By Robert PARRY
Emmanuel Macron stated in a speechWednesday it’s a lie that Russia is battling Nazis in Ukraine. But in 2014, the BBC, the NYT,the Daily TelegraphandCNN— not simply CN— reported on the Nazi threat.
NYT Finds Ukraine’s Neo-Nazis at War
Special: Throughout the Ukraine crisis, the U.S. State Department and traditional media have actually minimized the function of neo-Nazis in the U.S.-backed Kiev routine, a bothersome fact that is emerging again as conservative storm cannon fodders fly neo-Nazi banners as they assault in the east, Robert Parry reports.
The New York City Times reported practically in passing on Sunday(Aug. 10 )that the Ukrainian government’s offensive versus ethnic Russian rebels in the east has let loose reactionary paramilitary militias that have actually even raised a neo-Nazi banner over the conquered town of Marinka, just west of the rebel fortress of Donetsk.
That may look like a huge story a U.S.-backed military operation, which has actually caused thousands of mostly civilian casualties, is being led by neo-Nazis. However the consistent pattern of the traditional U.S. news media has been considering that the start of the Ukraine crisis to white-out the function of Ukraine’s brown-shirts.
Just occasionally is the word “neo-Nazi” pointed out and usually in the context of dismissing this troublesome truth as “Russian propaganda.” Yet the truth has been that neo-Nazis played a key function in the violent overthrow of chosen President Viktor Yanukovych last February along with in the subsequent coup program holding power in Kiev and now in the eastern offensive.
On Sunday, a Timesshort articleby Andrew E. Kramer mentioned the emerging neo-Nazi paramilitary role in the final three paragraphs:
“The defending Donetsk has taken on a deadly pattern: The routine army bombards separatist positions from afar, followed by chaotic, violent assaults by a few of the half-dozen or two paramilitary groups surrounding Donetsk who are willing to plunge into metropolitan battle.
Authorities in Kiev say the militias and the army collaborate their actions, but the militias, which count about 7,000 fighters, are upset and, at times, unmanageable. One known as Azov, which took over the village of Marinka, flies a neo-Nazi sign resembling a Swastika as its flag.
In pressing their advance, the fighters took their orders from a regional army leader, rather than from Kiev. In the video of the attack, no restraint appeared. Gesturing towards a believed pro-Russian position, one soldier screamed, ‘The bastards are right there!’ Then he opened fire.”
To put it simply, the neo-Nazi militias that rose to the front of anti-Yanukovych protests last February have now been organized as shock troops dispatched to kill ethnic Russians in the east and they are running so freely that they raise a Swastika-like neo-Nazi flag over one conquered town with a population of about 10,000.
Burying this details at the end of a long short article is likewise typical of how the Timesand other U.S. mainstream news outlets have dealt with the neo-Nazi issue in the past. When the reality gets discussed, it normally needs a reader understanding much about Ukraine’s history and reading between the lines of a U.S. news account.
For instance, last April 6, The New York City Timesreleased a human-interest profileof a Ukrainian nationalist called Yuri Marchuk who was wounded in the uprising versus Yanukovych in February. If you check out deep into the story, you learn that Marchuk was a leader of the right-wing Svoboda Party from Lviv, which if you did your own research study you would discover is a neo-Nazi fortresswhere Ukrainian nationalists hold torch-light parades in honor of The second world war Nazi partner Stepan Bandera.
Without providing that context, the Timesdoes point out that Lviv militants plundered a government arsenal and dispatched 600 militants a day to Kiev’s Maidan square to do battle with the cops. Marchuk likewise described how these well-organized militants, consisting of paramilitary brigades of 100 fighters each, introduced the eventful attack versus the authorities on Feb. 20, the fight where Marchuk was injured and where the death toll unexpectedly surged into scores of protesters and about a lots police.
Marchuk later said he visited his comrades at the occupied City Hall. What the Timesdoesn’t mention is that Town hall was festooned with Nazi banners and even a Confederate battle flagas a homage to white supremacy.
