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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/03/18/who-are-the-foreign-fighters-traveling-to-ukraine-what-we-know-and-what-we-dont/">peoplesdispatch.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Who are the foreign fighters traveling to Ukraine? What we know and what we don’t <br></h1>
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<a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/03/18/who-are-the-foreign-fighters-traveling-to-ukraine-what-we-know-and-what-we-dont/">March 18, 2022</a> by <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/03/18/who-are-the-foreign-fighters-traveling-to-ukraine-what-we-know-and-what-we-dont/"></a><a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/author/natalia-marques/">Natalia Marques</a>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><p>Caption: Azov Battalion volunteers. Azov has been successful at recruiting fighters from the Western far-right movement
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<p><span>“Remember, the Russians invaded Afghanistan back in 1980,” </span><a href="https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1498490752065757184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span>said</span></a><span>
former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shortly after the February
Russian offensive in Ukraine. “It didn’t end well for the Russians.”
she explained. “There were other </span><i><span>unintended consequences</span></i><span>
as we know, but the fact is, that a very motivated, and then funded,
and armed insurgency basically drove the Russians out of Afghanistan.”
[emphasis added]</span></p>
<p><span>The “unintended consequences” Clinton referred to were the
arming and funding of the mujahideen fighters, who eventually became the
ultra-violent groups Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, who have terrorized and
continue to terrorize both the people of Afghanistan and the US. </span></p>
<p><span>What Clinton hinted at, that the infamous Western tactic of
using well-funded insurgents could win the war against Russia in
Ukraine’s favor, has many worried about the potential fallout. Could
Ukraine </span><a href="https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/30392/ukraine-could-become-the-far-right-s-afghanistan"><span>become the far-right’s Afghanistan</span></a><span>, in which Neo-Nazi forces are able to use the war against Russia as a combat training ground? </span></p>
<p><span>These concerns are not misplaced. In Ukraine, far-right
insurgent groups have gained considerable power since the 2014 Maidan
coup, in which fascists took power and toppled a democratically-elected
president. Ukraine already has a precedent of attracting ultra-right
groups and individuals from other countries, who have sought to use
existing political instability to gain combat experience. </span></p>
<p><span>Ukrainian government officials, as high-ranking as </span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-news-02-27-22/h_9ffa23d19f5bde298a75a3e2be13e13d"><span>President Zelenskyy himself</span></a><span>, have in the last month specifically asked for foreign fighters to join Ukraine in the war against Russia. </span><span>According
to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, 20,000 people from 52
countries have already volunteered to fight in Ukraine. Who are these
volunteers? And what will be the consequence of this influx of foreign
combatants, with differing or unclear motives? </span></p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Foreigners willing to defend Ukraine and world
order as part of the International Legion of Territorial Defense of
Ukraine, I invite you to contact foreign diplomatic missions of Ukraine
in your respective countries. Together we defeated Hitler, and we will
defeat Putin, too.</p>
<p>— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) <a href="https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1497840669066502145?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<h3><b>A disturbing precedent</b></h3>
<p><span>Foreign fighters have come in and out of Ukraine since the 2014
Euromaidan coup, led by ultra-right wing forces and backed by the US,
which overthrew democratically-elected President Viktor Yanukovych. Many
of these fighters were indeed right-wing extremists. Post-2014, the US
Department of Justice </span><a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/christopherm51/craig-lang-ukraine-war-crimes-alleged"><span>opened up an investigation</span></a><span>
into several people from the US who went abroad to fight in Ukraine
with ultra-right volunteer forces, and allegedly committed war crimes.
The investigation centers around veteran US soldier </span><a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/christopherm51/craig-lang-ukraine-far-right-extremists-true-crime"><span>Craig Lang</span></a><span>,
who traveled to Ukraine in May 2015 and fought alongside Ukrainian
far-right battalions such as Right Sector. Lang had a history of
violence: even before flying to Ukraine he was jailed after traveling
across the US with the intention of murdering his pregnant wife. When he
returned to the US from Ukraine, Lang, along with an accomplice, killed
and robbed two people in a Florida robbery in order to fund more
international right-wing exploits. These included a </span><a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/christopherm51/craig-lang-ukraine-far-right-extremists-true-crime"><span>plan</span></a><span> to travel to Venezuela to fight the democratically-elected socialist government. </span></p>
<p><span>Since 2014 and before the war started, </span><a href="https://time.com/5926750/azov-far-right-movement-facebook/"><span>over 17,000 foreign fighters</span></a><span>
have come to Ukraine from over 50 countries. Ultra-right groups such as
the Azov Battalion, since incorporated into the Ukrainian National
Guard post-Euromaidan, have been </span><a href="https://thesoufancenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Report-by-The-Soufan-Center-White-Supremacy-Extremism-The-Transnational-Rise-of-The-Violent-White-Supremacist-Movement.pdf"><span>extremely effective at recruiting foreign fighters</span></a><span>.
