Everyone knows of neo-nazi Azov but less about Aidar battalion atrocities. Let's fix this:

Brief history:

The Special Assault Battalion Aidar subordinate to the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine was initially comprised of activists from the organized Maidan self-defense group. Commanders of Aidar in different times were:

1. Ukrainian parliament member Sergei Melnichuk is the founder and the first commander the special assault battalion Aidar. On May 12, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General proposed to strip Melnichuk of parliamentary immunity because he was suspected of forming an organized crime group. It was implied that this “organized crime group” was actually the Aidar battalion. (source: Meduza.io link below)

2. Vladislav Horanyn was a commander of Aidar and also a leader of a neo-nazi organization Belyy Molot (“White Hammer”). Neo-fascist confederation Right Sector expelled the White Hammer in March 2014 for “lack of discipline” shortly after Horanyn was arrested on suspicion of killing three police officers. (source: the Foreign Policy Research Institute: Ukraine: The Squandered Renaissance, 2015)


A collection of articles about Aidar crimes:

Amnesty International: Abuses and war crimes by the Ukrainian Aidar Volunteer Battalion, 2014
======
"It’s not Europe. It’s a bit different… There is a war here. The law has changed, procedures have been simplified… If I choose to, I can have you arrested right now, put a bag over your head and lock you up in a cellar for 30 days on suspicion of aiding separatists."
-- Aidar battalion commander to Amnesty International researcher
======

OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, 2014:
======
"The local population of the town claimed, however, that intoxicated soldiers of the volunteer Ukrainian battalion ‘Aidar’ were shooting randomly in the nearby power plant nightly."
======

OSCE SUPPLEMENTARY HUMAN DIMENSION MEETING. War crimes of the armed forces and security forces of Ukraine: torture and inhumane treatment. Second report, 2016
======
G. Maysky, a self-defense fighter, was captured by the Aidar battalion talks about being injected with psychotropic drugs and then tortured with a stun gun: ‘Aidar battalion officers tortured and starved me, while keeping me bound and blindfolded.

They brought a young man from Luhansk captured by the Aidar battalion. His whole body was blue, he resembled one big bruise. Another young man came with us, he was tortured – they shot a bullet through his leg and cut his finger. Some men told us that they made our guys run through a minefield.

During the night 23–24 November I was arrested at my home by the Aidar battalion. We were taken to the airport of Mariupol. The beating and torture there were so severe that we kept blacking out. They would beat us on the heels, ribs and head. They said they were going to break our legs, threatened to cut off our ears and gouge our eyes out. My friend got his insides beaten up and skull fractured; he was paralyzed as a result.’
======

Meduza: Looting, torture, and big business A look at volunteer groups fighting the separatists in Ukraine, 2015
======
"the Aidar battalion is known for constant feuds within its ranks. Members and leaders of the unit constantly accused each other of looting, of torturing POWs, of laundering money, of carrying out uncoordinated actions resulting in fatalities. On January 29, 2015, ex-commander Sergei Melnichuk announced that the battalion was essentially disbanded, and the following day he announced that the Ukrainian army began shelling the battalion. That day, Melnichuk’s supporters attacked the Ministry of Defense building in Kiev and demanded that the government stop targeting Aidar. The government dismissed the attack and the request as provocations from the side of former criminal Aidar fighters."
======


Residents of city Shchastya (Ukraine) talk about the genocide of the people of Donbass and the participation of the Aidar national battalion in tortures, kidnappings, killings, 2022 (use autotranslation for eng subs)

Aidar part2:

Colors on this Aidar flag are of OUN-B -- the responsible for ethnic cleansings in WW2 Ukraine (sourses of the claim is USA Today and The Salon).

The Aidar battalion was made an official part of the Ukrainian military in 2016, and has participated in a number of Kiev state-sanctioned events, including last year’s independence parade.

This is a continuation of an Aidar series: part1

BBC(Ukraine): An interview with the founder of Aidar battalion, 2015

quote:
====
BBC: Amnesty International's report states that the "Aidarites" severely beat people, broke their jaws, took property, money, and cars. Were there such things?

Sergei Melnichuk: Yes, there were. But this was done by the people who were "at the battalion", who said that they were fighters, but did not participate in the battles. The events referred to in that report took place during the summer campaign, when we almost encircled Lugansk, I was absent for almost two months, I fought around Lugansk. And at this time they hunted in the rear.

BBC: Do you want to say that all these looting, cases of ill-treatment, theft and blackmail, as well as possible executions, are the work of people who are not "Aidar" but freely used his name?

Sergei Melnichuk: Yes.

