Aris Roussinos, the Foreign Affairs Editor at UnHerd, has a fascinating piece about the worrying role of neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine over the past several years. While emphasising that the Russian claim that Ukraine is a ‘Nazi state’ is certainly false – “Ukraine is a genuine liberal-democratic state, though an imperfect one, with free elections that produce significant changes of power, including the election, in 2019, of the liberal-populist reformer, Volodymyr Zelenskyy”, who is of course Jewish – nonetheless, Ukraine, he says, is an outlier in Europe in the official role the state gives to neo-Nazi militia:
Ukraine is not a Nazi state, but the Ukrainian state’s support – for whatever reasons, valid or otherwise – of neo-Nazi or Nazi-aligned groups makes the country an outlier in Europe. The continent has many extreme Right-wing groups, but only in Ukraine do they possess their own tank and artillery units, with the state’s support.
The most prominent and powerful of these neo-Nazi groups is Azov.
Alongside other far-Right groups, such as Right Sector, the nascent Azov movement played an outside role in the fighting against Ukrainian security police which left 121 dead and secured the success of the revolution. Acquiring control of a large property, just off Independence Square, from the Ministry of Defence, Azov turned the building, now named Cossack House, into its Kyiv headquarters and recruiting centre. Though Azov has since toned down its rhetoric, and many of its fighters may be non-ideological and simply attracted by its martial reputation, its activists are often to be seen covered in tattoos of SS totenkopfs and lightning bolt runes, or sporting the Sonnenrad or Black Sun symbol of esoteric Nazism. Derived from a pattern created for Himmler at Wewelsburg castle in Germany, chosen as an occultic Camelot for senior SS officers, the Sonnenrad is like the Wolfsangel rune of the SS Das Reich division, one of Azov’s official symbols, worn on their unit patches and on the shields behind which their fighters parade in evocative torchlit ceremonies.
I’ve visited Cossack House multiple times to interview senior Azov figures, including the leader of its National Militia (which provides auxiliary patrolling muscle to Ukraine’s official police force), Ihor Mikhailenko, and Azov’s International Secretary and intellectual linchpin, Olena Semenyaka. It’s an impressive setup: along with classrooms for the educational lectures they provide with state funding, Cossack House is home to Azov’s literary salon and publishing house, Plomin, where glamorous young hipster intellectuals busy themselves with organising Right-wing seminars and book translations, beneath glossy posters of fascist luminaries such as Yukio Mishima, Cornelius Codreanu, and Julius Evola.
But Azov’s power derives from the gun, not their literary efforts. Back in 2014, when the Ukrainian army was weak and underequipped, Azov volunteers under Biletsky’s leadership fought at the vanguard of the battle against Russian-speaking separatists in the east, reconquering the city of Mariupol, where they are currently under siege. Effective, courageous and highly ideological fighters, Azov’s efforts in the east won them great renown as defenders of the nation, and the support of a grateful Ukrainian state, which incorporated Azov as an official regiment of Ukraine’s National Guard. In this, Azov is believed to have enjoyed the support of Arsen Avakov, a powerful oligarch and Ukraine’s Interior Minister between 2014 and 2019.
Has Putin targeted Mariupol for particularly severe bombardment because it is a power base for Azov?
The extent of the Ukrainian state’s dependence on neo-Nazi militia is unclear, but Roussinos intimates it may be considerable:
Like Ukraine’s other extreme Right-wing militias, Azov are dogged, disciplined and committed fighters, which is why the weak Ukrainian state has found itself forced to rely upon their muscle during its hours of greatest need: during the Maidan revolution, during the war against separatists from 2014 onwards, and now to fend off the Russian invasion.
I don’t write this to offer support for Putin’s propaganda, which even where there is a kernel of truth is invariably inflated with generous lashings of exaggeration and falsehood.
But I do wonder how much sway Azov and the neo-Nazi militia have over Ukrainian policy. In particular, are they constraining the terms on which Zelenskyy can achieve peace and end the war? Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Ukraine had to accept it would never be a NATO member, an apparent move towards conciliation with Russia:
Of course Ukraine is not a NATO member, we understand that. We have heard for many years about the open doors, but we also heard that we can’t enter those doors. This is the truth and we have simply to accept it as it is.
