information about U.S. involvement in the Islamist takeovers of Egypt, Syria and Libya and details why there is a similar crisis lurking subversively inside America.
Available at Amazon or order it from your local bookstore.
Introduction to Cheri's book
Jacket Back of Cheri's book
An American Woman Living in Egypt: Life during an Islamic takeover,
is jam-packed with explosive information about U.S. involvement in the Islamist takeovers of Egypt, Syria and Libya and details why there is a similar crisis lurking subversively inside America.
Available at Amazon or order it from your local bookstore.
Introduction to Cheri's book
Jacket Back of Cheri's book
