You can subscribe to RSS feed from Spitfirelist.com HERE.
You can subscribe to the comments made on programs and posts–an excellent source of information in, and of, itself, HERE.
WFMU-FM is podcasting For The Record–You can subscribe to the podcast HERE.
Mr. Emory’s entire life’s work is available on a 32GB flash drive, available for a contribution of $65.00 or more (to KFJC). Click Here to obtain Dave’s 40+ years’ work, complete through Late Fall of 2021 (through FTR #1215).
“Political language…is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
— George Orwell, 1946
EVERYTHING MR. EMORY HAS BEEN SAYING ABOUT THE UKRAINE WAR IS ENCAPSULATED IN THIS VIDEO FROM UKRAINE 24
ANOTHER REVEALING VIDEO FROM UKRAINE 24
Mr. Emory has launched a new Patreon site. Visit at: Patreon.com/DaveEmory
FTR#1291 This program was recorded in one, 60-minute segment.
Lviv, Ukaine, Summer of 2018. Celebration of the 75th anniversary of the 14th Waffen SS Division (Galician). Note the Ukrainian honor guard in the background.
Introduction: Updating the Ukraine war, this broadcast centers largely on the wholesale whitewashing of Ukrainian Nazi fighting formations, the Azov units, in particular.
In turn, this whitewashing is the historical culmination of a long process.
As Mr. Emory has noted in many programs and posts, the Russia-Ukraine war has completed the process of the Nazification of America that he has chronicled for the better part of half a century.
A central role in that process was played by General Franz Halder.
We have taken note of Halder before, discussing the fact that Reinhard Gehlen cleared his formation of a working agreement with the U.S. by conferring with Halder and Admiral Karl von Doenitz, who succeeded Hitler, following his alleged “suicide.”
Perhaps even more important is his decisive post-war work revising the history of the Wehrmacht and World War II, shepherding blatant, readily verifiable lies into accepted historical truth.
In the long, ongoing series of programs about the Ukraine war, Mr. Emory has discussed his belief that the war has functioned in a manner not unlike the Philosopher’s Stone of the medieval alchemists.
That stone was believed to be able to transform lead into gold. The war is transforming individuals and institutions in the West into the same historical revisionist fabric as the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory.
” . . . . After the war, he lived a comfortable life as an author, commentator and ‘historical consultant’ for the U.S. Army Center of Military History (CMH). . . .”
“. . . . Halder’s job was to rehabilitate Nazism for the benefit of his new American patrons. If the Nazis could be ideologically separated from the German people and the German Army, America could use the most useful of Hitler’s soldiers in their war against the Soviet Union without raising suspicion. Halder oversaw a team of 700 former Wehrmacht officers and intentionally set about rewriting history to present the image of a clean Wehrmacht and a German people ignorant of Nazi brutality. His deputy was CIA agent Adolf Heusinger, a Nazi war criminal who was largely responsible for planning the endless massacres of ‘security warfare,’ and was later a commander of both the German Army and NATO. . . .”
” . . . . Halder enjoyed special status, releasing information to only the most privileged journalists and historians. With the legitimacy granted by his title, access to information, and U.S. government backing, Halder’s CMH was considered a gold standard source for academic historians and their information was highly coveted. Halder used this to carefully vet to whom he released information, ensuring he got the maximum impact.”
“From 1955 to 1991 his works were cited at least 700 times in academic publications, especially by professors and researchers in Western military academies. Since Western historians were forced to drink from Halder’s well, they passed down the poison to their students, and from there the lies worked their way into the public consciousness. Eventually, Nazi propaganda was laundered into ‘truth’ through simple repetition and careful control of sources. . . . .”
Next, we detail the ideological identification of the top Ukrainian military commander with Third Reich Ally Stephan Bandera.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Four Star General Valery Zaluzhnyi is not shy about his profound affinity with Bandera: “ . . . . Zaluzhnyi is shown in uniform standing in a military office with several other soldiers in front of a desk adorned with busts of OUN‑B leaders and Nazi-collaborators Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych. Photos of both Shukhevych and Bandera are also prominently hanging on the wall in the background along with the red and black Banderite flag. . . .”
As discussed in our previous article, post-World War II U.S. political culture has been shaped by the Nazi/Pentagon alliance of General Franz Halder and hundreds of his former fellow Wehrmacht officers. That alliance has re-shaped the perception of the Second World War in an unabashedly pro-Nazi fashion.
The whitewashing of Bandera and his OUN/B dates back to the incorporation of that organization’s parent agency, the Reinhard Gehlen “Org” into the U.S. intelligence establishment.
. . . . The CIC had an agent who photographed eleven volumes of the secret files of the OUN/Bandera. These files clearly show how most of its members worked for the Gestapo or SS as policemen, executioners, partisan hunters, and municipal officials. The OUN contribution to the German war effort was significant, including raising volunteers for several SS divisions. It was precisely because of its work with the Nazis that Wisner wanted to hire the OUN for his special forces. . . .
The New York Times has been at the forefront of the whitewashing of the Azov formations and wholesale denial of the Nazification of the Ukrainian national security structure.
Now, “the Gray Lady” has been glorifying the Bratstvo battalion, another of the fascist fighting formations in the Ukrainian order of battle.
Descended from the UNA-UNSO, itself having been led by Yuri Shukhevych, son and collaborator of Roman Shukhevych, the Bratstvo battalion is being hailed as an exemplary commando unit.
(Roman Shukhevych was an OUN/B war criminal who, among other things, led the Lvov pogrom of June 30, 1941 committed by the SS-controlled Einsatzgruppe Nachtigall. He was declared a “Hero of Ukraine” by the political forces behind the Maidan coup.)
Among those joining the normalization of Azov Nazis are: Vogue magazine, MSNBC and the School of Visual Arts (New York).
Former press officer of the Azov Battalion, Dmytro Kozatsky has achieved gravitas in the West at the named institutions.
“ . . . . Protests erupted at DOC NYC’s premiere of the film Freedom on Fire (2022) at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) Theatre in Manhattan, which hosted Kozatsky as a guest speaker. Audience members who raised the accusations during a Q&A were forcibly removed from the event. . . .”
Author Lambert Strether concludes: “ . . . . what stuns me is the ease with which Kozatsky is penetrating our cultural institutions. Booking agents, facilities managers, press agents, board members who organize such things, fashion editors, network anchors: All combining their efforts to service a Nazi professionally, as if it were the most normal thing in the world, which at this point perhaps it is. . . .”
The Nazification of America via the Azov “Philosopher’s Stone” has swept up Congressional representatives from both political parties and academic groups at Stanford University.
Not to be outdone by the above individuals and institutions, the ADL has joined the chorus declaring that the Azovs aren’t Nazis.
Perhaps the whitewashing of the Azov Nazis should not surprise, particularly given that the formations’ atrocities in Ukraine are widely attributed to—drumroll, fanfare—the Russians!
Foremost in the Western falsification of Ukrainian/Azov atrocities is the massacre at Bucha, which helped terminate and marginalize ongoing behind-the-scenes negotiations to end the war.
One of the few Western voices correctly attributing the Bucha massacre is Scott Ritter.
“ . . . . Ukrainian security forces, in particular the “Safari” unit staffed by veterans of the neo-Nazi Azov Regiment, caught up with scores of these refugees while they made their way north and, in the vernacular of the Ukrainians, “cleansed” them, gunning them down on the spot, or binding their hands behind their backs before executing them in the alleyways and streets of Bucha. . . .”
1. As Mr. Emory has noted in many programs and posts, the Russia-Ukraine war has completed the process of the Nazification of America that he has chronicled for the better part of half a century.
A central role in that process was played by General Franz Halder.
We have taken note of Halder before, discussing the fact that Reinhard Gehlen cleared his formation of a working agreement with the U.S. by conferring with Halder and Admiral Karl von Doenitz, who succeeded Hitler, following his alleged “suicide.”
Perhaps even more important is his decisive post-war work revising the history of the Wehrmacht and World War II, shepherding blatant, readily verifiable lies into accepted historical truth.
In the long, ongoing series of programs about the Ukraine war, Mr. Emory has discussed his belief that the war has functioned in a manner not unlike the Philosopher’s Stone of the medieval alchemists.
That stone was believed to be able to transform lead into gold. The war is transforming individuals and institutions in the West into the same historical revisionist fabric as the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory.
” . . . . After the war, he lived a comfortable life as an author, commentator and ‘historical consultant’ for the U.S. Army Center of Military History (CMH). . . .”
“. . . . Halder’s job was to rehabilitate Nazism for the benefit of his new American patrons. If the Nazis could be ideologically separated from the German people and the German Army, America could use the most useful of Hitler’s soldiers in their war against the Soviet Union without raising suspicion. Halder oversaw a team of 700 former Wehrmacht officers and intentionally set about rewriting history to present the image of a clean Wehrmacht and a German people ignorant of Nazi brutality. His deputy was CIA agent Adolf Heusinger, a Nazi war criminal who was largely responsible for planning the endless massacres of ‘security warfare,’ and was later a commander of both the German Army and NATO. . . .”
” . . . . Halder enjoyed special status, releasing information to only the most privileged journalists and historians. With the legitimacy granted by his title, access to information, and U.S. government backing, Halder’s CMH was considered a gold standard source for academic historians and their information was highly coveted. Halder used this to carefully vet to whom he released information, ensuring he got the maximum impact.”
“From 1955 to 1991 his works were cited at least 700 times in academic publications, especially by professors and researchers in Western military academies. Since Western historians were forced to drink from Halder’s well, they passed down the poison to their students, and from there the lies worked their way into the public consciousness. Eventually, Nazi propaganda was laundered into ‘truth’ through simple repetition and careful control of sources. . . . .”
“History isn’t what happened, but the stories of what happened and the lessons these stories include. The very selection of which histories to teach in a society shapes our view of how what is came to be and, in turn, what we understand as possible. This choice of which history to teach can never be ‘neutral’ or ‘objective.’ Those who choose, either following a set agenda or guided by hidden prejudices, serve their interests. Their interests could be to continue this world as it now stands or to make a new world.” – Howard Zinn
In the aftermath of the Second World War, many of the architects of the worst atrocities in history were rescued and protected by American intelligence. The overt role of Nazi scientists such as Werner von Braun (who personally oversaw the torture and murder of slave laborers) in the United States space program and West German industry has been common knowledge for decades.
In recent years the end of the Cold War has brought revelations about the CIA’s “gladiators” such as Yaroslav Stetsko and Licio Gelli influencing the world’s political development by any means necessary. From Germany and Italy to Japan and South Korea, there is now a vast collection of evidence proving the existence of large, well-funded networks of fascist terrorists who did not hesitate to use violence to ensure compliance from the “free” people of the world.
However, what is less well known is that thousands of fascist-leaning and anti-communist academics were also rescued and nurtured by the U.S. to wage an ideological war against Communism. These revisionist historians spent decades laboring in the shadows of the academic press until the fall of the Soviet Union allowed them to return home and finally rewrite history to their liking. After decades of effort, we can now see the results of their work, the seeds planted 70 years ago are finally bearing their poisoned fruit.
Sowing the Seeds
“This struggle requires ruthless and energetic action against Bolshevik agitators, guerrillas, saboteurs, and Jews, and the total elimination of all active or passive resistance” – Franz Halder, Guidelines for the Conduct of the Troops in Russia
One of the first and most important of these historians was not a historian at all.
Franz Halder was a career staff officer, starting with the Reichswehr in World War I. He joined the Nazi Party in 1933 and his close personal friendship with Hitler helped him climb the ranks very quickly. By 1938, he was named Chief of General Staff of the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH), which made Halder the head of planning for the entire German army and second in command only to the Führer himself. No order could leave OKH headquarters without the approval and signature of Franz Halder. This means that Halder was not only intimately aware of the regime’s crimes, but he planned most of them.
Starting with the invasion of Poland in 1939, Halder personally authorized the liquidation of “undesirables” such as Jews, Poles and Communists. His office was responsible for the infamous Commissar Order and Barbarossa Decree, which allowed Nazi soldiers to execute civilians at will and without repercussions. These orders led to the eventual death of millions in the Soviet Union, both through deportation to camps and through brutal reprisal campaigns in occupied territories.
“Collective drastic action will be taken immediately against communities from which treacherous or insidious attacks against the Wehrmacht are launched, on the orders of an officer with at least the rank of battalion commander upwards, if the circumstances do not permit a speedy apprehension of individual culprits.”- Decree on the jurisdiction of martial law and on special measures of the troops (aka the Barbarossa Decree), May 13, 1941.
Under the euphemism of “security warfare,” the Nazis annihilated entire villages and towns in occupied territory. Depending on the time and place, this was done through methods ranging from gunfire and torches to torture, rape, and pillaging. The result was always the same. Any settlement which may have held alleged partisans was completely depopulated of every man, woman and child.
All in all, a minimum of 20 million Soviet civilians were killed by the Nazis, but some Russian scholars estimate that the true number is at least double that.
Halder was a consummate professional; he poured over documents for weeks, writing and re-writing them to ensure the language was as precise and unambiguous as possible. He was successful, as his orders were heavily used as evidence against the Nazi regime in the Nuremberg trials and even today are specifically cited as the sort of criminal orders that soldiers must refuse.
The Allies considered Halder’s orders so reprehensible that Nazis such as Hermann Hoth and Wilhelm von Leeb were convicted of crimes against humanity simply for transmitting them to their subordinates. Many lower-ranking Nazis were hanged for following Halder’s orders in the Soviet Union. Despite this, Halder suffered no consequences whatsoever for issuing them.
