Hilarious that there are still people accusing the Ukrainians of being neo-Nazis.
Some ukranians are neo-nazis, also some in the military. Just like in Russia.
Not quite like though, right?
The Russia battalions are explicitly ideologically neo-Nazis and are embraced by Russia and Putin. They don’t mind neo-Nazis; in fact they positively like them! (Which makes the “de-Nazification” casus belli even sillier but that’s neither here nor there.)
The Ukrainian neo-Nazis have never been the majority of their battalion, the battalion has never explicitly been neo-Nazi, the state and the battalion itself have repeatedly rejected Nazism, and reports now are fairly conflicting about how many neo-Nazis remain in its ranks.
So pretty different overall.
Neo-nazis are a curse that is all over the world in many countries. In fact, I challenge Russia to invade the US to get rid of ours. Hell, by their logic, they should be invading much the world. Even themselves?
Now, back to relevancy with additional information: The Azov Brigade in Ukraine did have a high concentration of far right-wing and neo-nazis. (They utilize symbols that are associated with the German SS; some are no longer used but you will still see them from time to time) However, they have been a pain in the ass for Russia since the Donbass conflicts started which is nice. As part of a deal with Ukraine, the Azovs ultimately down-sized and began to reject much of the extremest ideology to become a more formalized political group in Ukraine. That didn’t stop Russia from spreading more propaganda though. Russia needed to degrade support for the Azov group because they were quite effective in battle and needed to fight them in any way possible. (More info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Brigade)
Quick note: Russia still spreads fake videos of the Azov Brigade in formation giving Nazi salutes and such. I am not saying that doesn’t happen still, but most of the videos you find “proving” Ukraine is still Nazi are fake. Nazis are still going to Nazi, unfortunately.
Good points! Even if all of Russia’s propaganda is true though, it still doesn’t change the fact that they themselves have and are enthusiastically embracing their own neo-Nazis. So invading another country to de-Nazify it is a pretty ridiculous claim. Especially since they’re using Nazis to do it.
Speaking of Russian Nazis, Dimitri Utkin (the Wagner dude) was supposedly part of that bunch.
Has this picture been validated as authentic yet? (Note the tattoos):