Who is he appealing to here when he says “we simply have to accept it”? The Telegraph reports that the U.K. Government is sceptical that a peace deal that concedes independence for two eastern regions and Russian control of Crimea would “secure the support of all Ukrainians”.
However, the Telegraph understands there is scepticism from senior U.K. Government figures involved in the Ukraine response about whether the talks really can achieve peace.
There is a concern that Mr Zelenskyy would have to agree to give up control of parts of the country to convince Putin to pull back troops. It could prove challenging to secure the support of all Ukrainians for such a deal.
Are the powerful neo-Nazi militia among the Ukrainians whose support would be “challenging” to secure? You’ve got to suppose they are.
Ukraine has shown incredible bravery in standing up to the more numerous invading Russian forces, and exposed critical weaknesses in the Russian military. Nonetheless, it has paid and is paying a heavy price for its resistance, and is standing alone, with the West refusing to engage militarily. One mystery to me is why Ukraine hasn’t been more willing to find a settlement sooner with its big, bullying neighbour, instead of continuing a war that, while winning it lots of international sympathy and support, is laying waste to its cities and driving millions of its citizens from their homes.
One possibility, of course, is that the Kyiv Government simply doesn’t trust Russia and suspects that its ambitions go well beyond what it claims are its terms for peace.
Another possibility, however, is that the Kyiv Government is not actually in a position to make the necessary concessions, even if it wanted to. Is Ukraine being kept from negotiating peace by powerful elements within the country beyond Government control, in particular its neo-Nazi militia? Is this why Putin said Tuesday that “Kyiv is not showing a serious commitment to finding mutually acceptable solutions”?
Leading Azov member Olena Semenyaka told Roussinos in 2019: “If Zelenskyy is even worse than [ex-president] Poroshenko, if he is the same kind of populist, but without certain skills, connections and background, then, of course, Ukrainians would be heavily in danger. And we have already developed a plan of what can be done, how we can develop parallel state structures, how we can customise these entry strategies to save the Ukrainian state, if [Zelenskyy] would become a puppet of the Kremlin, for instance. Because it’s quite possible.”
Roussinos notes: “In the event of Zelenskyy being forced by events to sign a peace deal surrendering Ukrainian territory, groups like Azov may find a golden opportunity to challenge what remains of the state and consolidate their own power bases, even if only locally.”
When it comes to negotiating peace, it’s worth asking if Zelenskyy and the Kyiv Government’s hands are tied by sinister forces in the country beyond their control.
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Talking of human rights, Daily Telegraph reporting ex-terrorist Adams now in line for a compensation payout, while British soldiers on the ground, who served in Northern Ireland at behest of unaccountable politicians and senior army officers, get persecuted through the courts for decades.
Clearly there are the right sort of human rights and the wrong sort of human rights, as human rights lawyer Sir Two-Tier conclusively proves yet again. Duplicitous panderer.
Never forget they can persecute soldiers for years but allegedly cannot ‘find’ the police, social workers, council officials, teachers, medics etc who enabled the mass child rape gangs, to bring them to justice.
This is true. But there are men on here that maintain it wasn’t rape because it was “consensual” and the victims weren’t children, because 11 and 12yr olds are “sexually mature women”, so I think this attitude of minimising or even outright denying the extent and severity of these heinous organized crimes is more widespread than I was initially aware of.
The rebranding of these young girls from broken homes as “prostitutes” or “little slags”, so as to both dehumanise them and enable the predatory Pakistani paedos, is a view sadly shared by many, it would seem.
“But there are men on here that maintain it wasn’t rape because it was “consensual” and the victims weren’t children, “
I read most posts and articles on DS, but I can’t ever recall anyone, never mind ‘men on here’ expressing these views. Care to elaborate..?
RW from 2 days ago. Plus Ron Smith has previously declared sympathies with paedophiles and gets triggered by the word ”nonce” or if I insult his idol Huw Edwards. Oh, and given that these posts get numerous ‘likes’ these won’t be the only two nonces residing on DS;
RW
1 day ago
”A bit less drama and more truthfulness would be appropriate here: This is not about child rape because it involves neither children nor rape. It’s statutory rape because it’s about sex acts with sexually mature women below the age of consent in the UK. Apart from that, it starts consensual and then slips into drug-heavy teenage prostitution. That’s bad enough on its own and would be equally bad if all victims were sixteen or above.”
