[Robert DeLong]

The Nation: Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are On the March in Ukraine

he Nation is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper that closed in 1865, after ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Thereafter, the magazine proceeded to a broader topic, The Nation. An important collaborator of the new magazine was its Literary Editor Wendell Phillips Garrison, son of William. He had at his disposal his father's vast network of contacts.

The lie has always been that Nazi's were far-right individuals.

But the truth is the Nazi Party, political party of the mass movement known as National Socialism.

Hardly the hallmark of people who identify to the right political beliefs.

Hundreds of Ukrainian nationalists march in honor of Nazi collaborator

Now Putin stating his reason was for Nazi's may or may not be true, but there are indeed Nazi's and have been since WWII, it's been well documented. I could see some support, but the support is far more than just some support. The Azov battalion were given legitimacy when they were made part of the National Guard.

The Azov Battalion was founded in May 2014 as a volunteer paramilitary militia to fight pro-Russian forces in the war in Donbas. It was formally incorporated into the National Guard on 11 November 2014 and redesignated Special Operations Detachment "Azov" or Azov Regiment. In February 2023, the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that Azov was to be expanded as a brigade of the new Offensive Guard.

But I guess Zelenskyy, who is supposedly Jewish, doesn't really have an issue with Nazi's.

Azov fighters are Ukraine's greatest weapon and may be its greatest threat

[MalPearce]

Your own commentary exposes a failure in critical minds.

As you say, Poroshenko incorporated the neonazi battalions - no more than a thousand guys - into the Eastern Ukrainian forces. On top of that there were Nazi sympathizers in the Rada.

But that didn’t poke the bear at all, did it?
Pushilin kept complaining that Moscow had actively reinforced the takeover of Crimea but wasn’t doing it in the Donbas.

So Putin couldn’t have been THAT bothered about Nazis...

So that’s 2014-3015 covered.

Between 2018 and February 2022, Ukraine de-elected the Rada Nazis, elected a Jewish president who ordered the batallions to respect the armistice, the President rolled back on Poroshenko’e constitutional demotion of the Russian language, and the monthly death toll in the Donbas region dropped by 90% (not a western figure - it’s exactly what the DNR Ombudsman estimate in their annual report from the FSB office in Donetsk said.)

And, finally, the West was looking elsewhere, the USA in particular was far more preoccupied with the Middle East.

All Putin needed to do to see even more of Minsk delivered was pull Wagner out of Ukraine. The Rada was delaying the implementation of the agreed constitutional reforms pending ONE show of good faith from Moscow.

But by 2021 he’d committed to invading Ukraine, Shiogu and Zhirinovsky both admitted it was the plan before Russia sent its final demands to NATO.

Put all of that together, and combine with the observation Putin never made a move while President Trump was in office telling Putin to dial his rhetoric back while sending weapons to Ukraine.

Then add the months of mockery and even threats against France and Germany - two countries who kept batting for Russia in the EU because they didn’t want to lose the oil and gas supply from Russia.

Putin respected shows of strength. He demonstrated utter contempt for the appeasement lobby. Orban is playing the game but he’s got no clout so he’s ignored.

[BroJoeK]

Robert DeLong: "The Nation: Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are On the March in Ukraine"

Your article is from February 2019 and is totally out of date.

1. In May 2019 Ukrainians elected a Jewish president and prime minister.

2. The Neo-Nazi Andriy Biletsky's party did not qualify for seats in parliament, so Biletsky was removed.

3. Your article claims that Biletsky is the commander of the Azov Batallion, but that command ended in 2014.
   Since taking office in 2019 Ukraine's Pres. Zelenskyy has appointed three new commanders of the Azov Batallion, including its current commander Denys Prokopenko, with no known Nazi ties.

4. Your article itself admits there are fewer Neo-Nazis in Ukraine than in, for example, France, but still maintains Ukraine's Neo-Nazis are somehow "special".
   They're not, they're less than special and arguably no more acceptable than in, for example, Russia.

5. Whatever small influence Neo-Nazis may have had before 2019 has undoubtedly been eliminated by Ukraine's current Jewish led government.

This leaves the historical problem that some Ukrainian patriots allied with Nazi Germans during World War II, as reported in your link here:

"Hundreds of Ukrainian nationalists march in honor of Nazi collaborator"

  There are several problems with the argument about Ukrainian Nazi collaborators:

1. First and foremost, so was Old Uncle Joe Stalin a Nazi collaborator -- when it suited Stalin's purposes, he was more than tickled to collaborate with Adolf Hitler in the destruction of Poland and the murder of Poland's nationalists.

2. Wars between Ukraine and Russia go back to the 17th century and the current, by my count, is the 7th, plus at least half a dozen insurgencies of Ukrainians under Russian rule.
   So, Ukrainians have always looked for allies to help them defeat Russian oppression.

3. This list of famous Ukrainians includes Stephen Bandera about whom polls showed very mixed Ukrainian feelings before Vlad the Invader's "Special Military Operations", but since then most Ukrainians have come to appreciate Bandera's Ukrainian nationalism and anti-Soviet patriotism.

4. It's significant, imho, that Bandera was murdered in 1959 by a Soviet KGB agent under orders from a Ukrainian named Nikita Khruschev (USSR's premier 1953-1964).
   Today we still find an Old Soviet KGB LtCol trying to murder as many Ukrainian patriots as he can.

The bottom line is that no country, including Nazi Germany, was ever more brutal against Ukrainians than the Russians and Soviets under Old Uncle Joe Stalin.
That Ukrainians would even today find their heroes among those who fought against Russian oppression, is both unsurprising and understandable.

1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact to invade Poland and start WWII: