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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://thegrayzone.com/2022/03/04/nazis-ukrainian-war-russia/">thegrayzone.com</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">How Ukraine's Jewish president Zelensky made peace with neo-Nazi paramilitaries on front lines of war with Russia</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Alexander Rubinstein and Max Blumenthal·March 4, 2022</div>
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<br><h3>While Western media deploys Volodymyr
Zelensky’s Jewish heritage to refute accusations of Nazi influence in
Ukraine, the president has ceded to neo-Nazi forces and now depends on
them as front line fighters.</h3>
<p>Back in October 2019, as the war in eastern Ukraine dragged on,
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Zolote, a town
situated firmly in the “gray zone” of Donbas, where over 14,000 had been
killed, <a href="https://twitter.com/aaronjmate/status/1496308793810034688">mostly on the pro-Russian side</a>.
There, the president encountered the hardened veterans of extreme right
paramilitary units keeping up the fight against separatists just a few
miles away.</p>
<p><span>Elected on a platform of de-escalation of hostilities with
Russia, Zelensky was determined to enforce the so-called Steinmeier
Formula conceived by then-German Foreign Minister Walter Steinmeier
which called for elections in the</span><span> Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. </span></p>
<p><span>In a face-to-face confrontation with militants from the
neo-Nazi Azov Battalion who had launched a campaign to sabotage the
peace initiative called “No to Capitulation,” Zelensky encountered a
wall of obstinacy. </span></p>
<p><span>With appeals for disengagement from the frontlines firmly rejected, Zelensky </span><a href="https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/im-not-a-loser-zelensky-clashes-with-veterans-over-donbas-disengagement.html?__cf_chl_tk=SbolmTBS6QnjMnPJLiQEsivGNnuW6T4od28tzMOrEM0-1646110945-0-gaNycGzNCJE"><span>melted down</span></a><span>
on camera. “I’m the president of this country. I’m 41 years old. I’m
not a loser. I came to you and told you: remove the weapons,” Zelensky
implored the fighters.</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">President of Ukraine Zelensky has visited disengaging area in Zolote today <a href="https://t.co/scFZLt45C2">https://t.co/scFZLt45C2</a> <a href="https://t.co/JlD1cWPQ39">pic.twitter.com/JlD1cWPQ39</a></p>
<p>— Liveuamap (@Liveuamap) <a href="https://twitter.com/Liveuamap/status/1188041134943154177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Once video of the stormy confrontation spread across Ukrainian social media channels, Zelensky became the target of an <a href="https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/im-not-a-loser-zelensky-clashes-with-veterans-over-donbas-disengagement.html?__cf_chl_tk=SbolmTBS6QnjMnPJLiQEsivGNnuW6T4od28tzMOrEM0-1646110945-0-gaNycGzNCJE">angry backlash</a>.</p>
<p>Andriy Biletsky, the proudly fascist Azov Battalion leader who once <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/">pledged</a>
to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade…against
Semite-led Untermenschen”, vowed to bring thousands of fighters to
Zolote if Zelensky pressed any further. Meanwhile, a parliamentarian
from the party of former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko openly
fantasized about Zelensky being blown to bits by a militant’s grenade.</p>
<p>Though Zelensky achieved a minor disengagement, the neo-Nazi
paramilitaries escalated their “No Capitulation” campaign. And within
months, fighting began to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51543463">heat up</a> again in Zolote, sparking a new cycle of violations of the <a href="https://www.unian.info/politics/1043394-minsk-agreement-full-text-in-english.html">Minsk Agreement</a>.</p>
<p>By this point, Azov had been formally incorporated into the Ukrainian
military and its street vigilante wing, known as the National Corps,
was deployed across the country under the watch of the Ukrainian
Interior Ministry, and <a href="https://khpg.org/en/1517275970">alongside the National Police</a>.
