Emblem of the Azov Battalion of the National Guard
According to reports neo-Nazis from Sweden, Bulgaria and Hungary are travelling to Ukraine to join it’s fight against its own citizens in the East:
“They are fighting with the Azov Battalion, a Ukrainian squad which flies a flag with Nazi symbols and which one Swedish soldier says fights for ‘a white Ukraine.’
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Far right volunteers have joined the pro-Kiev forces from Hungary and Bulgaria as well as Sweden.” (M. E. Synon, Neo-Nazis Travelling to Fight in Ukraine, Breitbart, July 31, 2014)
The Swedish news outlet The Local reports that four Swedes have joined the battalion:
“Azov is a special force of about 300 soldiers, including multiple volunteer soldiers from across Europe. The force was established by the Ukrainian government, but does not fight alongside the national army and is instead steered by ultra-nationalists.
Four Swedes are in the group. Neo-Nazi Mikael Skillt is one of them.
‘They are not fighting for a democratic Ukraine,’ Anton Shekhotsov, a Ukrainian political scientist who researches right extremist movements in Europe, told Sveriges Radio (SR). ’Their vision of Ukraine is a fascist dictatorship.’” (Swedish neo-Nazis join fight in Ukraine, The Local, July 30, 2014)
This confirms what the Western mainstream media fails to recognize since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine: the presence of neo-Nazi elements both within the U.S-backed Kiev government as well as within the National Guard and the Armed Forces. Global Research has published numerous articles on the issue.
Greg Rose reported in March:
“The ultra-right Svoboda Party has scored six major cabinet ministries in the government of Arseniy Yatsenyuk approved by the Ukrainian parliament on Thursday. Svoboda is the Neo-Nazi, ultra-right, anti-Semitic, Russophobic party with its base of support in the Western Ukraine.
The most important post was claimed by a co-founder of Svoboda, Andriy Parubiy. He was named Secretary of the Security and National Defense Committee, which supervises the defense ministry and the armed forces.” (Greg Rose, Ukraine Transition Government: Neo-Nazis in Control of Armed Forces, National Security, Economy, Justice and Education, People’s World, March 2, 2014)
In June, Michel Chossudovsky exposed the Azov Battalion:
“The Azov Battalion -which displays the Nazi SS emblem– (below left) is described by the Kiev regime as “a volunteer battalion of territorial defense”. It’s a National Guard battalion under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Officially based in Berdyank on the Sea of Azov, it was formed by the regime to fight the opposition insurgency in Eastern and Southern Ukraine. It is also financed by the US administration.” (Michel Chossudovsky, Ukraine’s Kiev Regime is not “Officially” A Neo-Nazi Government, June 1, 2014)
The Local states that the Swedish neo-Nazi Mikael Skillt has been in Ukraine since February, confirming once again that neo-Nazis were an integral part of the Maidan protests that brought down an elected government and replaced it with several non-elected neo-Nazi figures. Among them, Andrij Belitskij, the Commander of the Azov Battalion, who promotes the end of “contact between races”:
The battalion’s commander, Andrij Belitskij, is also the leaer of the Social-National Assembly (SNA), which lists among its goals the end of “sexual perversions and contact between races“.
Skillt, a member of the neo-Nazi Party of the Swedes (Svenskarnas parti), seems to agree.
“My goal is a white Ukraine,” Skillt told newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SVD) last week. “I am a nationalist and I want there to still be white Europeans in Europe.”
The Swede is originally from Sundsvall, and has been in Ukraine since February. Skillt has confirmed on social media as well as for Swedish media that he fights in the Azov battalion – and that he does so in Swedish uniform.
The Ukrainian government, however, denied that any foreigners fight in their units.
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Swedish national police have also confirmed their presence.
“We do not know exactly how many Swedes are fighting in Ukraine, but we know there are several,” police superintendent Sören Clerton told SVD.
Shekhotsov warned that the battalion may not be satisfied simply by separatist defeat.
He reported that the SNA has been behind multiple attacks against sexual and ethnic minorities in Kiev. He also expressed concern that, although Azov may not successfully instate dictatorship, the force may still block the construction of a democratic Ukraine.
His fears seemed confirmed by Swedish soldier Skillt, who called the struggle in Ukraine a war based on race. (The Local, op. cit., emphasis added.)
According to Breitbart:
Skillt said: “We’re finding and grabbing people who collaborated with the separatists.”
Asked how he communicated with the locals, he replied: “I often have an interpreter. I understand some Russian, but I do not speak the language itself. I can only say commands like ‘stay,’ ‘down on your knees,’ ‘hands behind your head.’”
Skillt also thinks that Ukraine’s large Jewish minority should leave the country because he does not count it as white.