By The LookOut for the Saker blog
If you don’t want or can’t see what’s going on, you won’t even see it. But once seen, you can’t readily unsee it.
This article covers recurring themes related to post-2014 Ukraine, ordinary examples of deep hatred for people of Donbass, the cult of Bandera, OUN & UPA and elements of Ukrainian fascism hard wired into Ukrainian society as well as the general acceptance by the West of Ukrainian fascist inspired nationalist symbols & expressions.
Forced Ukrainisation or “Self Voluntary Ethnic Cleansing”
At a time when the world is stepping closer to the edge each day, let’s take stock of what statements have been made by pro-Kiev Ukrainians regarding Donbass, more importantly regarding the people living there.
Since 2014, the people of Donbass have been considered as separatists and terrorists, subjected to shelling, attacks in an Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO). The catalogue of killings and war crimes have been recorded and reported by international organisations and NGOs at the time. Now is it radio silence once more, apart that one brief instance where Amnesty International tried when it reported that Ukrainian forces used schools and civilian infrastructure.
Here’s Zelensky’s take on people in Donbass back in 2021. (https://twitter.com/theLemniscat/status/1545766635683848195) This is effectively a quite telling statement, essentially saying that the land is more important than the people on it, solely due to linguistic, cultural differences. Simply, there isn’t any ‘give’ or inclination to even try to accommodate a proportion of the country as a minority, which is also bad news for other ethnic minorities in Ukraine. What next? If you live in Ukraine, if you feel Hungarian, find your place in Hungary? Just this statement runs counter to European state composition, yet practically of the European State are in awe of Zelensky’s Ukraine.
Zelenksy: “If you live on the territory of Ukraine but feel this is Russia. For the sake of your children and grandchildren, you’d better go and find your place in Russia … This territory will be de-occupied“.
Again, let’s listen to Zelensky at a lengthy press conference, December 2019: video clip [1]
Deoccupied, how? Militarily as has been the only means since 2014, by using the very same units, many of which gained notoriety for atrocities, including Azov, with its deeply embedded roots of white supremacist ideology. Those that don’t accept their view on Ukraine are generally considered as human impediments, yet this is not limited to Azov or even the likes of Right Sector.
This is a recurring theme and has been since 2014, another high-level official, Oleksiy Danilov, (Ukraine’s Secretary of the National Security & Defense) saying that people in Donbass need to be Ukrainian, if they want to be Russian they need to leave their homes and move to Russia.
There are more of these statements and calls for forced depopulation, (genocide) by Ukrainians. Take this example from 2014, from a journalist calmly explaining that 1.5M people in Donbas are “superfluous”, need to be “exterminated”, fast forward to 2022, raze it [Donetsk] to the ground. The head of Odessa Volkssturm spoke about Odessa in a similar manner. Here is a Ukrainian foot soldier, a volunteer and his view on Donbass.
“I hope that the discussion about good Russians and bad Russians will be completed with a short conclusion: a good Russian or just a Muscovite, (Moskal) is a dead Muscovite.” […] “But bad Russians are like that from birth, and you shouldn’t talk about them at all.” Interview with Ex-Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine (2016-2019), Volodymyr Omelyan on Ukrainian Lviv NTA TV channel earlier in 2022. There are so many instances of vile hatred at all levels, here are a couple others:
- Government funded bodies saying Russians are impure half castes on Twitter;
- Ukrainian ambassador to Germany praising Azov and other neo-Nazis;
Social media is peppered with these kinds of statements, taken directly from Ukrainian media or social media channels. So, it isn’t Russian propaganda at all, although Western airheads try to convince the public otherwise.
Effectively the goalposts for being Ukrainian have shifted, “to get out” if you can’t accept the new ideologies and historical revisionism put into place after Maidan. How well would this kind of thinking be accepted if it were applied to French speaking Canadians or French speaking people in Belgium? Or even Hungarian speakers in Slovakia?
Why is this unadulterated hatred?
Maidan was a catalyst and a driving force for many strands of Ukrainian nationalist groups. The main element of Ukrainian nationalist is underpinned by aspirations in creating an ethno-state, rather than a state with different nations & languages. In fact, the whole essence of Ukrainian nationalism is underpinned by:
- hatred of ‘Muscovites’;
- portraying Russia as a hostile state against the Ukrainian people;
- glorification of the Ukrainian military and volunteer units, in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) in Donbass;
- glorification of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (UPA and OUN) that carried out widespread acts of horrific ethnic cleansing of Jews and Poles during WWII, (that fought the Soviets, sometimes collaborating with the Germans).