Citizens of Germany, the UK, Brazil, Sweden, the United States, and
Australia have traveled to Ukraine in order to join Azov. The Battalion
maintains a </span><a href="https://thesoufancenter.org/intelbrief-the-transnational-network-that-nobody-is-talking-about/"><span>“western outreach office”</span></a><span>,
which travels around Europe to promote its white supremacist views, and
targets specifically right wing groups and individuals around the
world. As the Soufan Center reports, “</span><span>in July 2018,
German-language fliers were distributed among the visitors at a
right-wing rock festival in Thuringia, inviting them to be part of the
Azov battalion: ‘join the ranks of the best’ to ‘save Europe from
extinction.’”</span></p>
<img src="https://peoplesdispatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Mikael_Skillt_and_22Mikola22-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="261">Mikael Skillt (left) and “Mikola” (right), Swedish volunteers in the Azov Battalion. (Photo: Carl Ridderstråle)
<p><span>The influence of neo-Nazis and the ultra-right has waned since
Euromaidan. In 2019, the far-right suffered a humiliating defeat by
winning only 2% of the vote in parliamentary elections. Yet, fascists
maintain a significant hold on the military and police forces in
Ukraine. As long as heavily armed Neo-Nazi groups like the Right Sector
and the Azov Battalion continue to recruit amongst the worldwide
right-wing and pull in disgruntled and violent individuals, the fascist
movement will promulgate in Ukraine and in the rest of the world.</span></p>
<h3><b>Are extremists traveling to fight in Ukraine?</b></h3>
<p><span>Since the Russian invasion, foreign volunteers have poured into
Ukraine in startling numbers. If the 20,000 claim by Ukrainian
officials is to be believed, are a significant portion of these fighters
right-wing extremists, or could they turn to the ultra-right while
fighting alongside the likes of Azov?</span></p>
<p><span>Kacper Rekawek, </span><span>a fellow at the Center for
Research on Extremism at the University of Oslo who has studied foreign
fighters in Ukraine since 2014, believes the answer so far is no. He
told </span><a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/03/americans-fighting-ukraine-russia.html"><i><span>Slate</span></i></a><span>,
“All the people who go say one thing: ‘I’m here for humanitarian
reasons’…Unlike in 2014, they don’t appear to be motivated, as a group,
by a certain set of ideological tropes.”</span></p>
<p><span>It is too early to tell definitively how many foreign fighters
traveling to Ukraine have ultra-right connections or sympathies. But
contrary to what </span><span>Rekawek</span><span> claims, there are already concerning patterns emerging: According to the SITE Intelligence Group, which is </span><a href="https://ent.siteintelgroup.com/Ukraine-Russia-War/"><span>tracking extremist activity</span></a><span>
surrounding the Russia–Ukraine war, Neo-Nazis in Germany and the US are
urging others to fight and donate to Azov. Far-right groups are </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/world/europe/militias-russia-ukraine.html"><span>expressing an outpouring of support for Ukraine</span></a><span>,
and seeking to physically join the fight against Russia, who they view
as communists despite the 30 plus years that have elapsed since the
dissolution of the Soviet Union. </span></p>
<p><span>Most recently, Henry Hoeft, from Ohio, was </span><a href="https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2022/03/06/ohio-veteran-henry-hoeft-heading-ukraine-fight-russia-legion/9376048002/"><span>profiled</span></a><span> sympathetically in the </span><i><span>Columbus Dispatch</span></i><span>,
which later had to revise the article to add that Hoeft had been a
member of the far-right and heavily armed US group the Boogaloo Bois.