BBC: Even if so, it turns out that people who call themselves "Aidar" wear "Aidar" chevrons are committing crimes. This is problem.
....
====

Aidar part 1, part 2

Another article about Bandera and Shukhevich this time by The HuffPost (formerly The Huffington Post, UK): The Note to Ukraine: Time to Reconsider Your Historic Role Models, 2015

This one goes as an attachment to the USA Today and The Salon articles in my prev. post.

====quote====
"Historian Jochen Hellbeck (Ph.D., Columbia University) notes that one of the new [Ukrainian] laws condemns both Communist and Nazi regimes of the past, as well as their symbols. However, the law mostly focuses on the Soviet era while ignoring atrocities committed against the Jews, "let alone the participation of Ukrainians in these atrocities."

Hellbeck writes that "the omission is strategic," since another law actually glorifies partisans affiliated with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army or UPA, who collaborated with the German Wehrmacht.

In 1943, when the Germans fled from Ukraine, many local policemen who had collaborated with the Nazis joined the UPA while committing atrocities against ethnic minorities. One UPA commander, Roman Shukhevich, espoused anti-Semitic beliefs and recently his grandson proved instrumental in helping to pass the new legislation."
========================================

Zelensky interview to RBC-Ukraine, 2019 in which he says:

======quote of a question at timestamp 9:46=======
RBC Ukraine: What do you think about renaming streets in honor of Bandera?
Zelensky: "Personally, personally, I think that Stepan Bandera being a hero for some percent of Ukranians is ok, normal, it's great. That is one of those who was defending the Ukraine freedom. Yes. But I think that naming so many streets, bridges [in his honor] is not right. [We need to use heroes of today more]"
==================

So, Zelensky (a jew as everyone says) is not against honoring the mastermind of ethnic cleansing of Poles and Jews (according to USA Today, The Salon, The Huffington Post), he does not even condemn him! Naming couple of streets, bridges is normal, even great.

Either he does not uderstand the extent of this "honoring":

Ukraine has been erecting monuments to Nazi collaborators and Holocaust perpetrators at an astounding pace since 2014 (source the Forward. One of the Israel medias)

or Zelensky is ..... well, I'm at a loss here...

For those wanting more info about nazis in power in Ukraine, here's the link to my subreddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineNaziWatch/

Currently the subreddit has MANY MORE POSTS, comments and the whole 630 some subscribers 😂

Well, maybe you like reddit and it will be much more digestible for you to read info there.

Another bit about Aidar battalion and its members this time from
The Daily Mail (UK): Teenage girl soldier hailed as Ukraine's 'Joan of Arc' by Elle magazine is revealed as neo-Nazi and is arrested over cop killing, 2015

quote:
======
Vita* is a volunteer fighter for the far-right Aidar Battalion, which has been accused of war crimes - but Elle magazine did not realise her extreme views when they included her in a feature (below)

What Vita - who says she is 'Aidar from the beginning' and will continue to be so - writes on the page makes her vile views even more startling obvious.

“I promote Nazism, terror, genocide,” she wrote in December last year. 'For all this, I'm not a bad person. The justification is the "War for Peace". If you go bringing the work to the end, only in this case, justify my actions would not. Winners are not judged.'
======
By the way, you can see her briefly in this footage (time 1:34) where she walks by in her famous Keffiyeh around the neck next to Korchinsky (founder of a racist/fascist organization UNA-UNSO)

*Vika Zaverukha (a link to wiki), but sometimes called Vita. Well, just google her images you'll see many interesting nazi related things. Like those here https://news.1rj.ru/str/InfoDefenseEn/370

Aidar part 1, part 2, part 3

France Inter: Odessa, the different reasons for the exile of the jews, 2022

quote:
=======
Odessa has a new governor for a week, it is a former commander of the battalion Aïdar. It is a paramilitary group that fought in the Donbass insurgency by pro-Russian. Some of the men and officers of this unit have been seen wearing nazi symbols and a few are now elected far-right parties.
=======
Aidar part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4

Video: Iryna Venediktova the Prosecutor general of Ukraine confirms the release of 2014, 2015 war criminals to fight Russia. 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7S0SZjS4yo

Short trannoscript of the video:
* Citizens, don't worry! We release only those who had military experience in 2014 — 2015.
* All those released are hard Russia haters and there is even a guy who made a song among them... (is this a line from some kind of a cartoon? No, those are her actual words)
* Our military has enough soldiers. (Why release war criminals then?)
* We can control those released, don't worry. (Why were they sentenced, then? Didn't you loose control the last time?)

Some information about those released. Just two words: Tornado Battalion....