- allowing the praise and positive image of Ukrainian manned SS units and WWII death squads as national heroes.
How can this even be remotely ‘healthy’ or an acceptable part of a democratic society?
Ukrainians from Donbass & Russians as sub-humans or non-humans
Instructor: “We never aim at people, never. But we don’t consider separatists and occupiers coming from Moscow as people. That’s why you can and should shoot at them.” [Lovely example of freedom fighters, so dearly loved by Western numbskulls experts, MSM and politicians, akin to moderate head choppers in Syria] The instructor, Ihor Halushka was given an award at the U.S. DoD sponsored Warrior Games, by comedian Jon Stewart. Of course, Ihor conveniently covered up an ‘awkward’ symbol on his arm, a Sonnenrad Black Sun. Jon Stewart said: “Sgt. First Class Ihor Halushka embodies the spirit and determination that is the heart of Team Ukraine”. There is a photo of the team doing the Ukrainian salute.
Azov weren’t the only ones running ultra nationalist youth camps, Right Sector, Svoboda and C-14 to name others, often funded by at the taxpayer’s expense. Replicate this for eight years to get a sense of the level of hate & indoctrination.
Inhabitants of Donbass are conveniently clumped together as “coming from Moscow”, a psychological trick to make people with centuries old deep roots in Donbass, seen as outsiders and invaders, when the reality is that they, the ultra-nationalists, are the outsiders and oppressors with their hate-filled imported fascist ideals of Ukrainian identity.
Pay attention to the little details on this infographic on Azov especially to numerous links to far-right supremacist organisations.
Azov along with Right Sector spearhead the prevailing nationalist attitudes seen in Ukraine and particularly how they have installed and indoctrinated the youth into the accepted ideology for 8 years now.
The masks have been off for a while, ever since the horrendous killings in Odessa in Mariupol and Donetsk in the spring of 2014.
What Zelensky stated in 2021 is another way of repacking a slogan chanted by the Ukrainian nationalists, “suitcase, train, Moscow”.
Just one hateful slogan among others such “Moscovites to the knife“, “Hang the Muscovites” or “Death to the Muscovites”. This is what the West supports and endorses and has done willingly since 2014.
“What is our slogan?
We are Ukraine’s children!
Let Moscow lay in ruins, we don’t give a damn!
We will conquer the whole world!
Death to the Muscovites!”
Another Azov run children’s summer camp song as featured in NBC video 5 years ago: Ukraine’s hyper-nationalist military summer camp for kids.
Talking about hanging, he is one Ukrainian soldier telling it as it is: “My biggest desire is to hang all those ‘friends’ (in Kherson) on oak trees. Maybe shoot some, but yeah, hang 20 or so on oak trees.”
Elements of Ukraine thrive on macabre allusions to death, killing and cannibalism. Ukrainian food industry produces meat products, sausages and stew, called “Death to Muscovites”. In a video, Yulia Tymoshenko advertises these sausages “Death to Muscovites!” along with another called “Banderovskaya”, saying they have “almost the same taste, same design and same result”. This practice of dehumanising Russians and Ukrainians who are Russian speaker has taken long before Russia’s special military operation.
It begs the question: What is meant by being Ukrainian post-2014?
- Anything but being Russian;
- Adhering to the belief that Bandera (OUN-B) along with Roman Shukhevych, Yaroslav Stetsko, Andrei Melnyk (OUN-M) and others, are as stated by Zelensky himself as being a “normal and cool” thing to do.
There are indisputable heroes. Stepan Bandera is a hero for a certain part of Ukrainians, and this is a normal and cool thing. He was one of those who defended the freedom of Ukraine.” Zelensky 2019
- Essentially whitewashing WW2 mass war criminals; leaders of groups that surpassed even the SS in committing sadistic atrocities in Ukraine, against Jews, Polish, Russians & communists. (More on this later).
- Enforcing Ukrainian, which was originally a dialect spoken in the Western regions;
- Asserting that Russia is composed of Asian hordes & Ukraine is a superior race, along with some hysterically cringe-worthy history assertions [2];
- Believing that Azov & other punisher battalions are glorious defenders;
It is horrifying to think that WWII Nazi collaborators, insignia, ideological has not only resurfaced, but has been actively encouraged in the last two decades, which gathered with a furious pace since 2014, widely promoted in Ukrainian society. Once more, Washington, NATO, London and Brussels see no evil and no contradiction, which show their true colours.