After Halder surrendered to the U.S. Army, the United States refused to try him at Nuremberg. Instead, he faced only a minor trial for “aiding the Nazi regime” in a German court. He denied any knowledge of the crimes that bore his literal signature and was found not guilty. After the war, he lived a comfortable life as an author, commentator and “historical consultant” for the U.S. Army Center of Military History (CMH).
The old fascist was rescued from the gallows to serve as the chief planner for another war. Halder no longer planned vast battles and the extermination of races, but he remained at the forefront of the war against what Halder called “Judeo-Bolshevism,” a term he learned from his beloved Führer.
Halder’s job was to rehabilitate Nazism for the benefit of his new American patrons. If the Nazis could be ideologically separated from the German people and the German Army, America could use the most useful of Hitler’s soldiers in their war against the Soviet Union without raising suspicion. Halder oversaw a team of 700 former Wehrmacht officers and intentionally set about rewriting history to present the image of a clean Wehrmacht and a German people ignorant of Nazi brutality. His deputy was CIA agent Adolf Heusinger, a Nazi war criminal who was largely responsible for planning the endless massacres of “security warfare,” and was later a commander of both the German Army and NATO.
Through manipulation, fabrication and widespread censorship, Halder and Heusinger created a complete narrative of themselves and the Wehrmacht as brilliant, noble, and honorable victims of the madman Hitler rather than the monsters who butchered a continent.
Halder and Heusinger published reams of fantastical lies with the CMH, saying that the Wehrmacht committed no crimes on the Eastern Front. According to Halder and Heusinger, the Nazis set up markets and cultural centers to buy food from local farmers and hold dances and social events for grateful people. Halder and Heusinger only briefly mention problems in the East, saying they were carried out by “Judeo-Bolshevik” NKVD infiltrators instead of the noble Wehrmacht.
None of this could have been farther from the truth. Under unambiguous orders from the OKH, the Wehrmacht was directly responsible for the subjugation and extermination of an entire continent as part of Generalplan Ost. Every bit of Eastern Europe was to be picked clean both by and for the benefit of the Wehrmacht, and the soldiers did their duty.
The primary weapon was starvation. The Wehrmacht sustained itself from the conquered lands, drawing on both resources and labor in massive quantities. Brutal requisition programs for grain and meat killed millions while the rest toiled to feed their Nazi overlords on a daily ration of 420 calories. In the planning phase for Operation Barbarossa, the Nazis concluded that the war was only winnable if the entire Wehrmacht was fed from Soviet land by the third year. By 1944 the Nazis requisitioned more than 5 million tons of grain and 10.6 million tons of other foodstuffs from occupied territory, 80% of which was consumed by the Wehrmacht.
The Nazis needed more than just food to conquer the world. They also needed weapons and equipment. For this, Germany mustered its world-famous industrial might. The infamous concentration camps contained massive factory and labor complexes where millions of slaves were worked to death, building the weapons and equipment the Wehrmacht used to subjugate them. Given the magnitude of the contracts, very few German corporations kept their hands clean, and even the dirtiest kept all their blood money after the war.
The two elements had an almost perfect symbiotic relationship. German capital served the interests of the Army, and the Army served the interests of capital. As the Nazis conquered, they took slaves to build more weapons, which would then be used to conquer and take more slaves. The two-headed monster exploited conquered land with such savage efficiency that Nazi generals and economic planners feared running out of slaves.
“When we shoot the Jews to death, allow the POWs to die, expose considerable portions of the urban population to starvation, and in the upcoming year also lose a part of the rural population to hunger, the question remains to be answered: Who is actually supposed to produce economic value?” – Maj. Gen. Hans Leykauf
Despite the sheer enormity of his crimes, Halder’s laundry was wildly successful; it was not until after the fall of the USSR that any Western historian questioned his lies.
Even well-meaning researchers were ensnared by Halder’s trap. Halder enjoyed special status, releasing information to only the most privileged journalists and historians. With the legitimacy granted by his title, access to information, and U.S. government backing, Halder’s CMH was considered a gold standard source for academic historians and their information was highly coveted. Halder used this to carefully vet to whom he released information, ensuring he got the maximum impact.
From 1955 to 1991 his works were cited at least 700 times in academic publications, especially by professors and researchers in Western military academies. Since Western historians were forced to drink from Halder’s well, they passed down the poison to their students, and from there the lies worked their way into the public consciousness. Eventually, Nazi propaganda was laundered into “truth” through simple repetition and careful control of sources.
Although access to Soviet records has led to increasing resistance to this propaganda, some historians, such as Timothy Snyder of Yale University, still lean heavily on, or recycle Halder’s ideas to support what is known as the “double genocide” theory. Created by Baltic neo-Nazis to hide their involvement in the Holocaust and widespread collaboration with the Nazi regime, this theory languished in the darkness until Snyder brought it into the mainstream with “Bloodlands.” Even 70 years after its publication, Halder’s poison remains a key element in attempts to portray the Red Army as nothing more than savages, and thereby make the Nazis seem tame.
The Army knew that Halder published nothing but apologia, but that was the point. Halder remained with the Army for decades and was frequently rewarded for a job well done. He was even given a medal for Meritorious Civilian Service in 1961, in honor of his tireless service in the cause of genocide denial.
“It is necessary to eliminate the red subhumans, along with their Kremlin dictators. The German people will have to complete the greatest task in their history, and the world will hear that this task will be completed to the end.” – Wehrmacht Messages for the troops, № 112, June 1941
The Fertile Soil
“In the East, I intend to loot and pillage effectively. All that may be suitable for the Germans in the East, should be extracted and brought to Germany immediately.” – Hermann Goering
After decades of struggling in the dark, the fall of the Soviet Union created a golden opportunity for fascist academics. As ex-Soviet professors left, retired, or were fired in the tumultuous 1990s, an entire generation of fascist academics nurtured in the West was standing by to replace them.
Lavishly funded private schools popped up all over the former Warsaw Pact, staffed with fascist professors from Canada, Australia and the U.S. who had spent decades rehabilitating their Nazi collaborationist predecessors.
With almost limitless financial backing from NATO and a dizzying array of affiliated NGOs, the fascists could now rewrite history to their liking and train an entire generation of new soldiers in their ideological war.
As an example of this, we can focus on the life and times of Kyiv independent war correspondent Illia Ponomarenko. Through him, we can see some of the gears in the machine.
Illia was born in the town of Volnovakha, Donetsk Oblast, Russia. Then a part of Ukraine, this town of around 20,000 people sits about 40 miles north of Mariupol and the Sea of Azov.
Founded in 1881 as a station for what was known as “Catherine’s railway,” a major rail project posthumously named after the long-reigning Empress, had been mostly unremarkable since. Illia eventually moved south to attend college in Mariupol, the industrial port city which formed the backbone of the region’s economy.
Mariupol and the surrounding area have often been swept up in the tumultuous history of Ukraine. The region was a major flashpoint in the Russian Civil War and changed hands many times in the fighting between the Red Army, Tsarist forces, Makhno’s bandits, and the Central Powers before it was recaptured by Soviet forces in 1920.
In the following decades, the region saw an explosion in economic development due to its strategic position on the Sea of Azov only a short ferry trip from the USSR’s richest iron mines. Most notable was the now-famous Azovstal steel plant, a crown jewel of Stalin’s first five-year plan. The foundations were laid for the plant in 1930 and, by 1933 Azovstal produced its first ingot of cast iron. Production increased rapidly, and in 1939 the plant set a world record by producing 1,614 tons of pig iron in a single day.
When the Nazis came to enslave Ukraine, Mariupol and Azovstal stood resolute. The plant produced armor for T‑34 tanks until the bitter end with the last workers being evacuated the same day the Nazis captured the city. As they left, the workers destroyed the blast furnaces and power plants to deny them to the enemy. Azovstal fell under the control of Krupp, but repeated sabotage from Soviet partisans kept the factory out of service until 1945.
More than 6,000 Azovstal workers fought against the Nazis as partisans or Red Army soldiers. Several hundred were decorated for valor, with eight of those being awarded Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest possible award for a Red Army soldier. Sadly, hundreds paid the ultimate price in the war against fascism. A monument was erected in their honor outside the plant which has been allowed to crumble by the Maidan regime, no doubt ashamed of what it represents.
Even this great and costly victory only brought a reprieve for Mariupol. The people of Mariupol lived for decades in peace and prosperity, blissfully unaware of what was coming next. In 1991, less than 50 years after the victory of 1945, the monsters returned to once again ravage Ukraine and its people.
In 1990, after a decade of economic sabotage and on the verge of collapse, the Human Development Index of the USSR was the 25th highest in the world, at .920. After the collapse one year later, it would never again be so high.
In 2019, the last year data was published before the war, Russia ranked 52nd. Far from the prosperity promised to them by the West, four years of Maidan rule made the situation even worse in Ukraine, which fell from 83rd in 2014 to 88th, below Sri Lanka, Mexico and Albania. Iran and Cuba, crushed under the siege warfare America euphemistically calls sanctions, still provide a better standard of living for their people.
None of the former Soviet republics has recovered to their 1990 level as of 2022. Even when the USSR was months from dissolution, Soviet citizens enjoyed more prosperity than they have since their “liberation.” Their wealth and security did not vanish into the ether; rather, they were stolen by the very same Western capitalists who looted the country once before.
It is easy to view these numbers as simple abstractions, measures of a vast and almost incomprehensible economic machine but, just as it was in the 1940s, this campaign of systematic pillaging was lethal. Peer-reviewed studies have found a minimum of five million excess deaths from starvation, lack of medical care, drug addiction, and deprivation in Russia alone from 1991 to 2001. When the rest of the former Soviet republics are added, the butcher’s bill easily exceeds that of the Holocaust.
Had this happened anywhere else, or been perpetrated by anyone else, it would have been called what it was: genocide. Growing up amidst the devastation wrought by the unrestrained brutality of the “rules-based international order” only makes Ponomarenko’s future collaboration even more shocking.
Ponomarenko moved to Mariupol to attend college at Mariupol State University in 2010. Despite the innocuous name, this college was founded in 1991 with grants from USAID and George Soros and still today receives considerable funding from the U.S. and EU. The line of the college is unabashedly pro-NATO, its professors tour NATO headquarters, and the university proudly advertises its links to D.C.-based Atlanticist think tanks.
MSU is not unique. Universities like it emerged all over the Eastern Bloc, flush with cash from both Western governments and their proxy think tanks. The Soros-backed Open Society Foundation was a particularly important conduit for this. Not only did Soros create scores of new universities throughout the Eastern Bloc, but even went so far as to produce new textbooks for primary and secondary schools in the region. His schools count presidents, members of parliament and countless lesser bureaucrats among their alumni.
All of this is in the service of his war against Communism, which he has been waging since at least the 1970s with both official and unofficial government support. The irony of the ferocious anti-Communist George Soros being called a Communist by the right is particularly sharp, especially as Soros has personally benefitted enormously from looting the former Soviet Union.
Ponomarenko graduated in 2014, just in time to be swept up by the next storm to hit Ukraine.
The Bloody Harvest
“Apparently some quirk in human nature allows even the most unspeakable acts of evil to become banal within minutes, provided only that they occur far enough away to pose no personal threat.” – Iris Chang
The narrative we are selling regarding the 2014 Maidan coup is simple. We are told that protesters rose with nearly universal support to free themselves of the yoke of the illegitimate, reviled Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, and thereby Russian control. After this, they say, the transition was clean and orderly, the problems in the east emerged only because of Russian infiltration and all true Ukrainians stood behind the new regime. To this day, the Maidan regime vehemently maintains that the conflict in Ukraine is not a civil war, but rather a foreign invasion that has been going on for eight years.
If you listen hard enough, you can almost hear the echoes of Franz Halder and Adolf Heusinger in the approved Maidan narrative, and I do not believe this is accidental. Just as it was then, the fantasy created by NATO propaganda could not be any farther from the truth. The Maidan never had universal support, and the process of bringing the country to heel was a long, bloody affair.
Despite the Ukrainian government’s insistence to the contrary, the conflict is a civil war by any reasonable definition, the separatists were Ukrainian citizens almost without exception and they started fighting to defend a legitimately elected Ukrainian government. Most foreign backing was firmly behind the Maidan, not Yanukovych and the separatists. From the very beginning of the Maidan, groups like Mamuka Mamulashvili’s U.S.-backed Georgian Legion had mercenaries on the ground to escalate a peaceful protest into a bloody coup.
Many of the militiamen were members of the Ukrainian Army, who defected when ordered to shoot their family, friends and fellow Ukrainians in Donbas. NATO analysts estimate that 70% of the Ukrainian Army deserted or defected rather than killing for the Maidan regime and they took their weapons with them, a fact which puts yet another nail in the coffin of the Maidan narrative of foreign infiltrators.
The narrative of a foreign invasion, rather than civil war, is particularly important for the Maidan regime. If we accept that this is a civil war, then we must ask why this so-called “nationalist” government is killing so many Ukrainians in Donbas with its daily shelling of residential areas, schools, hospitals and other civilian targets. It would be impossible to justify calling them nationalists, let alone liberators, with the blood of so many Ukrainians on their hands.
The “Alley of Angels,” a memorial dedicated to children of Donetsk killed by Ukrainian shelling. [Source: twitter.com]
The solution to this contradiction is simple. If you strip the people of Donbas of their identity and history as Ukrainians, it becomes much easier to reconcile their annihilation. In the ideology of “heroes of Ukraine” Yaroslav Stetsko and Stepan Bandera, foundational to the Ukrainian far-right, only a Galician is a true Ukrainian. The bulk of the nation’s people are so-called “Moskals” and “Asiatics” unworthy of living in the Galician Reich.