In December 2021, Zelensky would be seen delivering a “Hero of Ukraine”
award to a leader of the fascistic Right Sector in a ceremony in
Ukraine’s parliament.</p>
<p>A full-scale conflict with Russia was approaching, and the distance
between Zelensky and the extremist paramilitaries was closing fast.</p>
<p>This February 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops
into Ukrainian territory on a stated mission to “demilitarize and
denazify” the country, US media embarked on a mission of its own: to
deny the power of neo-Nazi paramilitaries over the country’s military
and political sphere. As the US government-funded <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/01/1083677765/putin-denazify-ukraine-russia-history">National Public Radio insisted</a>, “Putin’s language [about denazification] is offensive and factually wrong.”</p>
<p>In its bid to deflect from the influence of Nazism in contemporary
Ukraine, US media has found its most effective PR tool in the figure of
Zelensky, a former TV star and comedian from a Jewish background. It is a
role the actor-turned-politician has eagerly assumed.</p>
<p>But as we will see, Zelensky has not only ceded ground to the
neo-Nazis in his midst, he has entrusted them with a front line role in
his country’s war against pro-Russian and Russian forces.</p>
<h3><strong>The president’s Jewishness as Western media PR device </strong></h3>
<p><span>Hours before President Putin’s February 24 speech declaring
denazification as the goal of Russian operations, Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky “asked how a people who lost eight million of its
citizens fighting Nazis could support Nazism,” according to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60503037">BBC</a>.</span></p>
<p>Raised in a non-religious Jewish family in the Soviet Union during
the 1980’s, Zelensky has downplayed his heritage in the past. “The fact
that I am Jewish barely makes 20 in my long list of faults,” he joked
during a <a href="https://www.lepoint.fr/editos-du-point/bernard-henri-levy/bhl-deux-heures-avec-volodymyr-zelensky-04-04-2019-2305770_69.php?fbclid=IwAR22av3lMWd0w2mkVMDLbB8EXVXSOMpXnhtz7PR0KIXZv0ZimEThTahjxYs">2019 interview</a> in which he declined to go into further detail about his religious background.</p>
<p>Today, as Russian troops bear down on cities like Mariupol, which is
effectively under the control of the Azov Battalion, Zelensky is no
longer ashamed to broadcast his Jewishness. <span>“How could I be a Nazi?” he wondered aloud during a public address. For a</span><span>
US media engaged in an all-out information war against Russia, the
president’s Jewish background has become an essential public relations
tool. </span></p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Watch left & right wing factions of MSM unite
to declare any allegations of Nazism in Ukraine to be Russian fake news
because President Zelensky is Jewish. Featuring Senators Marsha
Blackburn & Mark Warner, former CIA spy Dan Hoffman & "Ukraine
Whistleblower" Alexander Vindman <a href="https://t.co/vruyDUoWxv">pic.twitter.com/vruyDUoWxv</a></p>
<p>— Alex Rubinstein (@RealAlexRubi) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1498187771281915905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><span>A few examples of the US media’s deployment of Zelensky as a
shield against allegations of rampant Nazism in Ukraine are below (see
mash-up above for video): </span></p>
<ul><li><span>PBS NewsHour noted Putin’s comments on
denazification with a qualifier: “even though President Volodymyr
Zelensky is Jewish and his great uncles died in the Holocaust.”</span></li><li><span>On Fox & Friends, former CIA officer Dan
Hoffman declared that “it’s the height of hypocrisy to call the
Ukrainian nation to denazify — their president is Jewish after all.”</span></li><li><span>On MSNBC, Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner said Putin’s “terminology, outrageous and obnoxious as it is </span><span>— </span><span>‘denazify’
where you’ve got frankly a Jewish president in Mr. Zelensky. This guy
[Putin] is on his own kind of personal jihad to restore greater Russia.”</span></li><li><span>Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn said on Fox
Business she’s “been impressed with President Zelensky and how he has
stood up. And for Putin to go out there and say ‘we’re going to
denazify’ and Zelensky is Jewish.”</span></li><li><span>In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Gen.
