Ukraine has worked for years through legislation and military restructuring to contain a fringe far-right movement whose members proudly wear symbols steeped in Nazi history and espouse views hostile to leftists, LGBTQ movements and ethnic minorities.

Oh yeah? And they did that by banning all the left parties while letting the nationalists operate freely, right?

Look, it's just weird to me that they have a monument to Stepan Bandera in Lviv, where he and the OUN perpetrated the Lviv Pogroms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lviv_pogroms_(1941)

ooh a very sticky situation indeed!

How braindead is the western world media?

Questions over how to interpret such symbols are as divisive as they are persistent, and not just in Ukraine. In the American South, some have insisted that today, the Confederate flag symbolizes pride, not its history of racism and secession. The swastika was an important Hindu symbol before it was co-opted by the Nazis.

:john-brown:

In April, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry posted a photograph on its Twitter account of a soldier wearing a patch featuring a skull and crossbones known as the Totenkopf, or Death’s Head. The specific symbol in the picture was made notorious by a Nazi unit that committed war crimes and guarded concentration camps during World War II.

The patch in the photograph sets the Totenkopf atop a Ukrainian flag with a small No. 6 below. That patch is the official merchandise of Death in June, a British neo-folk band that the Southern Poverty Law Center has said produces “hate speech” that “exploits themes and images of fascism and Nazism.”

The Anti-Defamation League considers the Totenkopf “a common hate symbol.” But Jake Hyman, a spokesperson for the group, said it was impossible to “make an inference about the wearer or the Ukrainian army” based on the patch.

“The image, while offensive, is that of a musical band,” Hyman said.

A band that happens to be very into Nazi shit.

The band now uses the photograph posted by the Ukrainian military to market the Totenkopf patch.

Curious.

The Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact with Germany in 1939, so it was caught by surprise two years later when the Nazis invaded Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union. Ukraine had suffered greatly under a Soviet government that engineered a famine that killed millions. Many Ukrainians initially viewed the Nazis as liberators.

Factions from the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and its insurgent army fought alongside the Nazis in what they viewed as a struggle for Ukrainian sovereignty. Members of those groups also took part in atrocities against Jewish and Polish civilians. Later in the war, though, some of the groups fought against the Nazis.

Some Ukrainians joined Nazi military units such as the Waffen-SS Galizien. The emblem of the group, which was led by German officers, was a sky-blue patch showing a lion and three crowns. The unit took part in a massacre of hundreds of Polish civilians in 1944. In December, after a yearslong legal battle, Ukraine’s highest court ruled that a government-funded research institute could continue to list the unit’s insignia as excluded from the Nazi symbols banned under a 2015 law.

Of course got to spin up that Nazi propaganda about Holo-dork-more as engineered terror famine. That shows how un-Nazi the whole situation is, right?

Lmao speaking of Bellingcat, in the behind the bastards sub someone posted the nyt version of this "thorny issue" article and one poster complained about being called a Russian shill for bringing the topic up in the past and some shitlib went on a tirade about how even if it is the case it doesn't matter because what are you gonna do, quit arming them because some of the weapons find their way into Nazi hands?

Like yes, you fucking Nazi supporter, a normal person would stop arming a group that was massively Nazi infested even if that was inconvenient to some of their political goals.

deleted by creator

In November, during a meeting with Times reporters near the front line, a Ukrainian press officer wore a Totenkopf variation made by a company called R3ICH (pronounced “Reich”). He said he did not believe the patch was affiliated with the Nazis.

:sus-lovecraft:

”But the president is Jewish”

In the American South, some have insisted that today, the Confederate flag symbolizes pride, not its history of racism and secession.

Let's not delve into WHY that is for even one fucking sentence, or even mention the Daughters of the Confederacy.

Yup when the war is over no doubt Azov will act up just like the Taliban did and all the media will gasp and act like they never knew there were Nazis

This article is much like what decentralized propaganda systems do. They don't write the propaganda themselves, but they write an article that provides a framework about how to write about the issue. Important points are emphasized for repetition: these marks are fringe, Ukraine is against them but is in a corner and can't refuse their help, it's a messy history and that's all that need be said about it so don't harp on it, anyone who broadcasts the nazi shit is a Russian shill, and Ukraine's government is the worst offender by posting nazi photos on their official social media (subtext: don't YOU do this either).

Only thorny if you're tangled up with them

You barely filled out your bingo

• the war is why the nazis took power (they fought so bravely 😫)

• hindu symbol

• death in june