It is a historical fact that the WW2 Ukrainian nationalist leaders collaborated, praised, advocated for fascism & Nazism. The ideology espoused in the 1930s & 1940s and natured after 1945 in the Ukrainian diaspora, is consistent with fascism. Several leaders had connections to Italy in the 1930s as well as Nazi Germany.
Certain modern day Ukrainians will scream until blue in the face that they weren’t Nazis or fascists, but archives clearly show otherwise.
…OUN member Stepan Lenkavsky which called for doing anything including lying, cheating, stealing, murder, anything, and everything to create a Ukrainian nation and anything is justified in pursuit of any effort to bring “strength, fame, wealth and area of the Ukrainian state”. Source: A Dissection of Ukrainian Nationalism: Fascism and Naziism, May 2022 [3]
The roots of Ukrainian fascism embedded into modern-day Ukraine:
Underyling theme seen on social media: anti-Communist and anti-Bolshevik views = rabid nationalist views. To given an example, ” “Ukraine for the Ukrainians” is often heard, as echoed by Zelensky in 2021. What’s the big deal with Ukrainian nationalism? It is steeped in blood letting, pogroms and killings.
- 1919 — Symon Petliura: cycles of killings, atrocities against national & ethnic minorities;
- 1941-1945- Stepan Bandera: cycles of killings, atrocities against national & ethnic minorities, eager participation in the Holocaust;
- 2014- present: cycle of repression, pogroms & killings against national & ethnic minorities.
The OUN, along with its military wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) are considered heroes who fought for Ukrainian national liberation in the 1940’s, totally whitewashing the atrocities, mass murders and close cooperation with the Nazis by fielding paramilitary forces and men for Ukrainian SS units such as SS Galicia.
The most noticeable slogan, duly repeated by politicians world-wide, shouted out by soldiers, commonly seen in profiles & posts of pro-Ukrainian social media accounts:
“Slava Ukraini” & “Heroiam slava”.
Both slogans were officially included into the Ukrainian military in 2018 by Poroshenko, were originally devised in 1941 at the Second Great Congress of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in Krakow as part of a fascist salute with the right arm.
By the way back in March, the ex-President Poroshenko had a personnal unit and drove around Kiev in his “Banderamobiles”. Of course, this was shortly before he had to leave Ukraine, accused of treason by Zelensky’s authorities.
Song: March of the New Army
Oles Babi, an OUN nationalist who ultimately fled to the USA, created in 1929, the “March of Nationalists” anthem, which became the official hymn of the OUN UPA in 1932. In 2017, this song was adapted and became the, “March of the New Army”. [Cheetahs don’t change spots].
Song: Our father is Bandera, our mother is Ukraine
Often sung by all kinds of Ukrainians, from Kiev municipal council, military units on the march, kids at school… the list is long. No-one, no-one even raises an eyebrow to why this type of song is common in Ukraine. The cult of Bandera, “normal and cool”?
The glorification and rehabilitation of Ukrainian fascists and nazi collaborators has never ceased. In fact, modern day Ukraine has thousands of memorials, statues, commemorative plaques. Ukrainian authorities have allowed ceremonies, torch lit parades, all kinds of events honouring Ukrainian fascists & units. Then there are the funerals for OUN UPA members with Ukrainians dressed in SS uniforms. 20th century nationalists have been widely commemorated, leaders who carried out pogroms, nationalists who joined the SS. An article and content to give the reader an insight: Nazi collaborator monuments in Ukraine and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Present day Ukrainian hero, Stetsko, led Ukraine’s 1941 Nazi-collaborationist government hand in hand with the Nazis. In 1941, he declared that “I, therefore, support destruction of the Jews and the expedience of bringing German methods of exterminating Jewry to Ukraine”. He worked hand in hand with Bandera, “We will organise a Ukrainian militia that will help us to remove the Jews.” Post-war he fled to the U.S. when he was active in anti-communism diaspora organisations. Since he moved in the highest circle of Washington, he was praised as a leader of freedom fighters by both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Bandera (OUN-B): Described as “Hitler’s professional agent” in the CIA archives. OUN-B leader, key figurehead in 1941 “Ukrainian Sate” created by Nazi Germany. 1944- 1945: head of Ukrainian insurgents against Soviet advance. Fled to West Germany.
Roman Shukhevych: UPA commander & leader in Nazi Germany’s Nachtigall auxiliary battalion, as depicted in a Ukrainian postage stamp 2008, (notice the black & red flag of the UPA). Dozens of street have been renamed after him and there are also monuments in Canada to Shukhevych.