John Allen denounced Putin’s use of the term, “de-Nazify” while the
newsman and former Israel lobbyist shook his head in disgust. In a
separate interview with Blitzer, the so-called “Ukraine whistleblower”
and Ukraine-born Alexander Vindman grumbled that the claim is “patently
absurd, there’s really no merit… you pointed out that Volodymyr Zelensky
is Jewish… the Jewish community [is] embraced. It’s central to the
country and there is nothing to this Nazi narrative, this fascist
narrative. It’s fabricated as a pretext.”</span></li></ul>
<p><span>Behind the corporate media spin lies the complex and
increasingly close relationship Zelensky’s administration has enjoyed
with the neo-Nazi forces invested with key military and political posts
by the Ukrainian state, and the power these open fascists have enjoyed
since Washington installed a Western-aligned regime through a coup in
2014. </span></p>
<p>In fact, Zelensky’s top financial backer, the Ukrainian Jewish
oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, has been a key benefactor of the neo-Nazi Azov
Battalion and other extremists militias.</p>
<img src="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/National-Corps-Telegram-3.jpg?resize=1170%2C780&ssl=1" alt="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="261">The Azov Battalion marches with Nazi-inspired Wolfsangel flags in Mariupol, August 2020
<h3><strong>Backed by Zelensky’s top financier, neo-Nazi militants unleash a wave of intimidation</strong></h3>
<p><span>Incorporated into the Ukrainian National Guard, the Azov
Battalion is considered the most ideologically zealous and militarily
motivated unit fighting pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Donbass
region. </span></p>
<p><span>With Nazi-inspired Wolfsangel insignia on the uniforms of its
fighters, who have been photographed with Nazi SS symbols on their
helmets, Azov “is known for its association with neo-Nazi ideology…[and]
is believed to have participated in training and radicalizing US-based
white supremacy organizations,” according to an FBI indictment of
several US white nationalists that traveled to Kiev to train with Azov. </span></p>
<p>Igor Kolomoisky, a Ukrainian energy baron of Jewish heritage, has been a top <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/1/who-are-the-azov-regiment">funder of Azov</a> since it was formed in 2014. He has also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-pocket-army-controlled-by-sacked-ukrainian-billionaire-igor-kolomoisky-2015-3">bankrolled</a> private militias like the Dnipro and Aidar Battalions, and has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-kolomoisky/ukrainian-oligarch-under-fire-after-night-raid-on-state-oil-firm-idUSKBN0MG2A320150320">deployed</a> them as a personal thug squad to protect his financial interests.</p>
<p>In 2019, Kolomoisky emerged as the top backer of Zelensky’s
presidential bid. Though Zelensky made anti-corruption the signature
issue of his campaign, the Pandora Papers <a href="https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/reactions-in-ukraine-to-pandora-papers-revelations.html">exposed</a> him and members of his inner circle stashing large payments from Kolomoisky in a shadowy web of offshore accounts.</p>
<img src="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/07_fb_OPA_kolomoysky-800x520-1.jpg?resize=800%2C520&ssl=1" alt="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="255">President Zelensky (C) meets with billionaire oligarch and business associate Ihor Kolomoisky on September 10, 2019
<p>When Zelensky took office in May 2019, the Azov Battalion <span> maintained de facto control of the strategic southeastern port city of Mariupol and its surrounding villages. </span><span>As Open Democracy </span><a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/entrepreneurs-of-political-violence-ukraine-far-right/"><span>noted</span></a><span>,
“Azov has certainly established political control of the streets in
Mariupol. To maintain this control, they have to react violently, even
if not officially, to any public event which diverges sufficiently from
their political agenda.”</span></p>
<p><span>Attacks by Azov in Mariupol have included assaults on
“feminists and liberals” marching on International Women’s Day among