Video from the court where the release took place. The guy being released is Daniil Lyashuk (Данил Ляшук) — a Tornado member, a known torturer and rapist, a nazi, a self proclaimed mujahideen (this collection of words is not a joke, read the dedicated post with many western media sources)

An abstract from Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights report:
=======
Twelve members of the ‘Tornado’ special police patrol company (also referred to as Tornado battalion) remain in custody pending trial accused of grave human rights violations including arbitrary detention, abduction and torture. According to the General Prosecutor’s Office, the accused are responsible for the unlawful deprivation of liberty and torture of over 10 civilians. Two civilians (one man and one woman) were subjected to rape by the members of Tornado.
=======

More info about one of those released — Daniil Lyashuk aka Mujahideen. He tortured and raped the inhabitants of Lugansk.

A video of 2015 where Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine says that Daniil Lyashuk is in custody and accuses him of war crimes.

denoscription of the video contents:


Near Kiev, the most dangerous and cruel fighter of the Tornado punitive battalion, nicknamed Mujahideen, was detained. His real name is Daniil Lyashuk, he is a citizen of Belarus. The Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine Anatoly Matios announced his detention.

Lyashuk is suspected of particularly serious crimes in the Luhansk region, including bullying and violence against civilians.
Matios said that Lyashuk, who had been hiding from law enforcement officers for more than two months, was detained in a hotel complex on the Obukhov highway near Kiev on the evening of September 9.

The chief military prosecutor of Ukraine also said that Lyashuk converted to Islam some time ago and changed his Slavic name to Al-takbir Daniyal Aleksandrovich.

He, according to Matios, "professes the values of the extremist organization ISIS." [yeah, you can find picture of Daniyal with a Islamist black flag, like this one, or this one his on the right holding the flag]

Lyashuk is suspected of committing grave and especially grave crimes as part of a criminal organization from among individual police officers of the Tornado patrol service company, led by Ruslan Onishchenko, who had previously been convicted five times.

"It was "Mujahideen" - Lyashuk, with extreme cynicism and audacity, cruelty and ruthlessness, who committed the most cruel tortures of the local population of the Luhansk region, organized and took a direct part in the rape of detainees, whom he, along with other suspects, kidnapped for selfish motives," writes the chief military officer Prosecutor of Ukraine on his Facebook page.

The Ukrainian press reports that the case of the "Tornado" battalion will be brought to court in the near future.

Tornado battalion leader. He had 5 criminal convictions BEFORE being accepted into a rank of a police officer of Ukraine.

Take a look and Shariy video blog where he shows a short clip from the press conference (around min3) where Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine says that the company commander of the Tornado (being an officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs) Ruslan Onishchenko of had 5 (yes, 5 criminal convictions).

After the 6th conviction he got released to fight in 2022 against Russia.

Fox News: Ukraine president does not condemn Azov war crimes and says that "they are what they are", 2022

This is a leftout part from the official Fox News interview. (Correct me if I'm wrong about the "leftout", but I didn't see this part in the original version which aired on the Fox News)

Here, Zeleski states that:

1. Azov war crimes is a normal thing. Quoting the president: "Такие вони е."
(eng: "They are what they are")

2. All the volunteer battalions from the 2014 were incorporated into official military!

Azov (nazis, with a nazi leader),
Aidar (looters, killers, and nazis),
Luhansk-1 (nazis),
Tornado (maniacs),
Carpatska Sich (like literal nazis, not even hiding it),
Slabozhanshina (torturers),
etc.

all of them are now belong to the official Ukraine Armed Forces.

3. President said:
"Some of those who committed crimes got sentenced. The law is above all!".

We know it's not the case, since the worst of those battalions got released by the order of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.

The New York Times, The Nation, Videos: Torchlight marches in Kyiv, Ukraine. Crowd chants: "Jews out!", 2017

The articles and videos about the event and the chants:

1) The New York Times: What Ukraine’s Jews Fear, 2017

===========
quote: "To the great distress of Ukraine’s Jewish community, these cases remain unsolved. In fact, law enforcement here often denies that a problem exists. On Jan. 1, a torch-lit march through central Kiev in honor of the O.U.N. leader Stepan Bandera* rang out with cries of "Jews out." Seven hundred police officers were mobilized to provide security to the march, and yet the next day when journalists asked the police to comment on the chants, officers denied hearing anything anti-Semitic."
===========

*Bandera responsible for ethnic cleansing in Ukraine during ww2 (sources of the claim: USA Today, The Salon, The Huffington Post)

2) The Nation: Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are On the March in Ukraine, 2019

3) Jewish Telegraphic Agency: Ukrainian marchers in Kiev chant ‘Jews out’, 2017

===========
quote: "Oleksandr Feldman, a Ukrainian Jewish lawmaker and president of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, called on authorities to investigate the march and prosecute those responsible for the hateful slogans.