I suspect RW isn’t the parent of 11 to 16 year-old girls. Certainly not 11-16 year-old girls who’ve grown up with the disadvantages of these poor girls.
We have laws protecting young people because all too often they need protecting from themselves as well as others.
If you were a parent of a 11 – 16 year old girl, you would be very well advised to tell her to be wary about good looking guys of about her own age (ie, maybe up to 10 years older) who are flush with money and drugs, appear out of nowhere and start to court her intensely. The first steps into this particular circle of hell starts with girls falling for a ‘perfect’ (for some definition of perfect) seducer and not with them being drawn into a corner by Wogmai’s (or so) dream “child rapists”.
I’m not usually given to violence but I’ve long since resovled that should some covert paedophile – like you – ever dare to try to absolve himself of his/ her perverted desires by projecting them onto me, violence would be the only appropriate answer to that. Hence, consider yourself extremely lucky that you’re using the internet to spread these lies about me you very well know to be lies because I’ve pointed out that your claim about the content of my statements is wrong numerous times.
I’m opposed to peverts like you trying to pizzagate this story because of the real-world harm this causes. I don’t in the slightest condone seducing minors in order to turn them into prostitutes, no matter how often you claim the contrary by intentionally misinterpreting statements I made.
“…covert paedophile – like you..”
“…perverts like you..”
Your award for ‘Best Example of Projection’ awaits
I’m keen to know how c&p literal comments of yours equates to me spreading “lies”. But speaking of which, perhaps you’d be so kind as to find the evidence from my previous posts which support your above libelous accusations? Because unless you’re a magician, good luck with that.
That’s easy. This whole paragraph will suffice:
But there are men on here that maintain it wasn’t rape because it was “consensual” and the victims weren’t children, because 11 and 12yr olds are “sexually mature women”, so I think this attitude of minimising or even outright denying the extent and severity of these heinous organized crimes is more widespread than I was initially aware of. The rebranding of these young girls from broken homes as “prostitutes” or “little slags”, so as to both dehumanise
I’ve rendered the part where you’ve gone off the rails in order to substitute an interpretation of my texts which directly contradicts its content in bold.
I never claimed that 11 and 12yr are olds are sexually mature women
just that the victims of these criminal gangs were, this being a necessary precondition of renting them out to other men later. I also haven’t written that it wasn’t rape – my definition of that being a sex act forced onto something against his will – but statutory rape, a sex act that’s illegal regardless of it being voluntary insofar the involved people were concerned. I’ve never denied that this is a crime. I’ve also not called these young girls prostitutes to dehumanize them but written that they were targeted by criminal gangs who turned them into prostitutes, ie, forced them to have sex with random other men who paid for this. That’s a fact. It’s also a most heinous crime, as I’ve written repeatedly. I don’t know where you got the idea this could be anyhow different, especially considering that this is illegal under UK law even beyond the UK age of consent.
You’ve also directly claimed that I was a paedophile:
RW from 2 days ago. And […] given that these posts get numerous ‘likes’ these won’t be the only two nonces residing on DS;
A wise man once said If paedophilia is just love, burying is just gardening. Keep that in mind when you walk close to a meadow next time.
What’s interesting is the extent of your delusion, because everything you’ve just written there can be contradicted by the extract I copied into my reply to NeilParkin. And no, it did not just ”slip into drug-heavy teenage prostitution”. You sound like the BBC! These girls were trafficked and mass-raped/sadistically abused over a prolonged period of time across multiple different locations, invariably. Rape is not the same thing as prostitution. A prostitute doesn’t typically need her pimp to ply her with alcohol or drug her so that she effectively becomes a mere powerless plaything, a piece of meat to be used, abused and disposed of when the mood suits.
These girls had no choice in the matter. See your denial of reality here, and how this renders you a literal rape-apologist, minimizing the trauma that these children and underage teens have suffered;
”OTOH, rape usually means to force someone to have sex against his or her will. And that wasn’t involved here, either, at least not at the start.”