other incidents.</span></p>
<p><span>In March 2019, members of the Azov Battalion’s National Corps </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7RflyZdULY"><span>attacked the home</span></a><span>
of Viktor Medvedchuk, the leading opposition figure in Ukraine,
accusing him of treason for his friendly relations with Vladimir Putin,
the godfather of Medvedchuk’s daughter. </span></p>
<p><span>Zelensky’s administration escalated the attack on Medvedchuk, <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-medvedchuk-tv-channels-zelenskiy-defends-ban/31085877.html">shuttering</a> several media outlets he controlled in February 2021 with the open approval of the US State Department, and </span><a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-ukraine-business-government-and-politics-c3cb6ca3a2a58096fcd9810436539de9"><span>jailing the opposition leader for treason</span></a>
three months later. Zelensky justified his actions on the grounds that
he needed to “fight against the danger of Russian aggression in the
information arena.”</p>
<p><span>Next, in August 2020, Azov’s National Corps </span><a href="https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/unknown-attackers-shoot-rubber-bullets-at-bus-near-kharkiv-injure-4.html"><span>opened fire</span></a><span> on a bus containing members of Medvedchuk’s party, Patriots for Life, wounding several with rubber-coated steel bullets.</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Breaking! A bus carrying supporters and members of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ukraine?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ukraine</a>'s
opposition party "Patriots For Life" was attacked by Ukrainian National
Corps and Azov Battalion in the east of the country (Kharkov),
unconfirmed reports that some of the passengers have been murdered. <a href="https://t.co/O0hB2sqbRA">pic.twitter.com/O0hB2sqbRA</a></p>
<p>— The Eurasianist (@Russ_Warrior) <a href="https://twitter.com/Russ_Warrior/status/1299040499937021952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 27, 2020</a></p></blockquote>
<h3><strong>Zelensky failed to rein in neo-Nazis, wound up collaborating with them</strong></h3>
<p>Following his failed attempt to demobilize neo-Nazi militants in the
town of Zolote in October 2019, Zelensky called the fighters to the
table, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VavqTg7SLEg"><span>telling</span></a><span> reporters “I met with veterans yesterday. Everyone was there – the National Corps, Azov, and everyone else.”</span></p>
<p><span>A few seats away from the Jewish president was Yehven Karas, the leader of the neo-Nazi C14 gang.</span></p>
<img src="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Zelensky-Karas.jpeg?resize=985%2C554&ssl=1" alt="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="220">Zelensky meets with “veterans” including Yehven Karas (far right) and Dmytro Shatrovsky, an Azov Battalion leader (bottom left).
<p>During the Maidan “Revolution of Dignity” that ousted Ukraine’s
elected president in 2014, C14 activists took over Kiev’s city hall and
plastered its walls with neo-Nazi insignia before <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-embassy-used-as-safe-haven-during-ukraine-uprising-investigation-finds-1.3148719">taking shelter in the Canadian embassy</a>.</p>
<p>As the former youth wing of the ultra-nationalist Svoboda Party, C14
appears to draw its name from the infamous 14 words of US neo-Nazi
leader David Lane: “We must secure the existence of our people and a
future for white children.”</p>
<p>By <a href="https://khpg.org/en/1520808476">offering</a> to carry out
acts of spectacular violence on behalf of anyone willing to pay, the
hooligans have fostered a cozy relationship with various governing
bodies and powerful elites across Ukraine.</p>
<img src="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/C14.png?resize=800%2C368&ssl=1" alt="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="180">C14
neo-Nazi gang offers to carry out violence-for-hire: “C14 works for
you. Help us keep afloat, and we will help you. For regular donors, we
are opening a box for wishes. Which of your enemies would you like to
make life difficult for? We’ll try to do that.”
