Zelensky praises Neo-Nazi soldier on social media
Nazi symbols are commonplace in photographs of Ukrainian troops endorsed by the president
A photo of a Ukrainian soldier wearing a Nazi patch, posted to the Instagram account of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on August 24, 2022 © Instagram / @zelenskiy_official
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky posted a picture of a soldier wearing the insignia of a notorious Nazi SS division to his official Instagram account on Wednesday. The post, part of a series celebrating Ukraine’s Independence Day, was not the first piece of Nazi iconography shared by Zelensky.
Zelensky posted the image on Instagram early on Wednesday. In it, a Ukrainian soldier carrying a rifle displays the standard of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, also known as the 1st Galician division.
Comprising predominantly Ukrainian volunteers from the Galicia region (which spans what is now southwestern Poland and western Ukraine), the division is known for committing war crimes against Polish civilians during the course of World War II.
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The Ukrainian soldier, identified by Zelensky as ‘Mikhail’, also wears the patch of the 49th Rifle Battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which is named after the nationalist ‘Carpathian Sich’ militia of the 1930s. Most of the Carpathian Sich’s members were also members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, led by Nazi collaborator and war criminal Stepan Bandera.
Bandera is considered a hero by Ukrainian nationalists, and openly celebrated by top Ukrainian officials.
Zelensky’s post also includes a picture of Sergey Volynsky, also known as Volyna, who commanded a marine unit attached to the Azov regiment in Mariupol earlier this summer. The Azov regiment, a neo-Nazi militia folded into the Ukrainian military in 2014, was destroyed after a proctracted siege at the Azovstal steel plant in the coastal city and its members either killed or captured. Volynsky is currently in custody.
Zelensky has posted images of his soldiers wearing Third Reich insignia before. In a post across multiple social media platforms celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, the Ukrainian president included a picture of one of his troops wearing the ‘death’s head’, or ‘totenkopf’, insignia of the 3rd SS Panzer Division. This division was heavily staffed by former concentration camp guards and was responsible for numerous massacres of French civilians and Polish Jews.
Ukraine is the only country in the world that has integrated openly neo-Nazi militias into its national military, and while these militias were once described by Western media outlets as “neo-Nazi,” they are now referred to as “far-right groups.” Since Russian troops entered Ukraine in February, stashes of Nazi paraphernalia have been found in the houses and bases of these militia members, and social media accounts run by the Ukrainian government have also posted images of soldiers wearing Nazi and far-right symbols.
A while ago,
Ukraine’s Zelensky shares image of soldier with Nazi insignia
As Russia celebrated the defeat of fascism in WWII, President Zelensky of Ukraine shared an image of a soldier wearing an SS patch
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky marked World War II Victory Day by sharing an image of a Ukrainian soldier wearing the ‘death’s head’ patch of an elite Nazi Waffen SS unit. While the picture was soon deleted from his social media, the Ministry of Defense in Kiev also posted the photo.
The offending item was placed on Instagram and Telegram by Zelensky, on Monday. In it, a soldier next to an artillery gun wears the ‘death’s head,’ or “totenkopf” insignia of the 3rd SS Panzer Division, a unit of elite Nazi soldiers infamous for committing numerous war crimes and massacres of French civilians and Polish Jews. Zelensky himself is of Jewish heritage.
🇺🇦 Nothing unusual, just the President of #Ukraine #Zelensky publishes a selection of photographs on #VictoryDay over fascism, the first of which shows a #Ukrainian #Nazi with the chevron of the 3rd SS Panzer Division pic.twitter.com/PmMmV39PpH
— peter pobjecky – #FreeAssange (@peterpobjecky) May 9, 2022
Advocacy groups consider the death’s head logo a “hate symbol” used by “Neo-Nazis and other white supremacists.”
While the photo was soon removed, it was also posted to Twitter by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, under a quote by Zelensky acknowledging May 9 as the “Day of Victory over Nazism.”… More
As a result,
Russia places bounty on neo-Nazis
Moscow will offer a reward for any information leading to the capture of two commanders of Ukraine’s notorious Azov regiment who are accused of brutally torturing and murdering Russian POWs, the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced on its website on Wednesday.
The bounties have been placed on 28-year-old Konstantin Nemichev and 26-year-old Sergey Velichko, who have served as commanders in the Azov regiment. The unit was declared a terrorist organization by Russia’s Supreme Court in June. Both of the fighters have been put on the international wanted list, as well as Russia’s ‘ten especially dangerous wanted criminals’ list.
“The leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation has decided to offer a reward for assistance in detaining the commanders of the Ukrainian nationalist battalion Konstantin Nemichev and Sergey Velichko, accused of committing a crime under Article 317 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation,” the ministry’s press service wrote, adding that one million rubles (~$16,600) will be paid out for information on each individual.
The ministry previously called for the arrest of the two Azov commanders back in May after Russia’s Investigative Committee had identified them as being responsible for “causing multiple bodily harm, including with the use of firearms” to at least eight Russian servicemen, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Both Nemichev and Velichko are currently part of the Kraken regiment operating near the city of Kharkov, which primarily consists of Azov veterans and other neo-Nazi fighters and volunteers.
The regiment describes itself as a special reconnaissance and sabotage unit under the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, operating separately from the Armed Forces. Last week, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that Kraken forces had executed some 100 fellow Ukrainian soldiers who had abandoned their positions amid a Russian breakthrough in the Kharkov region. According to Moscow, the executions were carried out to “suppress panic and intimidate the personnel of the Armed forces of Ukraine.”
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