"Russian forces dropped a powerful bomb on a theatre in the encircled Ukrainian port city of Mariupol where hundreds of civilians were sheltering on Wednesday, Ukraine's foreign ministry said."
"Russia denies targeting civilians. In Moscow, the defence ministry said its forces had not struck the building and instead accused the Azov Battalion, a far-right Ukrainian militia, of blowing it up, RIA news agency said."
if you go on twitter, the story is being completely framed as 100% accurate and a Russian atrocity/war crime despite there being no real proof of anything yet. So I'm really skeptical. This seems extremely convenient "terrible, clearly wrong thing" to occur the same day as further peace talks.
Obviously, if it is real, it's terrible and either was committed by Russia out of stupidity/confusion, or pure malice. But I'll hold my breath before believing anything like this coming from Ukraine at this point.
tbh at this point i believe the opposite of anything they say. why would anyone but azov do this?
Azov is ~750-900 soldiers out of 250k mobilized in Ukraine atm.
Why do people keep bringing them up like they are boogiemen?
Because they're integrated into the Ukrainian military as an official unit.
That speaks to the extent of the fascist rot in the Ukrainian government that they would even consider such a thing.
Or think about it this way: the KKK has only a few thousand members in the US out of a population of 300 million. Why do we bring up the KKK? Because they're an open manifestation of white supremacy that is otherwise hidden. Just as there's probably at least dozens of racists in the US for each actual Klansman, there's likely dozens of Nazi sympathizers in the Ukrainian government for each open Azovite.
If anything, Azov is way worse than the KKK. For all our jokes the US military doesn't openly have a "KKK battalion" that is arms and trains.
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Because they're concentrated in Mariupol, which is the city this article is discussing.
Also, they have a disproportionate amount of influence, and they're not the only fascist group in the country. They have the full approval of the government and have been allowed to brutalize people for years already, as well as to train children and market their ideology.
Gladio baby
:very-intelligent: no there are no nazis aha
They should all be tried at the Hague.
Along with tons of Ukrainians and Russians and NATO ghouls alike.
I have some unfortunate news.
I know. The only way justice will ever happen to NATO is through a reform of the UN where security council vetoes are stripped from the winners of WWII.
One can still dream though. NATO has been a shield for dozens of wars of imperial/colonial aggression since its founding. It is a menace to the world.
New security council where the veto votes are China, Cuba, the DPRK, Laos, and Vietnam. :party-sicko:
Props for remembering Laos.
Can we get official recognition of Transnistria while we’re at it?
Let's add in the CHAZ too.
Plus cetaceans and corvid councils.
Want to give a source on that? this comment smells like tongue polished leather.
Regardless, Azov was trained by the US military / NATO and they’re a symptom of a much worse problem.
Can't find the tweet from this morning.
Wikipedia says 400+, but it has been much higher all the way to 1200 before suffering losses to other units/deaths/casualties.
A battalion is always 400-1200 troops.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Battalion
Azov isn’t the only fascist group in the country, they’re just the easiest to reference as short hand. It’s been a huge issue since NATO and the US couped the government 8+ years ago.
Check the talk page on the wiki article you linked, btw, that whole thing is astroturfed to hell by fascists.
I wouldn’t recommend trusting any political articles on Wikipedia besides using the talk pages and edit history to get an idea of who’s slugging it out and who currently has control of the page (spoiler, it’s almost always fash)
Yeah that's a good point. Even the libbiest libs can't deny that Azov are nazis since they parade around with swastika flags. Other groups like Right Sector can be just as bad but they're not as blatant so you have to suffer through a round of "akshully just because they're far right antisemites, doesn't mean they're Nazis..."
Yup. Lots of “tHeYrE jUsT rEaLLy iNtO sOuNdGaRdEn” shit about soldiers with fash patches too
It was fucking funny watching the libs even here drop the “there are no nazis” shit within like a day or two lmfao
"They just really love Japanese culture and that's why they have tattoos of Japanese shrine symbols!"
“Jainism is aktualy the state religion of ukraine not a lot of people know that but its true there are many devout followers and temples so inspiring”
Azov Battalion is just their name. They had that name when they were a small paramilitary group and kept it even as they grew to the size of a regiment.
They're the most famous Nazi battalion in Ukraine and the one that's been most involved in the fighting, especially before the Russian invasion and then afterwards in Mariupol. They're the ones the Ukrainian government brought in to do war crimes in the Donbas after the Ukrainian military refused to run over some protesters. People do sometimes incorrectly use the Azov battalion as a short-hand for the openly Nazi parts of the Ukrainian military. I'm sure once Azov is destroyed people will start referring to Aidar Battalion or somebody else as short-hand for Ukrainian military Nazis.
Edit: I forgot to mention, they used to have about 2,500 members in 2016. Those guys are still Nazis and are probably still in the military, they've just been moved around to other battalions.
Because this is literally Azovs HQ.....
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I get your point, but this particular building is a supposed Azov HQ and in the article about the whole situation I've read they site an Azov spokesperson.