The fact that Galicia had been a part of Poland or Austria, not Ukraine, for more than a millennium is simply ignored in favor of their addled fantasy about how they, and they alone, are true Ukrainians by virtue of some ancient Viking blood.
Then as now, the ideology makes it easy for Galician fascists to justify killing Ukrainians by the thousands.
When the Maidan protests began in 2014, counter-protests emerged all around the country, with thousands of Ukrainians taking to the streets in support of the democraticallyelected government of Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions. As the Maidan grew increasingly violent under the influence of the far right, the anti-Maidan protesters refused to be intimidated and fought back. Eventually, they coalesced into militias drawn from the wide variety of anti-Maidan activists and resistance became much more organized.
Fearing a counter-revolution, the unelected government of America’s hand-picked Arseniy Yatsenyuk created the Special Tasks Patrol (STP) police which was drawn almost entirely from the neo-Nazis infesting Ukraine and given wide-ranging powers to detain and kill Ukrainians.
The most famous of them was the Azov Battalion. Long before their cynical rebranding in the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion, the Azov Battalion of 2014 was an openly neo-Nazi militia. The soldiers Illia Ponomarenko counts as comrades in arms marched under the same flag their ancestors did in the 1940s.
The echoes of history are easy to hear from Azov. Originally called “Patriot of Ukraine,” the organization was founded in 2005 by Andrei Belitsky as a coalition of several Kharkiv neo-Nazi groups, such as Tryzub (the armed wing of CIA agent and Nazi collaborator Slava Stetsko’s Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists), and the UNA-UNSO (led by the son of CIAcommando and Holocaust perpetrator Roman Shukhevych) and filled with soldiers from Ukraine’s large far-right soccer hooligan gangs.
In their formative years, Patriot of Ukraine worked as enforcers for Mafia kingpin Arsen Avakov, who was elevated to Minister of Internal Affairs after the Maidan. Avakov pulled strings to get lieutenant Belitsky out of prison for beating a rival gangster to death and the talented young Nazi was deputized to bring the separatists to heel.
In Mariupol, the saga finally came full circle and the world got to see first-hand what Halder and Heusinger spent so long planning.
After months of protests, fighting in Mariupol started in May 2014. According to the Ukrainian version of events, on May 3rd Russian infiltrators approached a checkpoint in the city with food for the guards laced with sleeping pills, then took the soldiers and their weapons after they were incapacitated. This fantasy is likely covering up the truth: The soldiers simply surrendered. Separatists set up barricades in the city center and began to occupy city administration buildings. The situation was rapidly spiraling out of the Maidan regime’s control.
Azov was one of the first units sent by the regime to retake Mariupol. Inserted into the city on the 7th of May, Azov started killing almost immediately. Azov dismantled the barricades by force, firing on the crowd of unarmed protesters who opposed them. Azov finished its work by the night of May 8th, and on Victory Day, May 9th, they started the next phase of their mission. While most of Ukraine was commemorating the sacrifice of eight million Ukrainians in the struggle against Azov’s forefathers, the heirs of Stetsko and Bandera marked the occasion in their traditional way, by killing Ukrainians. When the local police defected upon receiving an order to open fire on the crowds, Azov did not hesitate. Victory Day turned into a bloodbath as Azov terrorists opened fire on the crowds.
Local protesters and police defectors occupied the regional police HQ and took the chief of police prisoner in the process. Azov militants attempted to break the siege but, when faced with armed resistance, the “cyborgs” were soundly defeated. They retreated after suffering casualties and were forced to negotiate for the release of the prisoners. Just like before, the bravado and prowess of the fascist thugs evaporated as soon as their victims fought back.
Azov was defeated that day, but they were not destroyed. With backing from the Ukrainian state and the gangsters who were increasingly taking power, Azov returned in June, their forces bolstered by foreign mercenaries and a column of armored vehicles. After they came under drone attack, the separatists were forced to withdraw and DPR forces were driven out of Mariupol, suffering 5 dead and 30 captured. None of them returned alive.
Among the attackers that day were men wearing the insignia of the U.S. Army 1st Aviation Brigade, a unit responsible for training Army soldiers in combined arms operations. Considering their participation, the source of Azov’s sudden proficiency with UAVs becomes very clear.
Azov did not rest on their laurels. Along with the rest of the STP units, Azov quickly got back to their roots as what the people of the region once knew as “punishers,” enforcing order by any means necessary. It is unclear just how many people suffered in the dungeons staffed by STPs and SBU (Ukrainian intelligence), but the campaign was so widespread that even the Maidan regime found dozens of them guilty for crimes such as gang rape (including at least one instance where 8–10 Azov members raped a mentally disabled man until he nearly died), looting, torture, murder, smuggling and extortion. They may have worn the insignia of a military unit, but Azov had changed little from their days as Mafia killers.
All the while, Azov was nurtured by the United States and its NATO allies. Evidence has emerged of CIA training at least from 2015, if not earlier. Arms dealers bragged openly about transferring anti-tank weapons and, by 2017, Azov was posing for pictures with NATO military advisers.
Even as men marching under a swastika once again cut a swathe through his home, Illia Ponomarenko was one of their most steadfast supporters from the very beginning. After COVID forced him to cancel a planned internship in the U.S, Illia went to work for NATO-funded papers such as the Kyiv Post, and later the Kyiv Independent.
His education at the NATO-funded schools served him well, and he has done an exemplary job at continuing the work started by Franz Halder and Adolf Heusinger so many years ago by once again rehabilitating the fascist killers butchering Ukrainians. He now has millions of followers on Twitter, and routinely makes appearances on mainstream Western news, such as the BBC, CNN and Fox News. His years of carrying water for his Nazi friends have finally paid off, Illia went from simply being in the right place at the right time to an integral part in the machine.
What we are seeing today in Ukraine is no accident: It is a plan seven decades in the making. From the very beginning, the United States and NATO have been working to rehabilitate the legacy of fascism so it can be used as a weapon. These networks are not just in Ukraine; they have branches all around the world. Azov militants were even spotted at protests in Hong Kong, the latest front in America’s covert war. Fortunately, Chinese authorities prevented the city from suffering the same fate as Mariupol.
The seeds of this conflict were not planted in 2014, nor in 1991. Rather, they were sewn on June 22, 1941, when Nazi troops first streamed across the border as part of Franz Halder’s Operation Barbarossa. After four long years and tens of millions dead, the United States absorbed the “best and brightest” of the Third Reich and, for 70 years, they carefully tended Halder and Heusinger’s saplings, waiting for the chance to take root.
In 2014, we finally saw the noxious weeds of fascism return to the land they blighted so long ago, watered once more in rivers of Ukrainian blood.
2. Next, we detail the ideological identification of the top Ukrainian military commander with Third Reich Ally Stephan Bandera.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Four Star General Valery Zaluzhnyi is not shy about his profound affinity with Bandera: “ . . . . Zaluzhnyi is shown in uniform standing in a military office with several other soldiers in front of a desk adorned with busts of OUN‑B leaders and Nazi-collaborators Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych. Photos of both Shukhevych and Bandera are also prominently hanging on the wall in the background along with the red and black Banderite flag. . . .”
As discussed in our previous article, post-World War II U.S. political culture has been shaped by the Nazi/Pentagon alliance of General Franz Halder and hundreds of his former fellow Wehrmacht officers. That alliance has re-shaped the perception of the Second World War in an unabashedly pro-Nazi fashion.
The whitewashing of Bandera and his OUN/B dates back to the incorporation of that organization’s parent agency, the Reinhard Gehlen “Org” into the U.S. intelligence establishment.
. . . . The CIC had an agent who photographed eleven volumes of the secret files of the OUN/Bandera. These files clearly show how most of its members worked for the Gestapo or SS as policemen, executioners, partisan hunters, and municipal officials. The OUN contribution to the German war effort was significant, including raising volunteers for several SS divisions. It was precisely because of its work with the Nazis that Wisner wanted to hire the OUN for his special forces. . . .
Since the openly West-backed Maidan Putsch in 2014, January 1st has been proclaimed a national holiday in Ukraine, celebrating the birthday of the genocidal WW2-era West Ukrainian fascist and anti-semite ideologue, terrorist insurgent leader, Nazi collaborator, and Holocaust perpetrator, Stepan Bandera.
For the last eight years it has been marked by horrifying torchlit nighttime parades of the regime’s NeoNazi deathsquads and brownshirts goose-stepping through the streets of the capital, Kiev.
This year the Kiev Putsch regime’s Parliamentary body the Rada, celebrated the fascist holiday with a tweet, now deleted, on Twitter showing the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the 4 star general Valery Zaluzhny, standing smiling smugly, in front of a portrait of Stepan Bandera, accompanied by one of Bandera’s quotes, “The complete and final victory of Ukrainian nationalism will come when the Russian empire ceases to exist.” And then added, “A fight against the Russian empire is currently underway. And the precepts of Stepan Bandera are well known to the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.”
This is hardly the first such revelation. Zaluzhnyi is infamously known as open ideological supporter of Stepan Bandera, now officially glorified by the West-backed Kiev Putsch regime as a hero and “founding father” of the new Ukraine under their rule and vision.
This is almost certainly one of the criteria for which he was chosen to lead the Kiev regime’s military forces.
In 2021, right after becoming the Kiev regime’s Commander-In-Chief, Zaluzhny officially appointed Dmitry Yarosh, the head and founder of the NeoNazi & white supremacist paramilitary group, the Right Sector, as his personal “senior military advisor”.And Zaluzhny obviously loves throwing around pr photo shoots of himself brazenly displaying his Banderite fascist bona fides. Yes –despite the fact that his President, Zelenskiy, has a Jewish daddy.
This year, the Kiev regime’s Commander-in-Chief posted to his own Twitter account a “frontline” photo of him striding in uniform, with assault rifle in hand, prominently displaying a bracelet carved with swastikas.
Lamely the Western MSM echoed every crypto-NeoNazi ever by claiming, “Its not a swastika, its just an ancient Viking symbol”. Seriously?
Yeah, I’m sure the Bandera-worshipping head of the Ukrainian military was wearing swastikas just because he’s secretly a Norse pagan.In another photo from this year, Zaluzhnyi is shown in uniform standing in a military office with several other soldiers in front of a desk adorned with busts of OUN‑B leaders and Nazi-collaborators Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych. Photos of both Shukhevych and Bandera are also prominently hanging on the wall in the background along with the red and black Banderite flag.
A separate photo taken of Zaluzhnyi’s office also has a bust of Bandera displayed prominently for all to see on a table against the wall.
In a recent interview with the Economist, Zaluzhny said flat out-
“We’ve been at war since 2014… And the most important experience we had and the one which we have practiced almost like a religion is that Russians and any other enemies must be killed, just killed, and most importantly, we should not be afraid, not hesitate, to do it. And this is what we are doing.”
Yes they have been indeed killing Russians since 2014.
In a civil conflict in country where 20% of the population is ethnic Russian and a significant proportion of the rest, particularly in the East, are Russian-speaking and regard Russians as a brother people, not as “the enemy”.This is the Banderite fascist Commander-in-Chief of a military armed, trained, given C4ISR, directed and puppeted by NATO and funded to the cost of now hundreds of billions of Western taxpayer dollars in a proxy war on Russia. He’s celebrated in Western media reports, magazine covers, and newspaper front pages as a hero!
How can this be?
The grim reality is that as long as Zaluzhny’s hatred and violence, and that of his NeoNazi hordes, are directed, for the moment, primarily against ethnic Russians, “pro-Russian Eastern Ukrainians” and leftists, then his brand of Banderite fascism is geopolitically useful to the West, and thus “kosher”.
Indeed the US and Canada have a long documented history of supporting Banderite fascists in Ukraine, and their analoques in the Baltics, back to the immediate aftermath of WW2.
Zaluschny…Hey – the bastard may be a fascist, but he’s OUR fascist, god-damn it!
3. The New York Times has been at the forefront of the whitewashing of the Azov formations and wholesale denial of the Nazification of the Ukrainian national security structure.
Now, “the Gray Lady” has been glorifying the Bratstvo battalion, another of the fascist fighting formations in the Ukrainian order of battle.
Descended from the UNA-UNSO, itself having been led by Yuri Shukhevych, son and collaborator of Roman Shukhevych, the Bratstvo battalion is being hailed as an exemplary commando unit.
(Roman Shukhevych was an OUN/B war criminal who, among other things, led the Lvov pogrom of June 30, 1941 committed by the SS-controlled Einsatzgruppe Nachtigall. He was declared a “Hero of Ukraine” by the political forces behind the Maidan coup.)
The New York Times has found another neo-Nazi militia to fawn over in Ukraine. The Bratstvo battalion “gave access to the New York Times to report on two recent riverine operations,” which culminated in a piece (11/21/22) headlined “On the River at Night, Ambushing Russians.”
Since the US-backed Maidan coup in 2014, establishment media have either minimized the far-right ideology that guides many Ukrainian nationalist detachments or ignored it completely.
Anti-war outlets, including FAIR (1/28/22, 3/22/22), have repeatedly highlighted this dynamic—particularly regarding corporate media’s lionization of the Azov battalion, once widely recognized by Western media as a fascist militia, now sold to the public as a reformed far-right group that gallantly defends the sovereignty of a democratic Ukraine (New York Times, 10/4/22; FAIR.org, 10/6/22).
That is when Azov’s political orientation is discussed at all, which has become less and less common since Russia launched its invasion in February.
‘Christian Taliban’
The lesser-known Bratstvo battalion, within which the Times embedded its reporters, is driven by several far-right currents—none of which are mentioned in the article.
