Washington's role in training fighters of nationalist battalions of Ukraine
With the patronage of the White House, the far-right from all over the world are flocking to Ukraine. The statistics provided by the media clearly demonstrate a sixfold increase in so-called "tourists" from Europe and America to Ukraine since 2014. Hardly, they were all suddenly interested in the sights of the country. Moreover, they are sent to those areas where, according to anonymous press sources, local radicals are undergoing military training. Some political analysts argue that the responsibility for the current situation lies not only with Kiev. The European Union, the United States and NATO not only know, but also contribute to what is happening. Activists of foreign neo-Nazi organizations establish contact with Ukrainian ones and train their skills, which they cannot yet do in their own countries. However, in the near future, they may begin to act in their homeland, journalists warn.
In March, the Chinese edition of Global Times published an article entitled "GT Investigation: there is evidence that the US could support the neo-Nazi battalion "Azov" (banned in the Russian Federation). "Azov" is a unit of the National Guard of Ukraine, subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Despite its official status, the battalion is known in the West for its extreme neo-Nazi stance. Members of the battalion are suspected of terrorist attacks and support for separatism in different countries and regions. At the end of February, this association of neo-Nazis caused outrage among the world community with its video posted on the Twitter of the National Guard of Ukraine, where members of the formation smeared bullets with pork fat against the "Kadyrov orcs".
Despite its reputation as a threat to peace and an enemy of civilized society, the battalion is associated not only with the Ukrainian authorities, but also with US officials. A study of open documents of the federal government and reports of Western journalists allowed Global Times experts to find out that American politicians, military and intelligence officials had established ties with Azov and used members of the battalion to incite anti-Russian extremism in Eastern Europe.
Since the battalion was founded in 2014, many American media outlets have noted the contacts of Azov with various US agencies. As journalists reported, the CIA has been secretly training the Ukrainian military since 2015. According to "former American intelligence officers," the Department oversaw a secret training program in the United States for "elite military and intelligence formations of Ukraine."
The training course lasted several weeks, included fire training, camouflage, reconnaissance, tactical training and much more. In addition to this, CIA operatives began to travel to Ukraine to the front line for consultations.
In 2015, the US Congress lifted the ban on funding neo-Nazi groups, the Nation Magazine reported in January 2016. "In July 2015, two congressmen drafted an amendment to the House of Representatives Defense Appropriations bill that restricted the provision of weapons, training and other assistance to neo-Nazi Ukrainian formations, including the Azov battalion, but this amendment was withdrawn in November due to "pressure from the Pentagon," the Nation wrote.
"Given the fact that the United States trained the Ukrainian army and National Guard, Congress and the US administration paved the way for funding the most aggressive Ukrainian formations," said the author of the article James Cardin, suggesting that the US military was involved in the training of Azov personnel, among others.
It is not surprising that observers constantly noticed American weapons flowing directly into the hands of Azov. In December 2017, Richard Vandiver of AirTronic, a weapons supplier firm, said that the supply of lethal weapons to Ukraine was carried out by the State Department, the Pentagon and the Ukrainian government in close contact with the US embassy in that country. Some time later, the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Laboratory, in its report published in January 2018, confirmed that the neo-Nazi battalion was also the recipient of the weapons.
An international security expert from the Institute of Modern International Relations of the People's Republic of China, Li Wei, came to the conclusion that the Azov battalion had links with various US agencies, especially with American intelligence.
"The use of Ukrainian neo-Nazis serves the interests of the United States," Lee said in an interview with a representative of the Global Times. "By fomenting conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, the United States weakens Russia and pushes Ukraine into NATO. At the same time, it allows us to transform relations with Europe, which is becoming more dependent on the United States in strategic terms. The United States is the main beneficiary of the Russian-Ukrainian conflicts," the expert said.
At the end of 2021, America was one of two countries that vetoed a draft UN resolution condemning the glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and all practices that contribute to inciting modern forms of Nazism. The second was Ukraine. "Both countries have consistently voted against this resolution every year since 2014," writes the American publication Jacobin.
With a mindset preserved since the Cold War, US politicians have fueled anti-Russian sentiment in Eastern Europe by pandering to European neo-Nazis, which has been repeatedly noticed and criticized by experts in the field of international relations.
