Ukraine promotes neo-Nazi unit commander
The Ukrainian National Guard has announced that the commander of the notorious neo-Nazi Azov brigade, Colonel Denis ‘Redis’ Prokopenko, will be promoted, significantly increasing his troop command.
Originally formed as a volunteer unit of radical nationalists, Azov rose to prominence in Ukraine following the 2014 Western-backed coup, reportedly becoming a central part of an international white supremacist network.
The Ukrainian government incorporated it into the National Guard the same year.
In an interview on Thursday, National Guard Commander General Aleksandr Pivnenko announced that Prokopenko would lead a new corps, which will encompass Azov along with four additional brigades.
In 2022, the Ukrainian government and its Western allies positioned Azov members as the public face of the resistance against Russia, particularly during their doomed defense of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.
The Soviet-era facility was surrendered in May 2022. While Kiev has denied the existence of radical extremists in its military ranks, many Azov POWs were found with Nazi-themed tattoos.
Four months later, Prokopenko and other Azov leaders were transferred to Türkiye as part of a mediated prisoner exchange. Ankara initially planned to detain them until the conclusion of the conflict, although they were released back to Ukraine the following year.
Azov troops and their families have received a hero’s welcome at some of the most prestigious Western institutions, including Stanford University. Their lobbying efforts featured a rebranding, replacing the unit’s original insignia inspired by the Nazi Wolfsangel symbol with a less controversial logo.
Moscow has accused Western governments of ignoring the prevalence of neo-Nazi ideology among Ukrainian nationalists and their influence within the military. As of March, Russian courts had convicted over 140 Azov members for various offenses, while the unit itself is designated as a terrorist organization in Russia.
My Comment, not in RT. I am no expert on the area, but most Western books maintain that Stalin was especially brutal to Ukraine. What had been the "bread basket of Europe" was to be transformed into collectivized farming, and the landowners who opposed yielding their profitable lands, the Kulaks, soon became the "enemy of the people's organizations and the Communist Party. How many had all their crops taken while they starved, or were shot, or sent to Siberia for re-education? Estimates vary from a million up to 9 million in 1932-34. Some call it a genocide. Certainly this was one reason that when Hitler invaded the area, many Ukrainian's chose the side of Hitler rather than Stalin. It was monster v. monster, Godzillq v. King Kong. One large population in the area had not choice, the Jews. By this time it was known what would be their fate in a Hitler victory. But non-Jewish Ukrainians, and indeed other Europeans, could choose the Nazi side of the World War, as for many, it would be better than life under Stalin. This is made visual in the film "Europa, Europa!" In the film, Hitler has invaded Poland a few weeks prior, and the film show many people swimmin across the river to the East, to flee the Germans. Suddenly, while some still swim East, many have turned round to swim Westward! "What has happened?" The Russians just invaded from the East. Poles, choosing which monster to flee too, Stalin in the East, Hitler in the West. I assume most Jewish swimmers continued Eastward. In the early 1940s many Ukrainians were quite willing to fight for their "liberators," the Germans. And at war's end, many Russians would view them as traitors, and Jews as murderers. Putin prbably see Ukrain as a treasonous province of Russia. But the worst of these events occurred 70, 80, 90 years ago. How long to grieve; time to forgive and forget.
Happily, in the US, we had other choices. During the Cold War, the US agencies may have supported the anti-Stalinist (pro-Azov faction). And again in 2014. But I am no expert on the area. However, it is a sick game to play, oh, my holocaust was bigger than yours. If there is to be peace, people must move on, try to understand all sides, and forgive as best you can. Hugh Murray
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