Bratstvo was founded as a political organization in 2004 by Dmytro Korchynsky, who previously led the far-right Ukrainian National Assembly–Ukrainian People’s Self-Defense (UNA-UNSO).
Korchynsky, who now fights in Bratstvo’s paramilitary wing, is a Holocaust denier who falsely blamed Jews for the 1932–33 famine in Ukraine, and peddled the lie that “120,000 Jews fought in the Wehrmacht.” He has stated that he sees Bratstvo as a “Christian Taliban” (Intercept, 3/18/15).
In the 1980s, the Times portrayed the religious extremists of the Afghan mujahideen—who were receiving US training and arms—as a heroic bulwark against Soviet expansionism. We all know how that worked out.
In an echo of that propaganda campaign, the Times neglected to tell its readers about the neo-Nazi and theocratic politics of the Bratstvo battalion. Why should anyone care who else Bratstvo members would like to see dead, so long as they’re operating in furtherance of US policymakers’ stated aim of weakening Russia?
Modern-day crusade
The article’s author, Carlotta Gall, recounted Bratstvo’s Russian-fighting exploits in quasi-religious terms. Indeed, the only instances in which the Times even hinted at the unit’s guiding ideology came in the form of mythologizing the unit’s Christian devotion.
Of Bratstvo fighters embarking on a mission, Gall wrote, “They recited a prayer together, then loaded up the narrow rubber dinghies and set out, hunched silent figures in the dark.” Referring to battalion commander Oleksiy Serediuk’s wife, who also fights with the unit, Gall extolled, “She has gained an almost mythical renown for surviving close combat with Russian troops.”
The piece even featured a photograph showing militia members gathered in prayer. Evoking the notion of pious soldiers rather than that of a “Christian Taliban,” the caption read, “Members of the Bratstvo battalion’s special forces unit prayed together before going on a night operation.”
The Times also gave voice to some of the loftier aims of Bratstvo’s crusade, quoting Serediuk’s musing that, “We all dream about going to Chechnya, and the Kremlin, and as far as the Ural Mountains.” Nazi racial ideologues have long been enamored by the prospect of reaching the Urals, which they view as the natural barrier separating European culture from the Asiatic hordes.
While plotting Operation Barbarossa, Hitler identified the Urals as the eastern extent of the Wehrmacht’s planned advance. In 1943, referring to the Nazi scheme that aimed to rid European Russia of Asiatic “untermenschen” so the land could be settled by hundreds of millions of white Europeans, Himmler declared, “We will charge ahead and push our way forward little by little to the Urals.”
‘Mindset of the 13th century’
The only two Bratstvo members named in the piece, meanwhile, are Serediuk and Vitaliy Chorny. While Chorny—who the Times identified as the battalion’s head of intelligence gathering—is quoted, his statements are limited to descriptions of the unit’s fighting strategy. Serediuk’s recorded utterances are similarly lacking in substance.
Far more illuminating is an Al Jazeera article (4/15/15) titled “‘Christian Taliban’s’ Crusade on Ukraine’s Front Lines,” which quotes both Serediuk and Chorny extensively. Serediuk, Al Jazeera reported, “revels in the Christian Taliban label.”: In reference to his decision to leave the Azov battalion, the piece went on to say
Serediuk didn’t leave the Azov because of the neo-Nazi connections, however—extreme-right ideology doesn’t bother him. What does irk him, however, is being around fighters who are not zealous in their religious convictions.
In the same piece, Chorny invoked the violently antisemitic Crusades of the Middle Ages to describe Bratstvo’s ideological foundation:
The enemy—the forces of darkness—they have all the weapons, they have greater numbers, they have money. But our soldiers are the bringers of European traditions and the Christian mindset of the 13th century.
To circumvent the Times’ exultant narrative, one has to do a certain amount of supplementary research and analysis. But even the most basic inquiry—searching “Bratstvo battalion” on Google—reveals the far-right underpinnings of the unit with which the Times embedded its reporters.
The seventh search result is a June 2022 study from the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, which reported, “Another such far-right entity is the so-called Brotherhood (Bratstvo) ‘battalion,’ which includes Belarusian, Danish, Irish and Canadian members.”
The ninth result is an article from the Washington Free Beacon (4/6/22), which quoted a far-right Canadian volunteer as saying on Telegram that he was “fighting in the neo-Nazi ‘Bratstvo’ Battalion in Kyiv.”
SS memorabilia
In a world where journalists actually practiced what they preached, someone at the paper of record surely would have noticed the Nazi insignia appearing in two photos in the piece. In this world, however, the Times either forgot how to use the zoom function—though the paper made extensive use of this capability when reporting on China’s Communist Party Congress the month before (FAIR.org, 11/11/22)—or they simply did not want to report on this ugly and inconvenient discovery.
One soldier is seen wearing an emblem known as a “Totenkopf” in a photo of Bratstvo’s prayer circle. The Totenkopf, which means “death’s head” in German, was used as an insignia by the Totenkopfverbande—an SS unit that participated in Hitler’s war of annihilation against the Soviet Union, and guarded the concentration camps where Nazi Germany condemned millions of Jewish men, women and children to death.
Individuals donning the Totenkopf also took part in the murder of millions of others in these camps, including Soviet prisoners of war, political dissidents, trade unionists, persons with disabilities, homosexuals and Romani people.
In September, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted—and then quietly deleted—a picture on social media of himself with a number of soldiers, one of whom was wearing a Totenkopf patch similar to that seen in the Times’ photo of Bratstvo’s prayer meeting. One can easily find this particular iteration on Amazon or eBay.
Later in the Times article, another photograph of a soldier wearing a slightly different version of the insignia appeared. Here, bathed in the light of an interior room and staring out from the very center of the image, the Totenkopf is even harder to miss. Amazon’s product description for this specific variant reads, “This gorgeous replica piece takes you back to World War II.”
4. Among those joining the normalization of Azov Nazis are: Vogue magazine, MSNBC and the School of Visual Arts (New York).
Former press officer of the Azov Battalion, Dmytro Kozatsky has achieved gravitas in the West at the named institutions.
“ . . . . Protests erupted at DOC NYC’s premiere of the film Freedom on Fire (2022) at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) Theatre in Manhattan, which hosted Kozatsky as a guest speaker. Audience members who raised the accusations during a Q&A were forcibly removed from the event. . . .”
Author Lambert Strether concludes: “ . . . . what stuns me is the ease with which Kozatsky is penetrating our cultural institutions. Booking agents, facilities managers, press agents, board members who organize such things, fashion editors, network anchors: All combining their efforts to service a Nazi professionally, as if it were the most normal thing in the world, which at this point perhaps it is. . . .”
Dmytro Kozatsky was the press officer of Ukraine’s Azov Battalion, which makes him a fascist.
(Colonel Douglas MacGregor: “[T]hese so-called Azov Nazis and their supporters are not only murdering Russians, they’re murdering their own people, and as we saw recently, they actually set out to kill Polish troops that were serving in Ukrainian uniform in Ukraine.” For more on the Azovs, see Appendix A. For more on Kozatsky, see Appendix B).[1] Kozatsky is also a photographer. His most recent project was photographing from inside the Azovstal iron and steel works at Mariupol, with the Azovs, until his capture by Russian forces and ultimate release in a prisoner exchange. He is now touring the United States, apparently to support a movie in which he stars (as himself), and his Azovstal photobook. The main purpose of this post is to show a Nazi insinuating himself — and rather easily — into the upper reaches of our culture industry (fashion, film, books) through such examples as I can glean from Google in its currrent state. The culture industry being primarily PMC and Democrat, the same people defending and applauding Kozatsky are also the ones with “In This House” signs on their lawns, who decry “hate” wherever they feel they encounter it. It’s a funny old world. But let’s look first at Kozatsky’s war.
The seige of Azovstal made Kozatsky’s career as a photographer (and he is a good photographer, much as Leni Riefenstahl was a brilliant cinematographer). Let’s look at three images:
(From Ukrainian Weekly.) The caption sources the photo to “the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine,” suggesting an official connection. This one seems to be of Kozatsky, rather than by him. (The first two photos, not being openly manipulative, are more appealing to me than this one. I mean, a shaft of light striking a performative Jesus? Really? At least it’s an ethos.)
When Russian forces took Azovstal, Kozatsky was captured (along with, according to Russian estimates, 2,439 other prisoners of war). Moon of Alabama discovered this curious incident which took place while Kozatsky was in captivity:
On July 28 the Russians published a video of an interview with Azov nazi soldier Dmytro Kozatsky, call sign Orest, who directly accused Zelenski advisor [Oleksii ] Arestovich of ordering the killing of Russian soldiers who had been taken prisoners.
Kozatsky was running the public relation side for his Azov unit. Even before the war started, Kozatsky says, Arestovich was preparing an information campaign with shock videos that were supposed to show the torture and killing of Russian soldiers taken prisoners. Kozatsky received such an order and passed it on. He later noted that such shock videos were indeed made and published on social media sides.
Negotiations took place between Russia and Ukraine, and of the 2,439 Ukrainian POWs, Russia released 200, one of whom was Kozatsky. From Ukrainska Pravda:
“It is very difficult to negotiate about people who are well known in the media. The fewer people know you, the easier it is to release you [from captivity]. When you are famous, your value increases many times over. The most difficult thing was to talk about the commanders, about Ptashka [renowned female army paramedic – ed.], or about the photographer known as Orest,” another interlocutor in President Zelenskyy’s circle explained.
Clearly, for whatever reason, Kozatsky was a high-value prisoner (and not least because throwing Zekensky advisor Arestovich under the bus — if that’s what really happened — didn’t affect his release in any way). Kozatsky describes his war to EuroNews:
“That’s it. I am thankful to Azovstal for shelter – the place of my death and my life,” Dmytro ‘Orest’ Kozatsky said in his Instagram post, published on Friday.
The Azov regiment fighter[2] made his photography from the sieged Azovstal steel plant available for free, asking for it to be shared as much as possible. Some of these photographs have already gone viral revealing the situation of Azov regiment fighters, notably the injured personnel.
“By the way, while I will be in captivity, I leave you my photos, apply to all the journalist awards and photography competitions for me. If I get something, I will be really pleased to learn about it after I am released. Thank you all for your support. See you”, he wrote.
And now Kozatsky is on tour! First, I’ll look at what happened to Kozatsky in Spain (where they know what fascism is all about, having been ruled by Franco). After that, I’ll work though cases in the United States: Vogue magazine, Ukrainian National Womens League Of America (Philadelphia), the School Of Visual Arts (New York), and (drumroll) MSNBC[3].
Catalonia. Here’s what happened at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. From Hyperallergic:
Several of [Kozatsky’s Azovstal] photos were on display at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) since mid-October, but on November 13, the institution announced it was prematurely ending the show, claiming that it “wasn’t aware of the artist’s ideology.”
“The UPC radically rejects Nazism and regrets the situation created,” the UPC said in a statement.
Earlier that day, pro-Russian Ukrainian journalist Anatoly Shariy had shared multiple screenshots of Kozatsky’s social media posts on Telegram, all of which contained far-right and neo-Nazi hate symbols. A swastika tattoo appears on Kozatsky’s leg, with another drawn in ketchup on a homemade pizza. Meanwhile, a selfie of Kozatsky shows his sweatshirt emblazoned with the numbers 14/88, a combination of two white supremacist symbols, and a Ukrainian coat of arms.
(To be fair, Kozatsky issued a non-apology apology. For more, see Appendix B.)
Vogue Magazine
From Dmytro Kozatsky’s listing as a Vogue photographer:
The Azov regiment fighter made his photography from the sieged Azovstal steel plant available for free, asking for it to be shared as much as possible. Some of these photographs have already gone viral revealing the situation of Azov regiment fighters, notably the injured personnel.
Dmytro and other fighters of Azovstal in Mariupol were defending the city for 82 days with limited supplies of food and water, they also saved more than 1000 civilians (mostly women and children) that found shelter, food and water at the plant and later were evacuated.
“Fighters,” again. Have we learned nothing from Coco Chanel? Apparently ***cough*** Balenciaga ***cough*** not.
Ukrainian National Womens League Of America (Philadelphia)
From the events listing:
UNWLA, Branch 10, is hosting a photo exhibition displaying the reality of war in Ukraine through the eyes of four amazing photographers. Free admission and refreshments. Prints available for purchase.
The exhibit will feature some of the most beautiful and heartfelt works of:
- Dmytro Kozatsky – the photographer who took the most famous photos from Azov.
Entirely unexceptional. Which is the problem. (I also wonder how many other branches of the UNWLA Kozatsky will visit, and whether he will visit Canada as well.
School Of Visual Arts (New York)
Again from HyperAllergic:
Protests erupted at DOC NYC’s premiere of the film Freedom on Fire (2022) at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) Theatre in Manhattan, which hosted Kozatsky as a guest speaker. Audience members who raised the accusations during a Q&A were forcibly removed from the event. One attendee, student and organizer Kayla Popuchet, said she was attacked by fellow audience members, some of whom called her a ‘bitch’ and ‘Kremlin shill.’
“Kremlin shill.” Carrying a “Vote Blue No Matter Who” tote-bag, no doubt. From Popuchet:
So I was just kicked out by @DOCNYCfest for pointing out their “special guest speaker” Dymtro Kozatsky is a Neo-Nazi in the openly Nazi Azov Regiment who participated in the attacks on Donbass civilians. DocNYC tried to hide his affiliations, why? pic.twitter.com/INgzFaLUMa — Kayla (@kaylapop_) November 14, 2022
“I even heard someone call me Russian, which is funny because I am an Afro-Latin American with zero relation to Russia,” Popuchet told Hyperallergic.
