Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
Will Cathcart and Joseph Epstein, Daily Beast: Is America Training Neonazis in Ukraine?
Officially no, but no one in the U.S. government seem to know for sure.
There are no doubts about the neo-Nazi and white supremacist background of the Azov Battalion, a militia that has positioned itself at the forefront of the fight against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. As the founder and head of the battalion Andriy Biletsky once put it, “The historic mission of our nation in this critical moment is to lead the White Races of the world in a final crusade for their survival.”
That Russian President Vladimir Putin and his propagandists exploit this fact, using it to build support for their aggression and to undermine the international effort to help Ukraine defend its independence, is undeniable. But knowing that, and wanting to resist that, does not resolve some very important questions about the basic facts.
What is the relationship of the U.S. government to these people? Is it training them? Might it arm them? Is this, like the Afghan war of the 1980s, one of those cases where we aid and abet the kind of monsters who eventually become our enemies? Concerns about that possibility have been growing on Capitol Hill.
WNU Editor: I am surprised by this report .... covering these extremist groups does not fit the Western news media narrative on who are these people in these Ukrainian militia units. I know in the case of the Azov Battalion .... when (and where) they are deployed on the front .... the fighting and ceasefire violations skyrocket. Unfortunately .... U.S. and Western assistance to these militia/military groups will continue while publicly they will be denying that they are doing just that.
Update: These groups are making their presence felt in Kiev today .... Ukraine crisis: Rally in Kiev urges war on eastern rebels (BBC).