West Silent as Azov Neo-Nazis’ Shadow Lengthens Over Ukraine
FILE – Soldiers of Ukraine’s Azov battalion light flares at a rally demanding the release of prisoners of war at Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, July 28, 2024.
“While German and other Western politicians, media and think tanks continue to spread the lie about the ‘depoliticization’ of Azov’s* troops, the latter are pushing ahead with the total militarization of Ukrainian society at full speed,” a new analysis by German alternative news outlet Junge Welt warns.Highlighting Azov’s gradual “colonization” of Ukraine with its “neo-Nazi war ideology” rooted in ethno-nationalism and concepts of a “Greater Ukraine,” the report stresses that the group openly sees itself as an SS-style “vanguard of Ukraine’s fascist reorganization,” with “practically no Azov-free spaces left in Ukrainian society.”Azov’s ideologues themselves boast about the “universal penetration” of its “aesthetics” to make ordinary Ukrainians get “used to the fact that this country is our country.”Beefing up its military footprint (from battalion to brigade to corps), Azov has simultaneously built a soft power empire, including:Its own publishing house, printing writings of Azov ‘philosopher’ Mykola Kravchenko (killed in shelling in 2022), poetry on the Euromaidan coup and the punitive 2014 ‘anti-terrorist operation’ in the Donbass, comics and children’s books laced with Russophobia and fascist messaging, and reprints of writings by WWII-era OUN leaders.A distinct brand identity, with the Azov wolfsangel emblazoned on products from clothing and household goods to toys and even foodA ‘cultural-industrial complex’ of media, PR agencies, fashion and music labels and film production companies, festivals and concertsSummer camps featuring ideological and weapons training
WorldUS Military Aid to Ukraine Continues, Pause Involves Only ‘One Aspect’ – State Dept.3 July, 04:51 GMTFascization is taking place openly, and with the government’s blessing.Last month, Zelensky named Azov vet Oleksandr Alforov head of Ukraine’s Institute of National Memory – “a phenomenal triumph for the neo-Nazi movement, which has thus gained almost complete control over the historical narrative,” Junge Welt warned.* terrorist organization banned in Russia