Obviously, Popuchet was from an out-group, so anything goes:
As journalist Moss Robeson noted on Twitter, the SVA Theatre removed all mention of Kozatsky’s name from its event description after Shariy’s Telegram messages surfaced earlier that morning. SVA declined Hyperallergic’s multiple requests for comment, and DOC NYC has not yet responded.
Does make you wonder where DSA — and heck, AOC! — was on this, doesn’t it?
MSNBC
From MSNBC itself:
Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Carol Guzy, and Dmytro Kozatsky, a Ukrainian soldier and photographer who was held in the Mariupol steel plant, join Andrea Mitchell to discuss “Relentless Courage: Ukraine and the World at War,” a new book featuring a collection of images capturing Ukrainians’ enduring fight. Ambassador Markarova, who writes in the book about a journalist lost to the war, tells Mitchell: “He was a very beautiful human being, full of light,” and Russia’s targeting of civilians “shows how inhumane this aggressive regime is, and how this war is about the values, democracy.” She adds, “We will not stop until there is accountability.”
* * *
I’m afraid I don’t have an earth-quake of a conclusion here; what stuns me is the ease with which Kozatsky is penetrating our cultural institutions. Booking agents, facilities managers, press agents, board members who organize such things, fashion editors, network anchors: All combining their efforts to service a Nazi professionally, as if it were the most normal thing in the world, which at this point perhaps it is. It would also be nice to know if how many other Ukrainian efforts like this are going on, and if they are… facilitated by anyone “in government.”
NOTES
[1] OK, I said “Nazi” in the headline, and the (more accurate) “fascist” in the text, because “Normalizing Nazis” is euphonious. But I don’t want to get into the fine points, here. One of Terry Pratchett’s more entertaining villains, Mr. Pin, has “Not a Nice Person at All” done in pokerwork on his wallet. “I wonder kind of person would put that on a wallet?” “Somebody who wasn’t a very nice person.” So I will not be debating styles of pokerwork at this time. I could have said “Banderite,” I suppose, but then nobody would know what I meant.
[2] Azov “fighters,” I love it. Seems to be the most frequent euphemism.
[3] Moss Robeson has a vivid but entirely unlinked description of Kozatsky’s appearance at the Taras Shevchenko School of Ukrainian Studies of Greater Washington, in the facilities of Westland Middle School in Bethesda, Maryland (i.e., in the heart of PMC territory, where everybody “works in government,” and the fifth wealthiest city in the United States). Sadly, I can’t source the photo of the event, I can’t find the event on any school calendar or newsletter. That’s a shame, because Irena Chalupa, former editor of the Atlantic Council’s UkraineAlert blog and DNC oppo researcher (!), is said to have organized and photographed the event. Perhaps readers can do better?
APPENDIX A: The Azovs are Fascists
Before February 2022:
Atlantic Council (2018):
Since the beginning of 2018, C14 and other far-right groups such as the Azov-affiliated National Militia, Right Sector, Karpatska Sich, and others have attacked Roma groups several times, as well as anti-fascist demonstrations, city council meetings, an event hosted by Amnesty International, art exhibitions, LGBT events, and environmental activists. On March 8, violent groups launched attacks against International Women’s Day marchers in cities across Ukraine. In only a few of these cases did police do anything to prevent the attacks, and in some they even arrested peaceful demonstrators rather than the actual perpetrators…
To be clear, far-right parties like Svoboda perform poorly in Ukraine’s polls and elections, and Ukrainians evince no desire to be ruled by them. But this argument is a bit of “red herring.” It’s not extremists’ electoral prospects that should concern Ukraine’s friends, but rather the state’s unwillingness or inability to confront violent groups and end their impunity. Whether this is due to a continuing sense of indebtedness to some of these groups for fighting the Russians or fear they might turn on the state itself, it’s a real problem and we do no service to Ukraine by sweeping it under the rug.
Of course, it’s not a problem any more!
Al Jazeera (2022):
The far-right neo-Nazi group has expanded to become part of Ukraine’s armed forces, a street militia and a political party….
The unit was initially formed as a volunteer group in May 2014 out of the ultra-nationalist Patriot of Ukraine gang, and the neo-Nazi Social National Assembly (SNA) group. Both groups engaged in xenophobic and neo-Nazi ideals and physically assaulted migrants, the Roma community and people opposing their views.A few months after recapturing the strategic port city of Mariupol from the Russian-backed separatists, the unit was officially integrated into the National Guard of Ukraine on November 12, 2014, and exacted high praise from then-President Petro Poroshenko.
“These are our best warriors,” he said at an awards ceremony in 2014. “Our best volunteers.”
Cato (2022):
An especially egregious performance has occurred with respect to the role of the Azov battalion (now the Azov regiment) in Ukraine’s defense effort. The Azov battalion was notorious for years before the Russian invasion as a bastion of extreme nationalists and outright Nazis. That aspect proved to be more than just a source of embarrassment for Ukraine’s supporters when the unit became a crucial player in the battle for the city of Mariupol. The Western (especially US) press sought to portray Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian siege as a heroic effort similar to battle of Stalingrad in World War II.
The prominence of the Azov regiment among the defenders certainly should have complicated that media portrayal. Yet most accounts simply focused on the suffering of Mariupol’s population, the heartless villainy of the Russian aggressors, and the tenacity of the city’s brave defenders. Such accounts typically ignored the presence of Azov fighters among the defenders or failed to disclose their ideological pedigree. A Washington Post story, for example, merely described the Azov regiment as “a nationalist outfit.” Other news accounts referred to the Azov forces in a similar vague manner, occasionally with a perfunctory acknowledgment that the regiment was controversial.
….However, the coverage of the Ukraine war threatens to achieve a new low in media integrity and credibility. When the establishment press whitewashes the behavior of outright neo-Nazis, something is terribly amiss.
CNN (2022):
Azov’s military and political wings formally separated in 2016, when the far-right National Corps party was founded. The Azov battalion had by then been integrated into the Ukrainian National Guard.
An effective fighting force that’s very much involved in the current conflict, the battalion has a history of neo-Nazi leanings, which have not been entirely extinguished by its integration into the Ukrainian military.
In its heyday as an autonomous militia, the Azov Battalion was associated with White supremacists and neo-Nazi ideology and insignia. It was especially active in and around Mariupol in 2014 and 2015. CNN teams in the area at the time reported Azov’s embrace of neo-Nazi emblems and paraphernalia.
After its integration into the Ukrainian National Guard, amid discussions in the US Congress about designating the Azov Movement a foreign terrorist organization, Ukraine’s then minister of internal affairs, Arsen Avakov, defended the unit. “The shameful information campaign about the alleged spread of Nazi ideology (among Azov members) is a deliberate attempt to discredit the ‘Azov’ unit and the National Guard of Ukraine,” he told the online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda in 2019.
The battalion still operates as a relatively autonomous entity. It has been prominent in defending Mariupol in recent weeks, and its resistance has been widely praised by members of the government.
Fair (2022):
The outsized influence of neo-Nazi groups in Ukrainian society (Human Rights Watch, 6/14/18)—including the the Azov Regiment, the explicitly neo-Nazi branch of Ukraine’s National Guard—is another fact that has been dismissed as disinformation. Western outlets once understood far-right extremism as a festering issue (Haaretz, 12/27/18) that Ukraine’s government “underplayed” (BBC, 12/13/14).
The Financial Times (3/29/22) and London Times (3/30/22) attempted to rehabilitate the Azov regiment’s reputation, using the disinformation label to downplay the influence of extremism in the national guard unit. Quoting Azov’s founder Andriy Biletsky as well as an unnamed Azov commander, the Financial Times cast Azov’s members as “patriots” who “shrug off the neo-Nazi label as ‘Russian propaganda.’” Alex Kovzhun, a “consultant” who helped draft the political program of the National Corps, Azov’s political wing, added a lighthearted human interest perspective, saying Azov was “made up of historians, football hooligans and men with military experience.”
That the Financial Times would take Biletsky at his word on the issue of Azov’s Nazi-free character, a man who once declared that the National Corps would “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade…against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans]” (Guardian, 3/13/18), is a prime example of how Western media have engaged in information war at the expense of their most basic journalistic duties and ethics.
APPENDIX B: Kozatsky is a Fascist
In addition to the Nazi paraphernalia described by Shariy above, we have Twitter likes:
On Twitter, the Azov press spokesperson [Kozatsky] has “liked” many horrendous posts, including an image of a symbol associated with the Nazi SS which largely administered the Holocaust. The Totenkopf was captioned: “Your face when you read news about gypsies.” That year, in 2018, the U.S. Helsinki Commission warned, “attacks on Roma in Ukraine have escalated dramatically.” Earlier that spring, Kozatsky liked an image of the KKK and another tweet that said “Heil Hitler!” on the Nazi dictator’s birthday. In January 2019, Kozatsky liked an image of Amon Göth, an Austrian Nazi who commanded the Plaszow concentration camp and was portrayed in Schindler’s List as the main antagonist of the film. In March 2020, not long after the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in his country, Kozatsky liked an image of Ukrainian graffiti that said “Death to Yids” with an SS symbol. Two days before he surrendered in Mariupol, someone on Twitter mocked Kozatsky for his ankle tattoos: “I’m not a nazi.” He responded, “I want to disappoint you and tell you that the swastika is not only Nazi. Here is your homework, young investigator…” There are plenty of more examples of him being a Nazi on the internet.
As seen above, Dmytro Kozatsky obviously gets a big kick out of the neo-Nazi code 1488, and he appears to be fond of the white supremacist Ukrainian brands SvaStone and “White Print.” According to Reporting Radicalism, a website created by the US-funded Freedom House in Ukraine, “The brand name SvaStone alludes to the swastika. Its logo is a stylized swastika… The logo and name are exclusively used as a brand that targets far-right consumers.” White Print is more obscure and overtly neo-Nazi. This Azov-associated brand, which apparently operates exclusively on the Russian social media network VK, made Kozatsky’s 1488 tshirt, and perhaps another featuring a sun cross swastika. Kozatsky expressed interest in another one of their shirts glorifying the “Galicia Division” — the Ukrainian Waffen-SS unit — in addition to the shirt he already has emblazoned with the Nazi formation’s Ukrainian emblem.
Not a nice person at all.
5. The Nazification of America via the Azov “Philosopher’s Stone” has swept up Congressional representatives from both political parties and academic groups at Stanford University.
After meeting with at least 50 members of Congress, soldiers of the neo-Nazi Azov Regiment toured the US to auction off swastika-inspired patches and lobby for an end to restrictions on US arms and training.
This article was originally published by Moss Robeson’s Ukes, Kooks and Spooks blog and lightly edited by The Grayzone.
Read part one of Robeson’s series on Azov’s US tour here.
This September, a delegation of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi-led Azov movement arrived in the United States, at a time when myth making about the far-right network’s “depoliticization” had reached a fever pitch. By this time, the New York Times had ceased referring to Azov as “openly neo-Nazi,” and was referring to the ultra-nationalist organization as “celebrated.”
Since news broke of Azov’s US tour, more information has come to light about the ultra-nationalist organization’s outreach in the country, including efforts by Azov to reverse Congress’ ban on supplying it with arms and training.
The Azov delegation included three veterans of the regiment formerly holed up in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. They were led by Giorgi Kuparashvili, the only fighter not taken prisoner by the Russians.
According to Kuparashvili, a cofounder and instructor of the Azov Regiment, his delegation met over fifty members of Congress, far more than anyone has realized. Among those who showed up to greet Azov on Capitol Hill was Rep. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who spent the Trump era leading Russiagate theatrics and clamored for shipments of offensive US weapons to Ukraine.
The trio was accompanied by two spouses and a mother of POWs captured at Azovstal. This included Kateryna Prokopenko, the wife of the far-right commander of the Azov Regiment, Denys Prokopenko, who was freed in a prisoner exchange and declared a Hero of Ukraine during her visit to the United States. The delegation’s other Azov wife was Yulia Fedosyuk, the leader of “Silver of the Rose,” an anti-feminist, anti-gay group linked to the Azov movement, according to journalist Oleksiy Kuzmenko.
Earlier this year, Prokopenko and Fedosyuk met with Pope Francis. While in the United States, they spoke at a small rally in front of the White House, appeared for an interview on the pro-Trump channel Newsmax, and took meetings with numerous members of Congress. Newsmax separately interviewed two of the Azov veterans, including Kuparashvili.
On Saturday, September 24, half of the delegation including Kuparashvili appeared before a sizable audience at a Ukrainian church in Detroit. The Ukrainian-American Crisis Response Committee of Michigan (UACRCM), a lobbying outfit formed earlier this year, live-streamed the event, which was organized by US partners of the Azov movement’s charity wing.
Among the more prominent Ukrainian nationalists present for the event was Borys Potapenko, a member of the UACRCM and an international coordinator of the Stepan Bandera-founded Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN‑B), which collaborated with Nazi Germany throughout much of World War Two. Potapenko is also among the leaders of the far-right “Capitulation Resistance Movement” in Ukraine, which allied with Azov’s National Corps against Volodymyr Zelensky in 2019–22. (More about this coming soon on the “Bandera Lobby Blog”…)
Giorgi Kuparashvili spoke to the audience in English, focusing largely on the Azov delegation’s success in Washington. “We went to the Senators, Congressmen, from both parties. Honestly, the majority we met, there were like over fifty of them, and head of their fractions [Democrats and Republicans], they all gave 100% support. They started to work right from their office in front of us, picked up the phone, and started calling to different organizations which can influence — right now, we’re having problems with the Geneva Conventions. Geneva Conventions is not working, not for Russia…”
Later, Kuparashvili indicated that the delegation had more on its political agenda than detailing Russian war crimes, criticizing the International Red Cross, and securing the release of Azov POWs. He predicted that this year, Congress will lift its ban on the U.S. supplying arms and training to the Azov Regiment.