<p><span>A March 2018 </span><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cohen-ukraine-commentary/commentary-ukraines-neo-nazi-problem-idUSKBN1GV2TY"><span>report</span></a><span>
by Reuters stated that “C14 and Kiev’s city government recently signed
an agreement allowing C14 to establish a ‘municipal guard’ to patrol the
streets,” effectively giving them the sanction of the state to carry
out pogroms.</span></p>
<p><span>As The Grayzone <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2018/10/30/c14-ukrainian-nazi-kiev-police-america-house/">reported</a>, C14 led raid to “purge” Romani from Kiev’s railway station in collaboration with the Kiev police</span><span>.</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">The C14 Nazi terror gang signed an agreement with
the Kiev municipal government to patrol its streets. This footage taken
just a few months later in 2018 shows them carrying out a pogrom
against a Romani camp. <a href="https://t.co/9aAA86K8TQ">pic.twitter.com/9aAA86K8TQ</a></p>
<p>— Alex Rubinstein (@RealAlexRubi) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1498191420703883264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><span>Not only was this activity sanctioned by the Kiev city government, the US government itself saw little problem with it, <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2018/10/30/c14-ukrainian-nazi-kiev-police-america-house/">hosting Bondar at an official US government institution</a> in Kiev where he bragged about the pogroms. </span><span>C14 continued to </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180617020140/https://hromadskeradio.org/derzhava-finansuye-c14"><span>receive</span></a><span> state funding throughout 2018 for “national-patriotic education.”</span></p>
<p><span>Karas has </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220129134515/https://news.liga.net/politics/interview/s14_kto_oni_i_pochemu_im_pozvoleno_bit_lyudey"><span>claimed</span></a><span>
that the Ukrainian Security Serves would “pass on” information
regarding pro-separatist rallies “not only [to] us, but also Azov, the
Right Sector and so on.”</span></p>
<p><span>“In general, deputies of all factions, the National Guard, the
Security Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of Internal Affairs work
for us. You can joke like that,” Karas said.</span></p>
<p>Throughout 2019, Zelensky and his administration deepened their ties with ultra-nationalist elements across Ukraine.</p>
<img src="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Honcharuk.jpg?resize=1170%2C649&ssl=1" alt="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="217">Then-Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk onstage at the neo-Nazi “Veterans Strong” concert
<h3>After Prime Minister attends neo-Nazi concert, Zelensky honors Right Sector leader</h3>
<p><span>Just days after Zelensky’s meeting with Karas and other
neo-Nazi leaders in November 2019, Oleksiy Honcharuk – then the Prime
Minister and deputy head of Zelensky’s presidential office – <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ukrainian-pm-minister-attended-neo-nazi-concert-in-kyiv/">appeared on stage</a> at a neo-Nazi concert organized by C14 figure and accused murderer Andriy Medvedko.</span></p>
<p><span>Zelensky’s Minister for Veterans Affairs not only attended the
concert, which featured several antisemitic metal bands, she promoted
the concert on Facebook.</span></p>
<p>Also in 2019, Zelensky defended Ukrainian footballer Roman Zolzulya against Spanish fans taunting him as a “Nazi.” Zolzulya had <a href="https://twitter.com/zozulyaroman18/status/671675855932891136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E671675855932891136%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsportsfinding.com%2Fwhy-do-they-call-roman-zozulya-nazi-the-origin-of-his-confrontation-with-the-fans-of-rayo-vallecano%2F3487%2F">posed beside photos</a> of the World War II-era Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera and <a href="https://www.vocativ.com/falsestart/414086/did-espn-let-a-nazi-soccer-player-off-the-hook/index.html">openly supported</a>
the Azov Battalion. Zelensky responded to the controversy by
proclaiming that all of Ukraine backed Zolzulya, describing him as “not
only a cool football player but a true patriot.”</p>
<p><span>In November 2021, one of Ukraine’s most prominent ultra-nationalist militiamen, Dmytro Yarosh, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/dyastrub/posts/4533858036691045">announced</a> </span><span>that he had been appointed as an advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. </span><span>Yarosh is an avowed follower of the Nazi collaborator Bandera who led Right Sector from 2013 to 2015, <a href="https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/ukrainian-militias-prepare-for-possibility-of-russian-invasion-a-964628.html">vowing</a> to lead the “de-Russification” of Ukraine.</span></p>
<img src="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Yarosh-Zaluzhny.jpg?resize=690%2C387&ssl=1" alt="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="220">Dmytro Yarosh poses with Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces
<p><span>A month later, as war with Russia drew closer, Zelensky </span><a href="https://focus.ua/uk/politics/499544-za-lichnoe-muzhestvo-zelenskiy-prisvoil-zvanie-geroya-ukrainy-dobrovolcu-pravo-sektora"><span>awarded</span></a><span>
Right Sector commander Dmytro Kotsyubaylo the “Hero of Ukraine”
commendation. Known as “Da Vinci,” Kosyubaylo keeps a pet wolf in his
frontline base, and likes to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/20/world/europe/-ukraine-russia-putin-invasion.html">joke</a> to visiting reporters that his fighters “feed it the bones of Russian-speaking children.”</span></p>
<p><img src="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Zelensky-Kotsyubaylo.jpg?resize=740%2C375&ssl=1" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="392" height="199"></p>
<img src="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Screen-Shot-2022-03-03-at-5.03.54-PM.png?resize=1090%2C716&ssl=1" alt="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="257">Zelensky awards Right Sector commander Dmytro Kotsyubaylo the “Hero of Ukraine” award
<h3><strong>Ukrainian state-backed neo-Nazi leader flaunts influence on the eve of war with Russia </strong></h3>
<p><span>On February 5, 2022, only days before full-scale war with
Russia erupted, Yevhen Karas of the neo-Nazi C14 delivered a
stem-winding public address in Kiev intended to highlight the influence
his organization and others like it enjoyed over Ukrainian politics.</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Watch Yevhen Karas the leader of Ukraine's
neo-Nazi terror gang C14's speech from Kiev earlier this month. Straight
from the horses' mouth, he dispels the many narratives pushed by the
left, the mainstream media and the State Department. <a href="https://t.co/VWJqWPUGUp">pic.twitter.com/VWJqWPUGUp</a></p>
<p>— Alex Rubinstein (@RealAlexRubi) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1497747535783411714?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><span>“LGBT and foreign embassies say ‘there were not many Nazis at
Maidan, maybe about 10 percent of real ideological ones,’” Karas
remarked. “If not for those eight percent [of neo-Nazis] the
effectiveness [of the Maidan coup] would have dropped by 90 percent.”</span></p>
<p><span>The 2014 Maidan “Revolution of Dignity” would have been a “gay
parade” if not for the instrumental role of neo-Nazis, he proclaimed.</span></p>
<p><span>Karas went on to opine that the West armed Ukrainian ultra-nationalists because “we have fun killing.” </span><span>He also fantasized about the balkanization of Russia, declaring that it should be broken up into “five different” countries.</span></p>
<img src="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Karas-Salute.jpg?resize=1024%2C650&ssl=1" alt="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="249">Yevhen Karas delivering the Nazi salute.
<h3><strong>“If we get killed…we died fighting a holy war”</strong></h3>
<p><span>When Russian forces entered Ukraine this February 24,
encircling the Ukrainian military in the east and driving towards Kiev,
President Zelensky announced a national mobilization that included the <a href="https://twitter.com/RussiaUSA/status/1498245126300311552">release of criminals</a>
from prison, among them accused murderers wanted in Russia. He also
blessed the distribution of arms to average citizens, and their training
by battle-hardened paramilitaries like the Azov Battalion.</span></p>
<p>With fighting underway, Azov’s National Corps gathered hundreds of
ordinary civilians, including grandmothers and children, to train in
public squares and warehouses from Kharviv to Kiev to Lviv.</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">As US media celebrated average Ukrainian citizens
taking up arms against Russian troops, the ultra-nationalist Azov
Battalion's National Corps published a propaganda video of its fighters
training and passing out arms to residents of Kharkiv, transforming them
into combatants. <a href="https://t.co/RVL1nyWkfw">pic.twitter.com/RVL1nyWkfw</a></p>
<p>— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1498535108445409282?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><span>On February 27, the official Twitter account of the National Guard of Ukraine </span><a href="https://twitter.com/ng_ukraine/status/1497924614865002497"><span>posted</span></a><span> video of “Azov Fighters” greasing their bullets with pig fat to humiliate Russian Muslim fighters from Chechnya.</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="und">Azov fighters of the National Guard greased the bullets with lard against the Kadyrov orcs</p>
