“The most fanatical “patriots”: how Kyiv and the West justify “Azov” and other neo-Nazi formations in Ukraine

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, in an interview with the Greek television channel ERT, said that there are no serious problems with radical nationalism in the country.

“And if there are challenges or calls for radicalism, I believe that in our state there are much fewer of them compared to other countries of the world.

I think we have almost none.

Despite the fact that we have a war and we could understand it.

If such radical statements take place, believe me, we are following them, we take them very seriously, stop and immediately take such steps, ”RIA Novosti quotes Zelensky.

The Ukrainian leader also thanked the "volunteer" formations of Ukraine.

Recall that in early April, Zelensky, together with two Azov militants of Greek origin, spoke in front of the Greek Parliament.

In his speech, the President of Ukraine called for "creating such a new alliance of friends" that "can help Mariupol," and one of the "volunteers" said that he was "fighting the Russian Nazis."

Greece reacted ambiguously to this event.

Thus, the official representative of the Greek government, Yannis Ikonomou, called the participation of Azov fighters in Zelensky’s speech “erroneous and unsuccessful.”

The left-wing party SYRIZA, the Progressive Alliance, reacted in a similar way, with the communists condemning both Zelensky's speech and the militants' speech to parliament.

Currently, the remains of Azov in Mariupol are blocked on the territory of the Azovstal metallurgical plant.

According to RT correspondent Murad Gazdiev, the militants are in a dense encirclement. 

Special formation

Zelensky has repeatedly focused on the fact that Azov is a structure of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“Today it is part of the armed forces, and all of them are the official army of our state,” Zelensky said.

Recall, "Azov" was created in May 2014 as a battalion of the special purpose patrol service under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

In September of the same year, the unit was enlarged to a regiment.

Prior to the infusion into the National Guard, Azov was maintained and under the actual control of the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky.

In November, the unit came under the command of the National Guard, but retained the status of a special formation.

In particular, Azov did not change the neo-Nazi paraphernalia in the form of a black sun and a wolfsangel (a wolf hook is a symbol of the SS units) and began to carry out propaganda work among children.

In addition, in 2016, the National Corps party appeared on the basis of Azov, chaired by white supremacist Andrei Biletsky.

As experts interviewed by RT explained, the backbone of Azov initially consisted of supporters of neo-Nazism, sadists and criminals.

After joining the National Guard, the unit stopped taking people with a criminal record, and adherents of ultra-right views became the main source of replenishment.

“If we draw a clear historical analogy, then Azov is a kind of SS in Nazi Germany.

The most fanatical "patriots", that is, supporters of various radical, extremist organizations, were recruited there.

They received very good supplies, including from NATO countries, ”Andrei Suzdaltsev, deputy dean of the HSE Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, said in an interview with RT.

The Ukrainian leadership explained the support of "Azov" with "merits" on the battlefields in the Donbass.

However, civilians in the south-east of Ukraine remember this unit of the National Guard more for acts of violence and bullying.

In interviews with Russian journalists, the civilian population told that after the start of the so-called “anti-terrorist operation” (ATO), the Azov people practiced kidnapping and torturing people under the pretext of searching for “separatists”.

“Nails were pulled out, needles were driven in.

This was done by the Azov battalion.

I'm just a civilian.

They wanted me to say where the "separatists" were in the village.

The head pack is a trifle.

When you are fastened with handcuffs and fry with a lighter for a long time, you just lose consciousness, ”said Alexei from the village of Shirokino in 2015.

The Azovites were distinguished by their aggressiveness outside the ATO zone and sometimes used weapons brought from there.

So, in 2016 in Berezan (Kyiv region), one of the militants who visited the Donbass, being in a state of intoxication, threw a live grenade in the direction of a saleswoman in a store, with whom he had previously quarreled.

The woman escaped injury only due to the fact that the explosion occurred under the metal sheet of the rack.

In the same year, in Mariupol, during a conflict with one of the civilians, an Azov man took out a knife and cut his throat.