The Azov delegation’s audience at their first stop in New Jersey largely consisted of children
In his closing remarks, Giorgi Kuparashvili appeared to take aim at his least two favorite members of Congress: Ro Khanna, a liberal Democrat from Silicon Valley, thanks to whom Congress curtailed U.S. support for the Azov Regiment in 2018, and Max Rose, a former Congressman and right-wing Democrat from Staten Island, who called on the State Department to label the Azov Regiment a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” in 2020.
“From year ’14, ’15, ’16, until today,” claimed Kuparashvili, “there is a bill which, I don’t remember the name, but the Congressman who lobbied, I don’t know how… He left Congress a couple years ago, he initiated to put the Azov as a restriction in a bill. This week, we talked to all the Congressmen and Senators, everybody understands, because when you bring the bill to Congress, they have to read it. Unfortunately, nobody read it, so they approved it again.”
“Now we told them, ‘are you supporting this?’ And everybody knows it’s just a mistake in it. As the Congressmen and Senators says, this bill goes until 2025. They’re not going to wait until 2025, and gonna make the correction on this year, to remove it from there… We’re dealing with the situation and fixing it, and majority of the job is already done, and Congress and Senate, both parties are supporting this.”
Before Kuparashvili’s closing remarks, his hosts held an auction on behalf of the Azov charity project, ultimately raising $33,416. The auction ended with bidding on three Azov Regiment patches featuring stylized wolfsangel swastikas.
Before the bidding commenced, Kuparashvili insisted that things were not as they appear. “If you know, there is a symbol,” he said, tapping the patch on his left arm, “which I’m gonna explain now, because they call us Nazis, all this crap.” At that point he mockingly put his hand over his mouth, and said, “sorry my language — ha!”
“This is actually two letters, two Latin letters, N and I. The N stands for National; I, it’s Idea. National Idea. National Idea. For regiment, it’s our slogan. National Idea. Every country, it doesn’t matter, it’s U.S., Ukraine, whatever. When the country was in problem, center of gravity always became the nationalists. The National Idea. All the nation gathers around the nationalists, and around the National Idea. For us, National Idea is Ukraine. If they don’t like what is Ukraine, and what it’s National Idea, hell with them…” Kuparahsvili, touching on the totalitarian Ukrainian Nationalist concept of “Natiocracy,” all but admitted Azov’s affinity for white nationalists in the West.
According to Kuparashvili, before, only Azov members could wear their swastika patches, but he bestowed permission on the audience to place their bids, because “now, all of you are Azov.” There was another disclaimer that Kuparashvili shared only after the winners emerged. “It’s a responsibility,” he said.
“We’re just handing over it,” Kuparashvili told the audience about the Azov Regiment patches. “We’re giving to those our responsibility. We have the soldiers where they go through the basic training, go through all the trainings, and difficulties. If they don’t deserve, you can’t graduate… But if you deserve it, with this comes a responsibility… Your National Idea is Ukraine. You gotta fight for it. Not just put it in a room or a shelf somewhere, but you gotta fight for it. Fight for your National Idea…” The winners each saluted Kuparashvili in the Azov fashion.
Two days later, the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago hosted another Azov charity auction, co-sponsored by the Banderite-led Illinois Division of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. Its most influential member, Pavlo Bandriwsky, an OUN‑B leader in Chicago known as “the Strategist”, took pictures with the Azov veterans. This event featured a battle flag of the Azov Regiment that was apparently auctioned off with the promise that every surviving member will sign it after the war is won. The Consul Generals of Germany and Poland also spoke at the event.
On Saturday, October 1, after returning to Washington, the full delegation, except for Kateryna Prokopenko, who left to be reunited with her husband in Turkey, made an appearance at Stanford University. Yulia Fedosyuk concluded her remarks, “Glory to the Azov Regiment.” At some point, Stanford professor Michael McFaul, the dangerously foolish former US Ambassador to Russia (2012–14), stopped by to offer words of support for Ukraine, if not the Azov Regiment itself.
Earlier this year, Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) published a detailed report on the “Azov Movement… a far-right nationalist network.” Michael McFaul directs the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, of which the CISAC is part. He apparently took no issue with the neo-Nazi symbol projected behind him.
This might not have been the Azov delegation’s last stop in the United States, but it would be rather fitting. Stanford University is in the Congressional district adjacent to Ro Khanna, whose restrictions on US support for the Azov Regiment should be lifted this year, according to one of the event’s speakers. But these days, even Khanna might not object.
6. Not to be outdone by the above individuals and institutions, the ADL has joined the chorus declaring that the Azovs aren’t Nazis.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has emailed The Grayzone a defense of the Azov Battalion and refused to condemn the Pentagon for honoring a veteran of the group who sports Nazi-inspired tattoos.
A November 9 email from the Anti-Defamation League to The Grayzone provided a twisted defense of Ukraine’s Azov Battalion. Despite its self-proclaimed “anti-hate” mission, the ADL insisted in the email it “does not” consider Azov as the “far right group it once was.”
The Azov Battalion is a neo-Nazi unit formally integrated into the US government-backed Ukrainian military. Founded by Andriy Biletsky, who has infamously vowed to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade…against Semite-led untermenschen,” Azov was once widely condemned by Western corporate media and the human rights industry for its association with Nazism. Then came the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In the months that immediately followed, Azov led the Ukrainian military’s defense of Mariupol, the group’s longtime stronghold. As the militia assumed a frontline role in the war against Russia, Western media led a campaign to rebrand Azov as misunderstood freedom fighters while accusing its critics of echoing Kremlin talking points. The New York Times has even referred to the unit as the “celebrated Azov Battalion.”
Like the Washington Post and other mainstream outlets, the ADL ignored Azov’s atrocities this April in Mariupol, where locals accused the group of using civilians as human shields and executing those who attempted to flee. One video out of Mariupol showed Azov fighters proudly declaring the Nazi collaborator and mass murderer of Jews, Stepan Bandera, to be their “father.”
The Azov Battalion has long served as a magnet for the international white nationalist movement, attracting recruits from the terrorist Atomwaffen Division to a US Army Specialist arrested on charges of distributing bomb-making instructions.
Back in March 2022, just a month before the battle of Mariupol, the ADL itself issued a report acknowledging that white nationalists see Azov “as a pathway to the creation of a National Socialist state in Ukraine.”
Eight months later, however, the ADL has changed its tune, asserting to this outlet that Azov has rooted the fascists from its ranks. So did Azov change its Nazi ways, or did the ADL simply shift its messaging to conform to the imperatives of a Biden administration still intent on sending billions in military aid to Ukraine?
The ADL responds to Grayzone report with defense of Azov
The ADL’s defense of the Azov Battalion was triggered by an incident this September, when this journalist filed a “hate incident” report through the ADL’s website which detailed the contents of a Grayzone exposé on a Pentagon-sponsored sports competition. Held at Disney World, the weeklong competition hosted and honored Ihor Halushka, a Ukrainian Azov veteran branded with a Nazi Sonnenrad tattoo — a hate symbol, according to none other than the ADL.
The Grayzone provided a brief summary of these facts and events to the ADL, furnished supporting photographs, and included a link to the entire report. Asked what the ADL could do to help, this reporter requested they condemn the Pentagon for hosting a neo-Nazi. Upon filing the report, I was immediately given an automated case number and put on the organization’s mass mailing list.
Some 60 days later, the ADL responded, apologizing for the delay yet refraining from acknowledging any of The Grayzone’s reporting. Instead, the ADL offered a two paragraph defense of the Azov Battalion. There was, of course, no condemnation of the Warrior Games’ hosting of Halushka, and the event has not been included in the ADL’s public directory of hate incidents.
“When it was created in 2014, the Azov Brigade was a private military group fighting the then annexation of Crimea,” the ADL wrote to The Grayzone. “During this period, it was a group that had a clear far-right influence. In late 2014, the group was brought in as a part of the Ukrainian National Guard and renamed the Azov Regiment. When this happened, the Ukrainian government investigated the group and claims to have expelled it of these far-right members. It was also during this time that its founder Andriy Biletsky left AZOV and has since worked in the greater Azov movement, including founding a far-right political party, the National Corps. In essence, there was a split between the military unit AZOV and the political goals of its founding members. Of course, this is not to say that they have successfully removed all far-right elements from their ranks, but our Center on Extremism also does not see Azov Regime as the far-right group it once was.”
The ADL’s stunning defense of Azov as a largely depoliticized fighting unit is undermined most strongly by the ADL’s own research material.
The ADL harshly condemned Azov before it legitimized it
In 2019, the organization published a report on “The Internalization of White Supremacy,” which name-dropped Azov 18 times and branded it “a far-right group and militia,” “the far-right organization and militia,” and “a Ukrainian extremist group and militia.”
The report also stated that Azov “has ties to neo-Nazis in Ukraine,” “has reached out to like-minded American extremists,” and “reportedly has connections to Atomwaffen (AWD), an American neo-Nazi group allegedly tied to five murders.”
Later that year, the ADL noted that an neo-Nazi US Army Specialist that pled guilty to unlawfully distributing bomb-making instructions had “expressed desire to find more ‘radicals’ and travel to Ukraine to fight with paramilitary group the Azov Battalion.”
A more recent ADL report paints Azov in a similarly unflattering light. This March, seven days after Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine, the ADL ran a blog post entitled, “White Supremacists, Other Extremists Respond to Russian Invasion of Ukraine.” The article referred to Azov as “the Ukrainian national guard unit with explicit neo-Nazi ties,” and noted that white supremacists “see Azov as a pathway to the creation of a National Socialist state in Ukraine.”
In November, however, the ADL declared that it “does not see Azov Regiment as the far-right group it once was.” To justify its sudden turnabout, the supposed anti-extremism organization pointed to a supposed split between the radical rightist Andriy Biletsky and the Azov rank-and-file.
Biletsky and Azov’s “split” amounts to a literal office divider
In its email to The Grayzone, the ADL claimed that “the military unit AZOV and the political goals of its founding members” were “split” in 2014, insisting that Biletsky “left Azov and has since worked in the great Azov movement, including founding a far-right political party, the National Corps.”
The ADL noted no such “split” in 2019 when they characterized the National Corps simply as the “political wing of Azov.”
In fact, the close association of Azov with the National Corps was widely acknowledged in both media outlets and think tanks funded by the United States government.
“Azov’s Kyiv recruitment center and military academy share a location with the offices of the National Corps,” a researcher for the US government-sponsored Bellingcat outlet explained in the NATO-affiliated Atlantic Council in 2020. The researcher added that Azov “routinely hosts Biletsky (and other former commanders) at its bases and welcomes his participation in ceremonies, greeting him as a leader.”
In fact, on October 26, 2022 – a mere two weeks before the ADL asserted a “split” between the Azov Battalion and the “political goals” of its founder – Biletsky delivered a speech at a ceremony in Kiev celebrating the renaming of a street after Azov in commemoration of their fight in Mariupol this April.
Azov Battalion founder Andriy Biletsky honoring the “heroes of Azov” on October 26, 2022
“There is a ton of liberal white washing when it comes to fascists in Ukraine”
While the ADL claimed to The Grayzone that Ukraine’s government presided over a purge of neo-Nazis from Azov’s ranks, the media appearances of Azov members this year tell a decidedly different story.
As The Grayzone reported, Italian authorities issued a warrant this November for the arrest of Anton Radomsky, an Azov fighter, for planning to attack a shopping mall near Naples.
Also in November, an Azov photographer’s public relations tour of the Eastern United States was interrupted by protests after his history of posting Nazi imagery on social media came to light.
And contrary to the ADL’s spin, interviews with foreign fighters embedded with Azov paint a picture of a fighting group that is still honeycombed with hardcore neo-Nazis.
“Azov Battalion still has a lot of its neo-Nazi presence,” an American named Justin, who fought with Azov in Mariupol, claimed in an interview published on October 8. According to the former volunteer, his battalion commander was a “fucking Nazi” who kept a photograph of Adolf Hitler as his desktop background on his computer. The American explained that he and his fellow soldiers would greet each other with sieg heil salutes.
An equally revealing interview which appeared on November 12 featured comments from an American volunteer for the Azov Battalion named Kent “Boneface” McLellan.
“Boneface” boasts a lengthy arrest record in the US, including an incident in which he was filmed by an undercover government informant participating in paramilitary training with the American Front neo-Nazi organization. According to prosecutors, the group was planning “to kill Jews, immigrants and other minorities.”
In the November interview, Boneface admitted to taking photographs of Ukrainian fighters “posing with the corpses of a lynched pregnant woman and a man they said was her husband” for a video entitled “Kikes get the rope.” He also claimed to have appeared in a video depicting a botched crucifixion.
But Boneface’s comments on the prevalence of neo-Nazis within the ranks of Azov offer the clearest refutation of the ADL’s assertion that the battalion is “no longer the far-right group it once was.”
“There is a ton of liberal white washing when it comes to Fascists in Ukraine,” McLellan said, rattling off popular talking points: “Nazis don’t exist”; “Azov battalion and Azov regiment are different”; “They took all the Nazis out of Azov.”
“I speak out against the white washing of Nationalists by the media,” he added. “I use Twitter to mainly troll the (western) left, as they believe Ukraine[‘s] military isn’t full of nationalist ideals.”
