Posted on 03/16/2022 3:41:21 PM PDT by FarCenter
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Azov headquarters in Mariupol
It is also where the Azov Battalion, which is part of the Ukrainian National Guard and thus subordinate to the Interior Ministry, has set up its headquarters. Its fighters are well trained, but the unit is controversial because it is composed of nationalists and far-right radicals. Its very existence is one of the pretexts Russia has used for its war against Ukraine.
Initially, Azov was a volunteer militia that formed in the city of Berdyansk to support the Ukrainian army in its fight against pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Some of its fighters came from the small but active far-right group Pravyi sektor (Right Sector), whose core members were from eastern Ukraine and spoke Russian. Originally, they had even advocated the unity of East Slavic peoples: Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians. Some were soccer ultras, others were active in nationalist circles. "In Germany," says Andreas Umland from the Stockholm Center for Eastern European Studies, these groups would be described as free comradeships" which are organized neo-Nazi groups.
Far-right connotations
Umland told DW that Azov had been controversial from the outset because of its emblem, which bears the Wolfsangel symbol. "The Wolfsangel has far-right connotations, it is a pagan symbol that the SS also used," said Umland. "But it is not considered a fascist symbol by the population in Ukraine."
The Azov Regiment wants the symbol from the Nazi era to be understood as stylized versions of the letters N and I, standing for "national idea."
(Excerpt) Read more at dw.com ...
We supported the Russians even though they got WWII going by allying with Hitler in the first place. Compared to the way the Russians gave the Nazis their head start, I think these Ukrainian LARP’ers, who haven’t actually killed 6m Jews, are amusing but fairly harmless. The fact that they are risking their lives to defend a Jewish president who presides over a capital city run by a halachically Jewish mayor, is evidence enough that they are using these symbols mainly to annoy the Russians.
Note that Putin has his own “Nazis” fighting for him, which makes me kinda dubious that he is really interested in fighting Nazis:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Zhoga
Well, Mr. Zhoga is, in a sense, an ex-”Nazi”, because he is dead, courtesy of a Ukrainian bullet. But before he was pushing up sunflowers, he was the commander of the Sparta Battalion:
[The Sparta Battalion is regarded as one of the most effective separatist militias, and has been described as being associated with neo-Nazism in regard to ideology.[5][6][7] The militia is loyal to the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), one of the self-proclaimed breakaway states located in the Donbas.]
Well then, so he wasn’t a Russian soldier after all, he was a fighter for the DPR. Well, here is what Putin thinks of him:
[Russian President Vladimir Putin [posthumously] awarded him the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.]
So, for as long as the Sparta Battalion exists, I don’t wanna hear no more about how Putin is only in Ukraine to fight “Nazis”. “Nazi” fighting begins at home.
Ukes are Nazis! EuroMaidan! Soros! Globalists! Putin is our savior! Yadda yadda
Why would a country allow a
neo-Nazi, fascist group to be a part of their National Guard? Strange country.
Please don’t post these articles as the Bidenistas here deny that the Ukranian Nazis even exist.
When your back is to the wall, you fight with what ya got .
“Why would a country allow a neo-Nazi, fascist group to be a part of their National Guard? Strange country.”
Because if you want to terrorize an ethnic group, yet still want Western support, you have to have deniability (and you can see it working here).
thank you!
Anybody who isn’t a Communist is a far-right radical. Stalin said it, Democrats take it for gospel.
“When your back is to the wall, you fight with what ya got .”
Perhaps now, but for 8 YEARS?
“Ukes are Nazis! EuroMaidan! Soros! Globalists! Putin is our savior! Yadda yadda”
Not as crazy about Putin, but otherwise I agree.
Of course there are those who think ALL Ukrainians are Nazis. That’s why Russia needs to rid the world of them.
It’s odd to come on a Conservative American forum and see all of this Putin Fellating. I never thought I would see the day.
I’ve made my last donation.
Because Ukraine wants the Donbas, minus the pro-Russian people who live there, and Azov is useful to them in accomplishing this task.
The Russians opened up a corridor to allow the citizens to escape. The NAZIs kept them in at gunpoint.
It’s true, that any soldier caught with one of their Nazi tatoos is going to get shot for murdering tens of thousands of Russians the last few years, but that’s no excuse for using women and children as shields.
“Of course there are those who think ALL Ukrainians are Nazis.”
I doubt that, but when the government uses them as Brownshirts, there is a problem.
“Its very existence is one of the pretexts Russia has used for its war against Ukraine”?
Or is the threat from Russia is the pretext for its existence?
“Of course there are those who think ALL Ukrainians are Nazis. That’s why Russia needs to rid the world of them.”
Not even Russia thinks that. That’s why their soldiers have been dying stuck on roads not going in any further so as not to hurt civilians. If they had wanted to, this would have been over in a couple of days.
I am completely shocked that so many on FR have been so gullible to fall for this Russia Russia Russia crap instigated by the left. It’s brought the world to the brink and we haven’t stepped back yet.
There is no current ‘nazi’ wing of the Ukraine army. Even if there were that is not a justification to invade a sovereign country. There may be some small groups that had formerly had ties or members in the ‘far right’ that have been purged or reformed. Even if some members retain individual private ‘far right’ beliefs they are clearly not running the show or implementing any policy. And its also ridiculous to invade a country because a few members of its military might have offensive private beliefs. Conservatives in general and Freepers particularly have been almost universally critical whenever the Left has shutdown or persecuted groups based on their alleged former or even current ties to the ‘far right’
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