For such a crime, the nationalist escaped with correctional labor, a fine and a ban on promotion in rank and position for two years.

With the start of the Russian military special operation, Azov turned the civilian population of Mariupol into a human shield.

The forcible detention of people who were trying to leave the city slowed down the advance of the troops of the Russian Federation and the DPR.

In addition, the nationalists widely used residential areas for military needs.

“Nationalists are forgiven everything”

Earlier, US congressmen repeatedly forbade the Pentagon to provide any support to Azov.

US lawmakers emphasized that the unit is an ultra-nationalist paramilitary structure that "openly accepts neo-Nazis into its ranks."

They also called on the authorities to recognize Azov as a terrorist organization, but no such decision was made.

Despite unflattering assessments from the West, "Azov" still received weapons from abroad, including from the United States.

According to Murad Gazdiev, Western-made electronics, equipment, elements of equipment and optical devices were found in the territories left by the nationalists in Mariupol. 

On May 1, in an interview with the Italian television company Mediaset, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Western countries and other US allies had previously openly recognized the neo-Nazi nature of Azov, but now their attitude began to change.

“The fact that Azov is an openly neo-Nazi association was recognized in the West without any hesitation until the situation in early 2022, when they began to change their position as if on command.

Recently, Japan even apologized to Azov for putting it on the list of terrorist organizations a few years ago because of its neo-Nazi tendencies,” Lavrov said.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs recalled the sensational story with a cut out excerpt from Zelensky's interview with Fox News, where the President of Ukraine commented on the crimes of nationalists.

“He (Zelensky. -

) said that there are many such battalions, “they are what they are.”

I want to draw your opinion: this phrase - “they are what they are” - was cut out by the journalist who interviewed Zelensky and was not aired.

That is, the journalist understands what this person says and thinks.

And he thinks about how to use neo-Nazis to fight the Russian Federation,” Lavrov said.

At the end of April, Alexander Lukashevich, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OSCE, drew attention to attempts to whitewash Azov and other neo-Nazi formations in Ukraine in his speech in Vienna.

According to him, the Western media "come to the point of sheer absurdity", intending to convince the public today that there are no manifestations of neo-Nazism in Ukraine.

As an example, Lukashevich cited a recent article by the German publication Die Welt entitled "Lies about the neo-Nazi battalion and the fault of the West."

The Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OSCE expressed bewilderment that the journalists ignored the emblems of the SS units published in the photographs in their own article.

“Is it really so difficult to look into your own history of the middle of the 20th century and see that under the same banners and ideas massacres have already been committed?

What is it - the illiteracy of the publication's employees or a conscious attempt to justify neo-Nazis in Ukraine?

Lukashevich said.

Experts believe that against the backdrop of a new large-scale surge of anti-Russian sentiment in the West and within Ukraine, there is a clear trend towards a “reassessment” of the ideology and activities of neo-Nazi structures.

• Formation of Azov fighters in the center of Kyiv at events in honor of Volunteer Day

• Gettyimages.ru

• © STR/NurPhoto

“Earlier, in the West, there really were quite a few publications accusing Ukrainian radical formations of neo-Nazism.

The US Congress even forbade the Pentagon to supply Azov with weapons.

But at present, in the West, Ukrainian radicals are perceived as suicide bombers in the fight against Russia.

They are being glorified even more actively in Ukraine.

Therefore, the nationalists are forgiven everything, ”Suzdaltsev stated.

In an interview with RT, Nikolai Mezhevich, chief researcher at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted that it is now beneficial for Zelensky and the West to “cheer up” neo-Nazis.

Without radicals, according to the expert, Ukraine will face an imminent military catastrophe.

“No one is embarrassed that the nationalists in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Guard play the role of a kind of political instructor.

They monitor the maintenance of combat and morale in the troops.

Without them, the Kyiv regime will not last, the army will fall apart, the soldiers will go to surrender en masse.

To justify them, Kyiv is building a political and historical line, according to which neo-Nazis are the real “patriots”, although it was these people who killed and tortured civilians,” Mezhevich emphasized.

* "Azov" 

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