Is the ADL as credulous as the rest of Ukraine flag-waving liberal America when it asserts that Azov has been de-radicalized? Or are they just trolling us too?
7. Perhaps the whitewashing of the Azov Nazis should not surprise, particularly given that the formations’ atrocities in Ukraine are widely attributed to—drumroll, fanfare—the Russians!
Foremost in the Western falsification of Ukrainian/Azov atrocities is the massacre at Bucha, which helped terminate and marginalize ongoing behind-the-scenes negotiations to end the war.
One of the few Western voices correctly attributing the Bucha massacre is Scott Ritter.
“ . . . . Ukrainian security forces, in particular the “Safari” unit staffed by veterans of the neo-Nazi Azov Regiment, caught up with scores of these refugees while they made their way north and, in the vernacular of the Ukrainians, “cleansed” them, gunning them down on the spot, or binding their hands behind their backs before executing them in the alleyways and streets of Bucha. . . .”
The Ukrainian narrative constructed by the west is built on a bodyguard of lies. And there is no lie greater than that which blames Russia for the deaths of hundreds of Ukrainian civilians in Bucha who were slaughtered by Ukrainian security forces.
Sometime during the period between 1–3 April 2022, Ukrainian security forces entered the northern Kiev suburb of Bucha. Russian forces who had occupied the town had evacuated on March 30, part of a general realignment of forces announced by the Russian Ministry of Defense on March 25. Bucha had been on the frontlines and was the scene of heavy fighting between the Russians and Ukrainians; hundreds of civilians caught up in this fighting were killed and wounded.
Russian troops were civil to the Ukrainian civilians who remained in Bucha, handing out humanitarian supplies to those in need and bartering dry goods with local vendors for fresh eggs and dairy products. When the Russians withdrew, pro-Russian civilians were encouraged to depart with them. This underscored the Russian understanding of the potential for Ukrainian reprisals against any civilian deemed to have been “cooperating/collaborating” with their forces during the period in which Russian troops occupied Bucha.
Many Ukrainians who had interacted with the Russian troops did not leave, assuming that their normal interactions with Russian soldiers, including limited commerce and the acceptance of humanitarian supplies in order to survive, did not constitute treason against the Ukrainian state.
They were wrong.
Shortly after Russian troops departed Bucha, Ukrainian security forces made their way into the town. Announcements were made on social media and public broadcasting warning the citizens of Bucha about “cleansing” operations targeting collaborators. In light of these announcements, many of the Ukrainians who had remained in Bucha became concerned about their fate, and began to flee toward Russian lines. They wore the white arm band, indicating that they were not a threat to the Russian troops. Many also brought with them Russian-provided rations to sustain them on their journey.
But it was too late.
Ukrainian security forces, in particular the “Safari” unit staffed by veterans of the neo-Nazi Azov Regiment, caught up with scores of these refugees while they made their way north and, in the vernacular of the Ukrainians, “cleansed” them, gunning them down on the spot, or binding their hands behind their backs before executing them in the alleyways and streets of Bucha.
The evidence of this crime was overwhelming. But the “collective West,” led by a coterie of erstwhile journalists whose function had transformed from reporters of fact-based truth to stenographers of fictional propaganda, was engaged in a larger information operation, designed to shift public opinion away from the need to seek a negotiated settlement to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, toward the sustainment of a long-term war of attrition designed to weaken Russia in the long term.
To accomplish this task, the “collective West” needed to construct an unambiguous “good versus evil” narrative which portrayed the Ukrainians as the brave defenders of democratic values such as freedom and liberty, and the Russians as rapacious thugs marauding across the Ukrainian landscape, brutalizing an innocent civilian population. This kind of unambiguous differentiation of roles was necessary in order to gain popular support for what was to come—a multi-billion-dollar infusion of financial and military aid designed to transform the Russian-Ukraine conflict into a de facto existential struggle between “good” (NATO) and “evil” (Russia).
It worked.
Bucha became the symbol around which the citizens of the “collective West” rallied, supporting not only the intervention of their leaders to undermine a viable diplomatic off-ramp from the conflict being negotiated in Istanbul between Russian and Ukrainian authorities, but also blinding them to the devastating economic consequences of the failed effort to deter and defeat Russia through sanctions. Instead of demanding that their respective leaders work to restore a semblance of economic stability at home, the citizens of the “collective West” applauded while their governments transferred tens of billions of dollars of their hard-earned treasure to sustain a government which more closely mirrored the fictional Russian thug manufactured in the imaginations of western mainstream media.
Seven months later, the “collective West” finds itself at a new inflection point. After building up over the course of the summer months a reserve corps of fresh forces trained and equipped to NATO standards, Ukraine, with the assistance of NATO intelligence, communications, logistics, and operational planning support, carried out a much-ballyhooed offensive in the direction of Kharkov and Kherson.
By sacrificing this new NATO army (tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers were killed and wounded, and hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles lost), Ukraine was able to achieve impressive territorial gains without inflicting any meaningful damage to the Russian military. This pyrrhic “victory” led to Ukraine destroying its strategic reserve without accomplishing any meaningful military objectives. Moreover, the Russian response—consolidation of defense lines, partial mobilization of 300,000 troops, and the initiation of a strategic air campaign designed to paralyze Ukraine—has radically shifted the narrative away from “Ukraine is winning, a Russian collapse is imminent” to “a Russian victory is a defeat for NATO.”
Russia is winning.
NATO is being defeated on the battlefields of Ukraine.
Rather than accept this new reality and seek a negotiated settlement to the conflict, the “collective West” once again turns to its time-tested playbook of generating a false “good versus evil” narrative capable of motivating nations who have long ago emptied their arsenals and treasuries in support of Ukraine, and who are currently staring economic and social disaster in the face as winter approaches and the reality of the consequences of sanctioning Russian energy hits home, to once again invest good money after bad and double down on the losing bet that was, is, and forever will be Ukraine.
One of the main problems facing the so-called “journalists” who populate the western mainstream media is that even fiction writers as capable as themselves could not craft a believable narrative based upon the emerging reality that Ukraine is the living manifestation of the sickening ideology of Stepan Bandera, whose murderous ethos has infected every aspect of Ukraine’s government, military, and security services.
The other problem was that the Ukrainians were, simply put, liars.
Exhibit number one: Ukraine’s former ombudswoman for human rights, Lyudmyla Denisova.
In the aftermath of the “Bucha massacre” narrative manufactured by Ukraine and disseminated by their compliant co-conspirators in the mainstream western media, Denisova sought to sustain the moral outrage the original stories generated by releasing even more tales from the dark side. Typical of her modus operendi was the story she told to BBC, and which was picked up, unquestioningly, by other western news outlets, including Newsweek and the Washington Post, about alleged sexual violent crimes committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
“About 25 girls and women aged 14–24 were systematically raped during the occupation in the basement of one house in Bucha,” Denisova told the BBC. “Nine of them are pregnant. Russian soldiers told them they would rape them to the point where they wouldn’t want sexual contact with any man, to prevent them from having Ukrainian children.”
None of this was true, and the problem with telling a lie of such magnitude is eventually someone—even a thoroughly compromised western “journalist”—is going to want to speak directly with the victims.
There were none.
Denisova afterwards explained the reason behind her lies. “I talked about terrible things,” she told a Ukrainian newspaper, “in order to somehow push them [the west] to make the decisions that Ukraine and the Ukrainian people need.” In one particular case, Denisova noted that the Italians were “against the provision of weapons to us,” but after hearing her speak, decided “they will support Ukraine, including by the provision of weapons.”
In the aftermath of the Ukrainian reconquest of Kharkov, the Ukrainian authorities tried to create a “new Bucha” narrative, this time around the existence of mass graves in the vicinity of Izium. But this storyline soon fell apart amid growing direct evidence of Ukrainian atrocities against anyone deemed to be a “collaborator.”
Flushed with victory, the Ukrainian supporters of Stepan Bandera openly bragged about their crimes. One Ukrainian volunteer detachment commander, a member of the “Right Sector” political party, admitted his crimes to a Ukrainian journalist, who expressed no emotion upon learning about the deaths of so many of her fellow citizens. “We haven’t got time to put them in jail,” the Right Sector thug said, noting that those accused of collaborating with the Russians “just disappear…Ukraine will have to conduct a census,” he bragged, “because so many people have disappeared.”
Videos of freshly dug graves filled with the bodies of freshly executed men and women, all in civilian clothing, their hands bound behind their backs, backed up the commander’s words.
Unable to craft a narrative capable of overcoming this brutish reality, the mainstream media resorted to the age-old trick of breathing fresh life into an old story—they repackaged the lie of the original Russian sin—the alleged “massacre” of Bucha.
On October 16, CBS’s flagship news program, “60 Minutes,” broadcast a story entitled “The Lost Souls of Bucha.” Scott Pelley, the correspondent given the task of resurrecting this story, narrated a script designed to pull at the heartstrings of anyone listening.
“The town of Bucha,” he intoned, “lived in relative obscurity on the international stage until early spring when Russian occupying forces retreated from the town and left behind devastation and death that shocked the entire world. Over 27 days, Russian troops killed more than 400 civilians in the Kiev suburb. Some of the victims were discovered bound and tortured. Many were left to rot in the place where they were killed.”
Pelley had visited Bucha shortly after it was recaptured by Ukrainian security forces, and played a major role in parroting the Ukrainian narrative of “Russia bad” when it came to attributing the cause of death to hundreds of Ukrainian civilians whose bodies littered the landscape. According to “60 Minutes,” Pelley “saw the devastation firsthand and witnessed a mass grave dug behind a church in the town center,” and “vowed to return to learn more about the people who were killed and buried in that mass grave.”
Pelley’s story did just that.
There is no doubting that there were victims whose bodies were buried in Bucha.
But they weren’t killed by Russians.
They were murdered by Ukrainians.
Hopefully, this time the western audience has wised up about the truth of what is going on inside Ukraine today:
The reality of a Ukrainian government which has wrapped itself in the red and black banner of the Right Sector, replicating the murderous history of Stepan Bandera and his followers in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia in every village, town, and city recaptured from the Russians.
The reality of Ukrainian paratroopers who sing the praises of Stepan Bandera upon completing their training.
The reality of Swastikas openly painted on the tanks and armored vehicles of the “Kraken Battalion” and other neo-Nazi military formations within the Ukrainian military.
The reality of the criminal nature of the Ukrainian government.
“60 Minutes” and the western media can revisit the Bucha tragedy all they want; nothing they report will change the fact that the bodies seen lying in the street were killed by the Bandera-worshipping murderers of the “Safari” battalion, on the orders of Ukrainian government officials. Nothing can change the fact that these same Ukrainian officials, from President Zelensky on down, deliberately lied about Bucha for the sole purpose of generating western outrage sufficient to fuel the Ukrainian economy and military with tens of billions of dollars’ worth of aid.
And nothing can change the reality that all this investment has been in a losing cause.
Russia is winning.
Russia will win.
And repeating the lies of Bucha will not change that reality.
The official celebration of fascist groups operating in Ukraine by the US political establishment is nothing new. We’ve seen this movie before. There was the open welcome given to fascist Georgian warlord Mamuka Mamulashvili. Or the members from Azov and Right Sector on the Ukrainian military athletic team invited to participate in the Warrior Games at Disney World. But it was still rather remarkable to see the kind of open embrace of someone who is effective a Ukrainian fascist super fan that just happened a couple weeks ago at a rally attended by a number of high US and EU officials, including the head of USAID Samantha Power. It was a high-level celebration of US Ukrainian Activists, an NGO founded in 2014 by Nadiya Shaporynska. As we’re going to see, Shaporynska is so close to Ukraine’s fascist militias that she declared her group “the DC branch of Right Sector” back in 2015. And while Right Sector founder Dmytro Yarosh is indeed one of the recipients of Shaporynska’s deep praise, he’s not the only one. For example, she’s also a big fan of both Mamuka Mamulashvili and former commander of the Donbass Battalion Semen Semenchenko (aka Semyon Semchenko). Recall how Semenchenko had a role in lobbying the US government over the conflict in Ukraine and was responsible for giving US Senators faked photos that purportedly showed the Russian military invading Ukraine. The photos were debunked. Also recall that intriguing story from December of 2018 surrounding Semenchenko, then a Ukrainian MP, who was part of a group of Ukrainians and one Georgian who were detained in Georgia for illegal posession and procurement of arms, ammunition and explosives. Six Ukrainians and the Georgian were detained. Semenchenko, however, had the benefit of diplomatic immunity and was allowed to leave.
And that brings us to the second and third articles below. Because it turns out Semenchenko has stood as among Ukraine’s fascist militia commanders for one notable reason: he’s facing state charges. Yes, back in March 2021, a private military outfit founded by Semenchenko, DBC Corp, was raided by the SBU over charges of operating an illegal private mercenary force. DBC Corp was also charged with attempting to illegally procure weapons from Russia. But these weapons weren’t intended for use in the fight in the Donbas. No, they were intended for use in the Middle East. Yep, it turns out DBC Corp was training forces in Kyiv for using in conflict zones in the Middle East. And in a very interesting twist, Semenchenko’s partner in this operation claims that Semenchenko told him the company was going to get these Middle East contracts from the US State Department. Those contracts never materialized. But the question of whether or not they were ever on the table are a lot harder to dismiss when we see this celebration of the “US Ukrainian Activists”, led by an open Semenchenko admirer.
Oh, and then in May of 2021, Semenchenko was charged with terrorism over a June 2019 attack on the 112 News channel headquarters with a rocket propelled anti-tank grenade launcher. It’s unclear why it took nearly 2 years of charges to be brought, which suggest the charges likely wouldn’t have been brought had DBC Corp not been facing legal pressure of its own. Facing 7 to 12 years, Semenchenko was released in June of 2022 under house arrest after Kyrylo Budanov, of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, appealed to the courts for his release so he can be used in the defense of Ukraine.