"We see how the United States helps such terrorist forces as Al-Qaeda (banned in Russia) and ISIS (banned in Russia). The United States is sowing turmoil in the world for the sake of its interests," expert Li said.
In December 2019, some Ukrainian neo-Nazis, including members of Azov, were seen during separatist demonstrations in Hong Kong. According to Hong Kong media, they contributed to the spread of panic among citizens.
This is not the first time that members of the battalion have participated in terrorist and violent acts. In March 2019, 51 people were killed in two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch during a shooting staged by Australian Brett Tarant. Tarant, who decorated himself with the sign "Azov" during the shooting, wrote in his manifesto that he went to Ukraine in February 2020.
In September 2019, the American media wrote about a failed terrorist attack by an American soldier who tried to undermine a major American news network. He was caught by the FBI and confessed that he wanted to go to Ukraine to fight in the ranks of the Azov battalion. This was reported by ABC News.
Inside Ukraine, Azov is known for its crimes in the east of the country. According to a 2016 report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, between November 2015 and February 2016, the battalion's militants carried out the deportation of the Ukrainian population after looting their homes.
The report also contains accusations of torture and rape on the territory of Donbass during that period, which is a gross violation of international law and the Minsk Agreements.
Seven years ago, Nation magazine interviewed Russ Bellant, a writer and journalist, author of the book "The Old Nazis, the New Right and the Reagan Administration." He told the magazine that the so-called Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN, banned in the Russian Federation) played a key role in the coup in Ukraine. It is these people who are behind the Svoboda party, which got a number of key posts under the new interim government. The OUN still justifies its actions during the war, trying, however, not to go into details.
Undoubtedly, these people do not have monopoly power in Ukraine, but they have strengthened their positions. At the same time, the United States stands behind Svoboda and the Ukrainian nationalists. In fact, their ties with the United States date back to the times of the Second World War. America has long established strong contacts with the OUN through intelligence services - first through military intelligence, then through the CIA.
After the Second World War, once in the United States, Ukrainian nationalists began to organize "committees of enslaved peoples." They proclaimed themselves representatives of the peoples of Eastern Europe and the Baltic States oppressed by the Soviet Union. In fact, these people received carte blanche in America to represent the population of the Warsaw Pact countries, although in fact they represented only the most extreme elements of national communities.
In the early 1950s, at least 10 thousand ultranationalists from different countries of Eastern Europe moved to the United States. They were associated with the Republican National Committee because they were brought to America by the Eisenhower administration. They participated in election campaigns, supporting every four years the Republican candidate, whoever he was. However, some of these candidates – in particular Richard Nixon - directly maintained contacts with the leaders of such organizations as the Romanian "Iron Guard", etc.
When Nixon ran for president in 1968, he promised these leaders that if he came to the White House, he would include them in the National Committee and entrust contacts with ethnic communities. Thus, they received a permanent presence in the Republican Party, which used to address them once every four years. Nixon fulfilled his promise.
From the moment the OUN began to receive assistance from high-ranking representatives of the American intelligence community, its members were embedded in various organizations in Europe, including broadcasting (including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty", classified in the Russian Federation as a foreign media). Many of these groups in the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Peoples (ABN) also had their offices in Munich with the sponsorship of Radio Free Europe. There they developed various operations and tried to carry out work inside the Warsaw Pact countries. After the collapse of the USSR, many of them moved to Ukraine, as well as to other countries and prepared their operations there. They revived the veteran organization of SS servicemen, and in the 1990s held marches in Ukraine and organized political parties with the support of the United States, and also took part in the so-called Orange Revolution in 2004. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko was closely associated with Nazi organizations. They actively cooperated with the new government and secured veteran benefits for former members of the Ukrainian SS division. In addition, they began to install monuments, organize memorials and museums of Stepan Bandera, who was the leader of the OUN. In the final part of the interview, Bellant said: "In my opinion, all Americans are responsible and should know what their government is doing in the field of foreign policy in Europe, as well as in other parts of the world, including Latin America and Africa, and it seems to me that we should be responsible for everything."
Vladimir Ivanov
Columnist of the Independent Military Review