You and your fellow paedo-sympathizer are the only ones on here arguing that this scandal didn’t involve the *rape* of *children*. I’ve a feeling guys like Raja here are a lot more well-versed than you are on this specific topic;
”The documents that exposed the cover up of the gang rape of little White girls by gangs of Pakistani men came to me in an Aldi carrier bag.”
https://x.com/recusant_raja/status/1879064710156517409
But you still haven’t come back to me with any evidence to support your libelous claims that, in some parallel universe, it is actually *myself* that is the ”covert paedophile” ( you may want to revisit your understanding of the word ‘covert’, methinks ) and the ”pervert”, so that doesn’t look terribly good on your part does it? There’s that barrel-scraping again…Maybe heed your own lame-ass threats because it is you that cannot ever win this argument when you have to resort to delusion, lies and outright defamation. Not difficult to maintain the moral high ground with somebody such as yourself, really.
I freely admit to have missed this post. Had I seen it I might well have challenged it. RW is welcome to (I’ll use ‘his’) opinions, but I find them crass and shallow and lacking any sense of empathy.
It doesn’t change the fact that, again, you have used sweeping generalisations of ‘what men think’, always from the angle of all men being horrendous misogynists. I find nothing to support that, and I find it insulting and sexist to be grouped together and told what my opinions are.
I said “there are men on here” then went ahead to give you two specific examples of the “men” i was referring to. How does naming all of TWO men equate to “..again, you have used sweeping generalisations of ‘what men think’…”?
Wee bit defensive there, aren’t we? Based on a blatantly deliberate misconstruing of my post…And do tell me where I ever wrote “all men are horrendous misogynists”. Or where I told you what your opinions are…
What amazes me is that, once again, you appear to be triggered by my posts, twist them in order to fabricate your own interpretation of what I actually said, and take them as some sort of personal attack. You really don’t do well with women having zero qualms about challenging men on here, do you? Triggered, much?
Another interesting observation I’ve made is that misogynists *really* don’t like being called out as misogynists. So let me return your straw men and perhaps reread my posts for maximum understanding of what I’m actually saying, as opposed to deliberately misconstruing and accusing me of things I never said, purely because you have issues with me. Btw, nice try with the whole “victimhood” thing, showing us how it’s done. Projection is quite the common denominator isn’t it?
How much of this is driven by altruism, and how much by the good old fashioned greed of lawyers with their snouts in any stinking trough they can find?
This is what they’re allowing into our countries. Just another Mohammed doing his predictable thing;
”First pictures have emerged of an nurse who was allegedly stabbed with a pair of scissors at Royal Oldham Hospital.
Rumon Haque is charged with attempted murder and possession of a bladed article after Achamma Cherian was attacked on a hospital ward on Saturday afternoon. The 57-year-old nurse was on duty at the hospital’s acute medical unit when she was attacked, and left fighting for her life. Greater Manchester Police said on Tuesday that she remained in hospital being treated for her injuries. Haque, 37, from Royton, appeared before Manchester magistrates court on Tuesday over the attack.
No pleas were given and Greg Kemp, defending, said there would no application for bail. He was remanded into custody and is due to appear again before the crown court in February. Haque, wearing a grey sweatshirt and flanked by two prison officers, was asked to identify himself and gave his name as “Mohammed Roman Haque”.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-oldham-hospital-stabbing-nurse-34479477
Oh dear …. another Muslim migrant with “mental health” problems which make him randomly attack someone, in this case a nurse. Seems to be very prevalent in their culture.
‘from Royton’. Born in a barn doesn’t make you a horse.
Ironic that they have security searching bags etc at sport events, concerts etc and do not have a metal detector gate or security searching those coming into Hospitals.
A & E is full of the mentally ill, especially schizophrenics, who do not take their meds and no one else wants to deal with.
Whatever happened to looney bins? Oh yeah, they were sold for housing….and the inmates turned out into the community…
Yes indeed. However, if you were already in a treatment room/cubicle any opportunistic psycho could snatch one of the pieces of equipment laid out on the trolley, such as scissors or scalpel, so I don’t even know if this man went in with scissors intending to attack someone at random or if he maybe saw them lying there and grabbed them.
This is a sad state of affairs in Germany though if they’re thinking of resorting to this, although I can understand the justification. I wonder if somebody’s keeping note of who the perpetrators tend to be;
”A German hospital announced plans to issue bodycams to all its employees, after a rise in violent attacks on staff by patients and their relatives.