That’s all part and the context of the DC “US Ukrainian Activists” rally attended by Samantha Power and a number of other US and EU officials. It was rally to celebrate a Ukrainian diaspora lobbying infrastructure that can’t really be separated from the same Ukrainian fascist networks that have been on the ascendance in Ukrainian since 2014. Fascists networks that have been largely allowed to operate with impunity. Or near impunity in the case of Semen Semenchenko.
Ok, first, here’s a look at this Feb 25, 2023, rally, where Ukrainian fascist super fan Nadiya Shaporynska got an official embrace from both the US and the EU:
“Power’s USAID promoted the event with a media advisory that redirected visitors to the rally’s principal organizer, an NGO called US Ukrainian Activists. This was one of two Ukrainian diaspora groups that organized the rally, and both have openly supported far-right elements in Ukraine since the US-backed Maidan coup in 2014.”
It was pretty notable that the head of USAID, Samantha Powers, spoke at this event, although not as notable as the fact that Powers was joined on stage at the event by a throng of US and EU officials. This was a big deal:
And at the center of this big deal was the celebration of the “US Ukrainian Activists” NGO, founded in 2014 by Nadiya Shaporynska. So what kind of ‘activism’ is this NGO involved with? Fundraising for Ukraine’s Nazi battalions, is seems. Yes, it turns out Shaporynska is quite a far of groups like Right Sector and Azov. In fact, back in 2015, Shaporynska led a group that declared themselves to be the “Washington DC Right Sector Branch” and that they “support” Yarosh. This is casual cheerleading:
But this wasn’t just a celebration of Shaporynska’s group. Paul Grod, the president of the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC), was also on stage. As we’ve seen, the UWC is effectively the modern day umbrella group under which the descendants of the WWII-era groups like the OUN‑B are now organized. This event was a effectively a DC celebration of fascist-oriented Ukrainian diaspora organizations:
.
Also note how Shaporynska’s enthusiasm for Ukrainian fascists isn’t limited to Right Sector or Azov. She’s a booster for the Aidar Battalion and former Donbas Battalion commander Semen Semenchenko (sometimes spelled Semchenko). As we’re seen, Semenchenko isn’t just the former commander of the Ukrainian militia. He’s an open fascist.
First, Recall how Semenchenko justified civilian casualties back in 2014 when he was leading the Donbas volunteer battalion, claiming that unarmed people in the crowds were paid to be there as cover for the separatists and calling them “pigs”. Also recall how Semenchenko had a role in lobbying the US government over the conflict in Ukraine and was responsible for giving US Senators faked photos that purportedly showed the Russian military invading Ukraine. The photos were debunked. Finally, recall that intriguing story from December of 2018 surrounding Semenchenko, then a Ukrainian MP, who was part of a group of Ukrainians and one Georgian who were detained in Georgia for illegal possesion and precurement of arms, ammunition and explosives. Six Ukrainians and the Georgian were detained. Semenchenko, however, had the benefit of diplomatic immunity and was allowed to leave. That’s the kind of figure championed by Shaporynska.
And then there’s Georgian Legion leader Mamuka Mamulashvili. Yes, Shaporynska is a Mamulashvili fan too. Of course, so are a number of US lawmakers who have welcome Mamulashvili during multiple trips to the US. This is as good time to recall the deep ties between the Georgian fascist movement behind the Georgian Legion and the UNA-UNSO, the descendant of the WWII-era Ukrainian National Army (UNA) that was founded in 1990 as an offshoot of the newly formed Ukrainian National Assembly (also the UNA). The UNA-UNSO was led by Yuri Shukhevych (son of Roman Shukhevych) for the first 23 years of its existence, until 2014 when its members went on to form groups like Azov and Right Sector. But before that happened, the UNA-UNSO members played a key role in fighting alongside Georgian nationalists during the 2008 Georgian civil war. It was there where the ties between Ukrainian and Georgian fascists were solidified, culminating in the apparent role played by Georgians in fomenting the sniper attacks during the Maidan protests. Nadiya Shaporynska is a fascist super fan. A fascist super fan with no shortage of fans of her own in DC:
It’s also worth recalling at this point how American fugitive neo-Nazi Craig Lang first joined Right Sector before moving on to join the Georgian Legion. Mamulashvili described Lang as “a very good specialist”.
But it’s that apparent role that former MP Semen Semenchenko played in attempting to illegally procure weapons from Georgia that brings us to the following pair of stories from back in 2021 about some legal troubles Semenchenko ran into. The kind of legal troubles he didn’t have diplomatic immunity to escape: In March of 2021, the Ukrainian SBU raided a training camp operated by a private military contractor, the DBC Corp. That company appears to have been set up by Semenchenko to operate as basically a mercenary outfit on behalf of Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. But DBC Corps’ mercenary services weren’t just intended of Ukraine. It as going to offer military logistical services to places in the Middle East like Syria or Afghanistan. And according to Semenchenko’s partner in the project, Yevhen Shevchenko, jSemenchenko claimed the company was going to get contracts from the US State Department. Now, those contracts never materialized, but you have to wonder if that was a real possibility.
Interestingly, relating back to the story of Semenchenko being involved with the illegal procurement of arms from Georgia, it sounds like one of the crimes the SBU was charging DBC Corp with was the illegal procurement of weapons from Russia. So weapons were being illegally procured from Russia for eventual use in the Middle East. That was the apparent crime committed by DBC Corp. And yet, as the following article notes, perhaps the most surprising part of this whole story is that charges were brought at all. Mercenary forces have been running rampant in Ukrainian for years:
“The SBU says Semenchenko and Shevchenko are “possible organizers and coordinators of an illegal scheme to smuggle military and double-use hardware from Russia to be sold to Ukrainian defense production enterprises at inflated prices.””
It was March of 2021, roughly seven years after the Maidan revolution and less than a year before the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine, when Semen (Semyon) Semenchenko was charged with organizing an illegal mercenary scheme. A particularly bizarre mercenary scheme given the context of the situation in Ukraine at that time. The kind of scheme that lends weight to the long-standing concerns about the flood of weapons flowing into Ukraine end up all over the world: Semenchenko was charged with leading a private mercenary firm, DBC Corp., that at was procuring weapons from Russia for use by the DBC mercenary forces in the Middle East. It’s not exactly the kind of mercenary scandal one expects, all things considered:
But then we get this this fascinating detail: According to Semenchenko’s partner in crime, Yevhen Shevchenko, the company was going to render security services in Syria and Afghanistan under contracts from the U.S. State Department. Those contracts never materialized. But considering the fascist sympathies recently put on display in DC, it’s hard to dismiss the possibility that at least some sort of exploration of such a contract did actually take place. This is also a good time to recall how Andrii Artemenko — himself having close ties to Right Sector — had a company that provided military logistics services to Middle Eastern conflict zones from 2007–2013. In other words, Semenchenko mercenary contractor scheme wasn’t as outlandish as it might initially seem:
And then we get to the truly revealing part of this 2021 article: the biggest surprise in this story is the fact that the SBU cracked down on Semenchenko at all, along with the failed attempts by the Ukrainian parliament to legalize and regulate private militias. As the article notes, these groups had been operating in open defiance of the state with impunity for years. Including the apparent use of DBC mercenaries to prevent the head of and State Property Fund from entering the state-run Centrenergo’s offices to block a management reshuffle in early 2020 that would have removed officials loyal to Ihor Kolomoisky. This kind of above-the-law lawlessness has been rampant for a while now:
And that rampant above-the-law lawlessness brings us to this follow up story about the legal perils Semenchenko was facing back in 2021 that went beyond just setting up an illegal mercenary operation. Less than two months after the SBU bust of DBC Corp, Semenchenko was charged with terrorism. But not over the mercenary scheme. No, it turns out Semenchenko allegedly deployed an anti-tank grenade launcher against the 112 Ukraine TV channel back in June of 2019. The channel was owned by ‘pro-Kremlin’ lawmaker Taras Kozak and was subsequently shut down by Ukrainian authorities in February of 2021. So it was almost two years after that attack that Semenchenko was finally charged with terrorism. Who knows why it took nearly two years for Semenchenko to finally get charged in that attack, although the fact that the government eventually shut the station down for ‘pro-Russian propaganda’ is a clue. Regardless, the fact that Semenchenko was allowed to carry out that attack without any legal response for nearly two years is some pretty significant context in terms of getting an idea of how Semenchenko thought he could get away with setting up a mercenary outfit providing services to conflict zones in the Middle East using weapons illegally procured from Russia. Semenchenko was allowed to operate with impunity, until he wasn’t. What changed? It’s a mystery, because it’s not like Ukraine’s official attitude towards these fascist militias changed. So what is it that brought these very belated charges of terrorism?
“According to the SBU, Semenchenko assigned two members of his illegal paramilitary force to fire grenades at the 112 Ukraine TV channel back in June 2019.”
This is the dark reality of how private mercenary forces have been operating with near impunity for years now in Ukraine. Again, the big news here isn’t that Semenchenko launched a terror attack against a news outlet. The big news is that he was charged with the attack at all, almost two years after the attack. Better late than never, apparently:
So what kind of jail time was Semenchenko ultimately facing? Well, he was released under house arrest in June of 2022 after the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov asked for his release on personal duty, arguing that “his organizational skills will benefit the country and defense”. Yep. So get ready for more stories about Semen Semenchenko’s fascist antics. And, maybe, just maybe, the very belated legal repercussions from those fascist antics that somehow dissolve away. We’ve seen this movie before. It’s the only movie in the theater.
How long before we see NATO troops operating on the Ukrainian front lines? That was just one of the many grim questions raised in a fascination Washington Post piece on Monday about the hollowing out of Ukraine’s armed forces of almost all experienced soldiers thanks to the horrific casualty rates Ukraine has been suffering over the last year. In other words, forget a lack of ammunition and weapons. Ukraine lacks troops. At least troops that won’t flee after being sent to the front lines with almost no training. It’s like the flip side of a report we got back in May about troops feeling abandoned and unprepared.
And as the Ukrainian sources in the article warns the US audiences, if Ukraine doesn’t get capable troops soon, the much anticipated Spring counteroffensive may not be feasible. Very soon. US officials are expecting that counteroffensive to start as soon as late April/early May.
What exactly are the Ukrainians asking for? Well, one Ukrainian who spoke non-anonymously to reporters was a battalion commander in the 46th Air Assault Brigade, who was identified only by his call sign, Kupol. According to this lieutenant colonel, “We need NATO instructors in all our training centers, and our instructors need to be sent over there into the trenches. Because they failed in their task.” Yes, Kupol is calling for replacing Ukraine’s instructors with NATO instructors and sending the Ukrainian instructors to the trenches. That’s not quite a call for NATO troops operating alongside Ukraine on the front lines, but it is a call for sending a large number of NATO troops to Ukraine.
Is that a possibility? Well, here’s where the implications of this piece become rather dire: it really does appear that Ukraine has lost almost all of the troops the US and other allies have been training over the past 9 years. So at the same time the West has been making all of these pledges to ramp up the levels of hardware and ammunition to Ukraine, it doesn’t appear that Ukraine has the manpower remaining to use that hardware and ammunition even if it arrives. And when we have calls for dramatically increasing the levels of NATO training so Ukraine can even be capable of operating the Western-provided military hardware in anticipation of a counteroffensive that is expected to be launched in a couple of months or less, that’s a recipe for fueling the unofficial arming of Ukraine with ‘ex-NATO’ ‘volunteers’. That’s a big part of the context of this article: it feels like a prelude to a call for a literal army of ‘ex-NATO volunteers’:
“Kupol said he was speaking out in hopes of securing better training for Ukrainian forces from Washington and that he hopes Ukrainian troops being held back for a coming counteroffensive will have more success than the inexperienced soldiers now manning the front under his command.”
Ukrainian Lieutenant Colonel Kupol is speaking out in the hopes of securing better training for Ukrainian troops from DC. That’s the stated rationale behind this report that is directly contradicting the ‘Ukraine has Russia on the ropes!’ narrative that has been dominant in the Western press for months now. And a rather plausible rationale, given the horrific casualties Ukraine has been facing. Numbers that are an official horrific secret. But secret or not, what Ukraine can’t keep secret is the fact that those casualties have hollowed out the number of experienced soldiers to such an extent over the last year that Ukraine may not have the manpower needed for a much-hyped Spring counteroffensive. Forget ammunition and hardware shortages. Ukraine needs people. But not just anyone with a pulse. Ukraine needs trained soldiers. Soon:
And note how a number of other anonymous Ukrainian officials are chiming in to concur on that bleak assessment. We’re seeing a quiet public relations operation at work here, delivering a message that is in stark contrast to the ongoing official optimism:
And as Kupol warns, Ukraine needs NATO instructors at ALL of its training centers. The Ukrainian instructors can be sent to the trenches:
Finally, note the timing at working here: U.S. officials said they expect Ukraine’s offensive to start in late April or early May. That’s about enough time for a miracle, but not much else:
Yes, the start of Ukraine’s counteroffensive is less than 2 months away in the minds of US officials. A counteroffensive that’s seen as crucial for avoiding an even more protracted and drawn out war of attrition. How far will the US and other NATO allies go to ensure that offensive becomes a reality? We’ll find out. Possibly in the form of reports about a flood of ‘ex-NATO volunteers’ flooding into Ukraine. Or rather, a larger flood. There’s already plenty of flooding.