<p>Бійці Азова Нацгвардії змастили кулі салом проти кадировських орків</p>
<p>Підписуйтесь на наш телеграм канал <a href="https://t.co/SBQltMr4bM">https://t.co/SBQltMr4bM</a> <a href="https://t.co/A1ci7tZL8r">pic.twitter.com/A1ci7tZL8r</a></p>
<p>— НГУ (@ng_ukraine) <a href="https://twitter.com/ng_ukraine/status/1497924614865002497?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><span>A day later, the Azov Battalion’s National Corps </span><a href="https://t.me/nationalcorps/11126"><span>announced</span></a><span>
that the Azov Battalion’s Kharkiv Regional Police would begin using the
city’s Regional State Administration building as a defense
headquarters. Footage </span><a href="https://t.me/czartv/2282"><span>posted</span></a><span> to Telegram the following day shows the Azov-occupied building being hit by a Russian airstrike.</span></p>
<p><span>Besides authorizing the release of hardcore criminals to join
the battle against Russia, Zelensky has ordered all males of fighting
age to remain in the country. Azov militants have proceeded to enforce
the policy by brutalizing civilians attempting to flee from the fighting
around Mariupol. </span></p>
<p><span>According to one Greek resident in Mariupol recently </span><a href="https://greekcitytimes.com/2022/03/01/greek-in-mariupol-fascist-ukrainian/"><span>interviewed</span></a><span>
by a Greek news station, “When you try to leave you run the risk of
running into a patrol of the Ukrainian fascists, the Azov Battalion,” he
said, adding “they would kill me and are responsible for everything.”</span></p>
<p><span>Footage posted online appears to </span><a href="https://twitter.com/Deus_Abscondis/status/1497620925176754184"><span>show</span></a><span>
uniformed members of a fascist Ukrainian militia in Mariupol violently
pulling fleeing residents out of their vehicles at gunpoint.</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">BREAKING Ukrainian NAZI are preventing people from leaving Mariupol and are shooting at them.</p>
<p>Residents of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Mariupol?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Mariupol</a> do not move around the city, Mariupol will soon be liberated!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EndTheBandera?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EndTheBandera</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StopUkrainianNazism?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StopUkrainianNazism</a> <br> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ukraine?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ukraine</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Russia?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Russia</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DPR?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DPR</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LPR?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LPR</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DNR?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DNR</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LPR?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LPR</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Donbass?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Donbass</a> <a href="https://t.co/AakZGyNxQx">pic.twitter.com/AakZGyNxQx</a></p>
<p>— Deus Abscondis (@Deus_Abscondis) <a href="https://twitter.com/Deus_Abscondis/status/1497620925176754184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Other video filmed at checkpoints around Mariupol showed Azov fighters <a href="https://twitter.com/oulosP/status/1499435522590224385">shooting and killing</a> civilians attempting to flee.</p>
<p>On March 1, Zelensky <a href="https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3417806-zelensky-replaces-heads-of-odesa-cherkasy-regional-state-administrations.html">replaced</a>
the regional administrator of Odessa with Maksym Marchenko, a former
commander of the extreme right Aidar Battalion, which has been <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur50/040/2014/en/">accused</a> of an array of war crimes in the Donbass region.</p>
<p><span>Meanwhile, as a massive convoy of Russian armored vehicles bore down on Kiev, Yehven Karas of the neo-Nazi C14 posted a</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/ylCCIbcw5rk?t=584"><span>video</span></a><span> on YouTube from inside a vehicle presumably transporting fighters.</span></p>
<p><span>“If we get killed, it’s fucking great because it means we died
fighting a holy war,” Karas exclaimed. ”If we survive, it’s going to be
even fucking better! That’s why I don’t see a downside to this, only
upside!”</span></p>
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