The small cameras, which employees would wear as part of their uniform, can help to “de-escalate” conflicts, said Michael Kötzing, from Klinikum Dortmund in North Rhine Westphalia
“We want to see whether bodycams have the same effect in the hospital as they do for the police”, Kötzing continued.
German hospital workers across the board have seen a sharp rise in violent attacks in recent years.
73 per cent of all clinics said the number of violent incidents against hospital employees had risen over the last five years.
In a recent survey by the Association of German Hospitals (DGK), the majority of respondents said a “loss of respect for hospital staff” was behind the trend.”
https://brusselssignal.eu/2025/01/german-hospital-introduces-employee-bodycams-after-rising-violence/
I always thought that respect was earned not applied or legislated for.
“In this article I wanted to give readers an example of how NGOs undermine democracy in the U.K. In recent weeks NGOs have come up in the news a fair bit – particularly as Elon Musk and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have laid into George Soros and his Open Society Foundations. But what exactly is the issue with them?”
And Orban, bless his cotton socks, has banned them from any activity in Hungary.
How great it must have to have a PM who cares, and cares deeply, for his country
I agree. I’ve heard him talk at length and he seems wide awake to the influence of these parasites and to the corrosive effects of the woke crud. We need people here who think similarly.
The charity industry needs massively tightening. The article mentions the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, which was set up by Paul Hamlyn, philanthropist, to develop arts and to challenge prejudice – he was a Jewish person from Germany. Now the foundation is used for political purposes; often ones which are prejudiced against white people and upholders of democracy. This cannot be right and I wonder what Hamlyn would think about the way his money is used for political projects and to purposely undermine a country which strives for democratic fairness. And it is obvious that many coming here are hijacking the concept of ‘refugee’ to start with.
This is similar to the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. Ian Fairbairn’s wife was killed in London during an air raid. He set up the foundation in her memory, and its aims were to increase economic understanding in citizens so they could take charge of their own lives more successfully. And what kind of projects does the foundation fund today? One of its latest political projects was to fund St Paul’s website in which Nelson and Churchill were attacked: Churchill was described as a white supremacist and Nelson described as having a ‘personal commitment to slavery’. Nelson’s ex-wife had been orphaned and so brought up by her uncle who had a plantation. Nelson and his wife became estranged fairly early on. At that time most in upper and many in the middle had some kind of connection to slavery. Nelson showed no ‘personal commitment’ to slavery. And considering how Esmee was killed I wonder if Ian Fairbairn would have wanted his money to be used to attack Churchill? He made it very clear that his money was to spread economic understanding anyway, and not political projects to attack England or its heroes.
Point being, these foundations are operating far outside their remits. The word ‘charity’ is being absurdly stretched to include personal agendas created by fanatics/activists. About time the charity industry was completely overhauled with only truly charitable projects allowed to be funded by a) us, or b) those who gift their money in good faith that it will be used for actual charity and not political projects. The Museum Association also sanctioned St Paul’s controversial website (which I believe has now been revised due to the outcry). I suspect the money for the website came through the Museum Association from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.
The Museum Association (classed as a charity) is another unelected quango with links to many of our major museums. It is behind the increasingly woke projects we are seeing in museums today. It has a major influence on our museums as it funds museum projects across the country many of them being anti-British and biased to the exclusion of being truly enlightening. It gets heaps of funding off our government (our tax). It’s annual report showed 150K received from the government Arts Council (classed as a charity). It also receives money from other charities such as the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Esme Fairbairn Trust The Museum Association also received 89K from something called ‘Decolonisation’. No, me neither. I think the annual AGM reports regarding the actual funding of charities, need making more transparent too, I really do, as our tax money is often disguised in opaque terms such as grants for this or that.in these public account details.
I guess I’m trying to point to just how deeply affected our country is by NGOs and other quangos. And that a root and branch overhaul is needed across the board. These quangos are not stand alone’s but deeply connected to one another. The word ‘charity’ needs clear definition with political activism excluded as well as biased interpretations which are hotly and factually contested in the public square.
You’re absolutely right, it’s a scandal which 2TK will certainly be in no hurry to terminate.
What, not too long for you? Didn’t it get on your ”tits”? Or is it only an issue when it concerns my posts? Because it’s a bit weird you’ve not had a go at anyone else on here…
Great article, Charlotte Gill.