Hoeft later made more news when he published a video detailing his
experiences in the war, claiming that Ukrainian officials were
understating the amount of foreign fighters who had died, sending
foreigners to the front with no weapons, and cutting up foreign
passports.</span></p>
<h3><b>The Azov threat</b></h3>
<p><span>The Azov Battalion remains a central presence in the current
war. This raises concerns that the tens of thousands of foreign fighters
could be radicalized by groups like Azov. Azov is beloved throughout
the world’s extreme right, with its symbols seen at a </span><a href="https://ent.siteintelgroup.com/Far-Right-/-Far-Left-Threat/carrying-confederate-flags-neo-nazi-group-attends-march-in-opposition-to-black-lives-matter-protest.html"><span>US Neo-Nazi rally</span></a><span> and the </span><a href="https://twitter.com/rita_katz/status/1194704229757313024?lang=en"><span>motorcycle</span></a><span>
of a father and son duo who attempted to blow up a mosque in Italy. And
in terms of their influence among potential foreign fighters, the
director of the SITE Intelligence group writes, </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/03/14/neo-nazi-ukraine-war/"><span>“Not since ISIS have we seen such a flurry of recruitment activity.”</span></a><span> </span></p>
<p><span>Recently, Azov released of video of its members coating their
bullets in pork fat, to be used to shoot Muslim Chechen soldiers. Azov
is now the primary force defending Mariupol, a city that has made
headlines all over Western media for its centrality in the war at the
moment. The US, which has committed </span><a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/10/20/former-us-secretary-of-state-colin-powell-leaves-legacy-of-war-crimes-and-lies/"><span>numerous</span></a> <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2019/09/04/un-report-indicts-the-us-and-european-powers-for-war-crimes-in-yemen/"><span>war</span></a> <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2018/09/11/us-threatens-intl-criminal-court-as-prosecution-for-war-crimes-in-afghanistan-looms/"><span>crimes</span></a> <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/01/25/war-ravaged-syria-demands-end-of-sanctions-and-occupation-of-its-territories-by-us-and-others/"><span>of</span></a> <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/12/30/drone-warfare-the-world-needs-to-end-us-impunity/"><span>its</span></a> <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/12/23/panamanians-demand-justice-for-the-victims-of-the-1989-us-invasion/"><span>own</span></a><span>, has </span><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/17/russia-ukraine-live-updates.html"><span>accused Russia of war crimes</span></a><span> for its alleged bombing of the Mariupol Theater. However, conflicting reports, such as an AP article that claims there are </span><a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-putin-kyiv-europe-world-news-303fbd14ea7d3f131abc9b3d5739123f"><span>no reported casualties</span></a><span>, indicate a possibility that Azov </span><a href="https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/03/neo-nazis-in-ukraine-fake-incidents-to-gain-more-western-support.html#more"><span>bombed the theater themselves</span></a><span> in order to gain more Western support. </span></p>
<p><span>—</span></p>
<p><span>With the likes Azov, European Neo-Nazis, and the Boogaloo Bois
in the mix, there is reason to be concerns about foreign fighters
returning home radicalized to the far right and/or with dangerous combat
experience. However, with the war only a few weeks old, the issue of
foreign fighters raises numerous other questions that cannot be answered
as of yet. The sheer number of foreign fighters—20,000—is remarkable in
itself. Can all these fighters be merely a ragtag mix of volunteers? Or
does this indicate a coordinated effort by right-wing recruiters as
SITE indicates? Or perhaps this hints at a hidden, larger effort by
mercenary companies like Blackwater, who before the war had plans to
create a </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/erik-prince-had-pitched-10-billion-private-army-in-ukraine-time"><span>$10 billion private army in Ukraine</span></a><span>?</span></p>
<p><span>The situation on the ground for foreign fighters is pure chaos.
A returned British soldier, fighting on the side of Ukraine, claims he
was </span><a href="https://www.the-sun.com/news/4860494/ukraine-war-russia-british-fighter/"><span>tortured by Ukrainian guards</span></a><span>. A recent Russian strike </span><a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/lviv-foreign-fighters-ukraine/"><span>killed an estimated 200 foreign combatants</span></a><span>. Russia has announced that it intends to </span><a href="https://www.state.gov/?post_type=state_briefing&;p=92333Assignment"><span>treat foreign fighters as mercenaries rather than lawful combatant</span></a><span>s, and the US has </span><a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-03-02/card/white-house-urges-americans-not-to-go-to-ukraine-amid-calls-for-foreign-fighters-UWJj9hRdNL4T9WEOPHJE"><span>urged its citizens not to go fight</span></a><span>. In fact, a 2019 study found that </span><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022343318804594"><span>when foreign fighters deploy, violence against civilians goes up</span></a><span>.</span></p>
<p><span>For foreign fighters, whether they are radicalized by the
ultra-right or killed in the crossfire, the outlook is grim,
highlighting the need for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. </span></p>
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