The Times touched on the bothersome neo-Nazi truth once again on April 12 in a postabout the strange death of neo-Nazi leader Oleksandr Muzychko, who was eliminated throughout a shootout with police on March 24. The short article quoted a local Right Sektor leader, Roman Koval, discussing the vital role of his organization in carrying out the anti-Yanukovych coup.
“Ukraine’s February revolution, stated Mr. Koval, would never ever have actually occurred without Right Sector and other militant groups,” theTimeswrote.
Burning Insects
The cruelty of these neo-Nazis appeared once again on May 2 when right-wing toughs in Odessa attacked an encampment of ethnic Russian protesters driving them into a trade union building which was then set on fire with Bomb. As the building was engulfed in flames, some people who attempted to get away were chased and beaten, while those caught inside heard the Ukrainian nationalists liken them to black-and-red-striped potato beetles called Colorados, because those colors are used in pro-Russian ribbons.
“Burn, Colorado, burn” wentthe chant.
As the fire intensified, those passing away within were serenaded with the taunting singing of the Ukrainian nationwide anthem. The building likewise was spray-painted with Swastika-like signs and graffiti reading “Galician SS,” a recommendation to the Ukrainian nationalist army that battled together with the German Nazi SS in World War II, eliminating Russians on the eastern front.
The death by fire of dozens of people in Odessa remembered a World War II incident in 1944 when aspects of a Galician SS authorities regiment took part in the massacre of the Polish village ofHuta Pieniacka, which had actually been a haven for Jews and was safeguarded by Russian and Polish partisans. Attacked by a combined force of Ukrainian cops and German soldiers on Feb. 28, 1944, numerous townspeople were massacred, including lots of secured barns that were fired.
The tradition of The second world war specifically the bitter battle between Ukrainian nationalists from the west and ethnic Russians from the east 7 years ago is never far from the surface area in Ukrainian politics. One of the heroes commemorated during the Maidan demonstrations in Kiev was Nazi partner Stepan Bandera, whose name was honored in lots of banners including one on a podium where Sen. John McCain voiced support for the uprising to oust Yanukovych, whose political base was amongst ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine.
John McCain dealing with crowd in Kiev, Dec. 15, 2013. (U.S. Senate/Office of Chris Murphy/Wikimedia Commons)
During The Second World War, Bandera headed the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-B, an extreme paramilitary motion that looked for to transform Ukraine into a racially pure state. OUN-B participated in the expulsion and extermination of countless Jews and Poles.
Though the majority of the Maidan protesters in 2013-14 appeared motivated by anger over political corruption and by a desire to join the European Union, neo-Nazis made up a substantial number and surged to the front during the seizure of government buildings and the climatic clashes with police.
In the days after the Feb. 22 coup, as the neo-Nazi militias effectively managed the government, European and U.S. diplomats rushed to assist the shaken parliament put together the semblance of a reputable program, although a minimum of 4 ministries, including national security, were awarded to the conservative extremists in recognition of their important role in ousting Yanukovych.
As extraordinary as it was for a modern-day European state to hand ministries over to neo-Nazis, practically the entire U.S. news media cooperated in soft-pedaling the neo-Nazi function. Stories in the U.S. media delicately step around this neo-Nazi reality by staying out relevant context, such as the background of coup routine’s nationwide security chief Andriy Parubiy, who founded the Social-National Party of Ukraine in 1991, mixing extreme Ukrainian nationalism with neo-Nazi symbols. Parubiy was commandant of the Maidan’s “self-defense forces.”
Last April, as the Kiev program launched its “anti-terrorist operation” versus the ethnic Russians in the east, Parubiy revealed that his conservative paramilitary forces, incorporated as National Guard units, would blaze a trail. On April 15, Parubiy went on Twitter to state, “Reserve unit of National Guard formed #Maidan Self-defense volunteers was sent out to the cutting edge this morning.” (Parubiy resigned from his post this past week for inexplicable reasons.)
Now, nevertheless, as the Ukrainian military tightens its noose around the staying rebel strongholds, battering them with weapons fire and aerial bombardments, countless neo-Nazi militia members are once again pressing to the front as fiercely encouraged fighters determined to kill as many ethnic Russians as they can. It is an amazing story however one that the mainstream U.S. news media would choose not to notice.