Rank and file Ukrainian nationalists have also been commemorated across Ukraine, notably those who were part of German-controlled local auxiliary police units, whose zeal in committing atrocities & pogroms sometimes surpassed the efforts of the Nazi Germans. They are now seen as Ukrainian heroes, as a role model for Ukrainian youth. But hey! Let’s delude ourselves by asserting that “there are no Nazis in Ukraine, it’s a Kremlin talking point”.
1941: In just five weeks of the existence of the “state” of Bandera, 5 thousand Ukrainians, 15 thousand Jews and several thousand Poles were murdered,” report in the CIA archives.
In 1950, US policy was “to use the Ukrainians as a proxy force to bleed the Soviet Union”. Now Ukrainians are the proxy forces to bleed Russia dry. It is the latest textbook Washington driven conflict and ensure US supremacy over the EU and safeguard the military industrial complex earning for years to come. The West ensured the demise of the USSR by training, providing weapons and money in Afghanistan in the 80s. Same tactics being applied.
“They [Ukraine] are defeating Russia…the price Ukrainian people are paying for this war is extremely high, but we’re going to stay with them as long as they need our help… President Biden, Sept 2022.
Recap in ‘democratic’ Ukraine 2014-2022:
- 11 opposition political parties banned;
- Widespread persecution of those who are not pro-Zelensky;
- Banned the use of Russian language in schools, in media;
- Widespread extrajudicial arrests and killings, (not only in the ATO);
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Footnotes
[1] I don’t know if he said it sardonically or not, but the views expressed are nevertheless truly echoed elsewhere in Ukrainian society.
[2] The Ukrainian school Geography textbook for the 8th grade tells that Jews, French and Portuguese are descendants of Ukrainians. Link
[3] Reference “Stepan Bandera: The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist: Fascism, Genocide, & Cult” by Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe
[4] The same Kiev council authorities who renamed two major thoroughfares in 2016, as part of the decommunisation process, one is Bandera Avenue and the other one, (you guessed it) was renamed in honor of Shukhevych. Previously, it had been named after a Soviet general, Vatutin, who was killed during WWII by the UPA.
NOTES: Reuters: Commentary on Ukraine’s neo-Nazi problem
Commentary: Ukraine’s neo-Nazi problem
As Ukraine’s struggle against Russia and its proxies continues, Kiev must also contend with a growing problem behind the front lines: far-right vigilantes who are willing to use intimidation and even violence to advance their agendas, and who often do so with the tacit approval of law enforcement…
WWW.REUTERS.COM
More on Ukrainian nationalists in Ukrainian power structures: https://natsouth.livejournal.com/24834.html
This is extremely frightening, especially when the USA-led “collective West” with the EU unelected Ursula and her stooges encourage and support every action of this “independent, sovereign nation”. No matter what happens, Russia is next door to this “nation” and large numbers of Ukrainians live in Russia and vice versa, an there has long been a great deal of inter-marriage. How can advanced human societies !!! have a completely warped idea of human beings who have slight differences, assuming they are not really human? Orcs?? Surely thinking of any future means getting on with your neighbours.
The USA of course, regards all relationships as those of enemies or vassals.We see at the UNGA where this leads. If the world does not change away from the unipolar, US “rules based” order, there is no chance for progress or even survival.
“We never aim at people, never. But we don’t consider separatists and occupiers coming from Moscow as people. That’s why you can and should shoot at them.”
Reading the above reminds me how permanently pertinent remains the following from Chris Hedges («Zero Point Of Systemic Collapse»):
«The indifference to the plight of others and the supreme elevation of the self is what the corporate state seeks to instill in us. It uses fear, as well as hedonism, to thwart human compassion. We will have to continue to battle the mechanisms of the dominant culture, if for no other reason than to preserve through small, even tiny acts, our common humanity. We will have to resist the temptation to fold in on ourselves and to ignore the cruelty outside our door. Hope endures in these often imperceptible acts of defiance. This defiance, this capacity to say no, is what the psychopathic forces in control of our power systems seek to eradicate. As long as we are willing to defy these forces we have a chance, if not for ourselves, then at least for those who follow. As long as we defy these forces we remain alive. And for now this is the only victory possible.»
https://countercurrents.org/hedges190310.htm
Good morning to my Russian Orthodox Christian brothers and sisters. You Are Not Alone.
Just replace “Russian” with “Palestinian” and “Arab terrorist” in the following paragraph to reveal a realty that is otherwise concealed and covered up by Western propaganda lies. ( as the fascist Zionist occupiers of Palestine say, a good Palestinian is a dead Palestinian)
“I hope that the discussion about good Russians and bad Russians will be completed with a short conclusion: a good Russian or just a Muscovite, (Moskal) is a dead Muscovite.” […] “But bad Russians are like that from birth, and you shouldn’t talk about them at all.”
The same fascist elements reared there ugly head in Croatia during the civil war in Yugoslavia. Croatia now has an alarming rate of growing fascism and only former Communist leaders are keeping some sanity. The same Croatia which was the right hand of Hitler during WWII.
This history almost reflects the history of militant Hindu Nationalists of pre independence(1947) India( which consisted of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) and post independence India
With Muslims in place of if Russians.
The exact same tropes being repeated here in India especially since militant Hindu organisations ( more than 2 dozen of them in various fields from social, educational to political ) have captured power since 2014 in India.
Modi represents it’s most successful political wing.
But it’s no wonder the same tropes , language and ideology is being used to de humanise Muslims in India the mother organisation was founded on Nazi lines and the initial founders spoke , wrote and discussed extensively about their admiration of nazi ideology and clearly delineated how they will apply it to Muslims and Christians in indian
While modis support of Russia is one of the few good things he has done since the took hold of the prime minister since 2014 don’t hope too much from him he can turn on a dime.
India isn’t expected to buy any oil at all from Russia this month. The reason being is with rise of freight rates Russian oil works out to be $5 more than Middle East oil. Right in time for US price cap pressure.
The Canadian so-called authorities have evacuated 3 planes of Ukrainian “refugees” from the Ukraine at the beginning of the SMO and a few of them are presently housed in apartments where I live. A few nights ago I was walking my dogs when I heard Russian-speaking children (about 10-11 years old) playing at the stake-board rink and they were praising Bandera saying that he was cool (крутой) and they mentioned something about Moskals also. What do children of that age understand of history or politics? Nothing! Obviously they were “trained” (or better still, brainwashed) to think this way. If they continue to be taught in this vein, God knows where it will lead them. I felt really sorry for them for saying such words. These children are by no means the only ones holding such views and that is truly frightening.
If I may…
I feel humanly compelled to point out that, as a citizen, I am not at all convinced it is wise to blindly welcome actual or potential Russophobes into this country by the plane loads…
We seem to much too easily forget, these days, that there was a time when Canada enjoyed, on the international scene, a much more commendable reputation than that of a nation of despicable, dehumanized fanatics. That may have been why Canadians were then so warmly welcomed in most parts of the world, and why Premier Lester B. Pearson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
No wonder we have so often heard from prominent world figures, these last few decades, that they «no longer recognized Canada as they had known it all their lives»…
Sad! Yet by no means surprising.
YES… thank you. As you point out, obviously this Ukrainian Nationalist extremism and Nazism spearheaded against Russians and Russia has been actively nurtured and funded by the USA as part of their long proxy war against both the USSR and the Russian Federation. There are some other great articles out there about this. Like Cynthia Chang’s piece on operation Gladio.
Interestingly, I recently stumbled across the history of Nestor Makno, the Black army and Maknovtchina . Incredible story. The Black army led by the peasant Makno with less than two years of formal education basically established an area similar in size to Novorossia for anarcho communism . Makno was from a city in Zaporozhye. We’re talking about a struggle taking place from 1905 and through WW1 and the October revolution.
While I won’t go too far into the convuluted story. This area, Maknovtchina, encompassed the now liberated territories in Ukraine. The reason why I mention this, is that Maknovtchina, was also strongly anti Ukrainian Nationalist in this period. Warred with them fiercely and pushed them back. The Donbass, Kherson, Zaporozhye, Kharkov fought the Nationalists.
The Ukranian Nationalists even before Petilura were known for their barbarism and pogroms against the Jewish population. As much as they, the Ukranian Nationalists, may have been nurtured, or found purchase in foreign powers with ill intent, for the people of Donbass and co. – the white armies, later the Nazis, then the US There is something truly home grown about their level of hate, genocide and butchery evident in this vein of Ukraine originating in the West of the country. But equally it seems the resistance against them has traditionally come from the people in Eastern and South Ukraine.
(Side note though the Black army fought with the Red Army to throw off the white army and Ukranian Nationalists. In the end the Makno social experiment and its free press were crushed by the Bolsheviks, they even persecuted his family after his death. It’s a great tragedy. Not for the first time I have wished that Lenin had been more tolerant of different regionally based social experiments. Luckily contemporary Russia bears no resemblance to Bolshevism)