“I still can’t get over hearing it at the rally in honor of Stepan Bandera’s birthday,” Feldman wrote in an emotional post on Facebook Tuesday. “I admit, I’m choking up with tears. I love Ukraine, love the Ukrainians.”
===========

4) Times of Israel: Ukrainian marchers in Kiev chant ‘Jews out’, 2017


Links to the videos:

5) A big video coverage of the march where at 26:34 mark you can hear the crowd starts chanting "Jude geti" which is german-ukrainian mixture of words equal to "jews out"

6) Another short clip from the same or other Bandera march with the same chant at the end.

The cover of the official Azov battalion magazine -- The Black Sun

quote from the wiki article:

The Black Sun (German: Schwarze Sonne, Ukraine: Чорне Сонце) is a Nazi symbol, a type of sun wheel (German: Sonnenrad) employed in Nazi Germany and later by neo-Nazis. The symbol's design consists of twelve radial sig runes, similar to the symbols employed by the SS in their logo.

It first appeared in Nazi Germany as a design element in a castle at Wewelsburg remodeled and expanded by the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, which he intended to be a center for the SS.

to be continued...

The Azov's Black Sun magazine, part 3 ( part 1, part 2 ):

There is the Black Sun magazine's Wiki page (Ukraine language).

This is an abstract from the 'About us' page of the mag:
================================================
Publication of the Azov Special Purpose Regiment.

The creation of the regimental newspaper was initiated by the fighter Mark Melnyk ("Viriy"), who during his student years had experience in journalism and published a university newspaper. He initiated the development of the concept of information development of the regiment, part of which was his own publication.

It took about two weeks to prepare the first issue of the newspaper. The contributors were people who could write competently and volunteered to create the material, as well as those who had already rehearsed the pen and had some notes or diary entries at the time. The layout was made by the initiator of the publication Mark Melnyk ("Viriy"). The newspaper was published in four pages.

The first 4 issues were published by agreement on a free basis with OJSC Bila Tserkva Printing House from Bila Tserkva (Kyiv region). Subsequent issues of the newspaper were published in Mariupol (Donetsk region).

The topic of the publication was interviews with the military and medics, volunteers working in the war zone in eastern Ukraine, and local residents. Educational, historical and counter-propaganda articles distinguished the "Black Sun" from civilian publications. Indeed, it was not the product of pure journalism, but of the emotions experienced at the front.
"Black Sun" was published in Ukrainian, but also had an English version, which was sent in print to Australia, Belgium, Canada, Poland and the United States. The publication was distributed primarily among the soldiers of the regiment, as well as among public organizations. The first issue of the mag had 1000 copies. From 2017 it reached 15000 copies.

Place of publication: Bila Tserkva, Mariupol
Number of pages: 4-16
================================================

The Foreign Policy: Ukraine honors neo-fascist involved in the Holocaust and the ethnic cleansing, 2015

Original article by Foreign Policy: Ukraine passes law making those involved in the Holocaust and the ethnic cleansing exempt from criticism, 2015

a quote from the article:
===============
"Ukraine country’s national parliament, the Supreme Rada, has just taken a much more dangerous step. Lawmakers recently passed a controversial law that honors dozens of nationalist organizations -- including far-left socialists, monarchists, and neo-fascists -- as “fighters for Ukrainian statehood.”

While most of the groups on the list are harmless enough, among them are two -- the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) -- that were involved in the Holocaust and the ethnic cleansing of Poles in western Ukraine during and after World War II. The inclusion of these organizations among those that are exempt from criticism is deeply disturbing."
===============


Also it should be noted that The USA Today, The Salon, The Huffington Post (UK) all say that OUN and UPA are responsible for the Holocaust and the ethnic cleansing.
If this is not enough for you then read these articles:


Libération (France): Quelle est l’importance du régiment Azov, cette unité ukrainienne fondée par des proches de la mouvance néonazie?, 2022
quote:
===============
It should be noted that Bandera was one of the leaders of the Army insurrection Ukrainian (UPA) who collaborated with nazi Germany, and participated in the massacres of Jews during the Second world War.
===============


Le Figaro: Ukraine's far-right enters parliament, 2012
quote:
===============
"Seen from Western democracies, Svoboda party indeed inspires a certain uneasiness. Until 2004, Svoboda was called the National Socialist Party of Ukraine (dedicated post, wiki article). It has since found a more respectable name, but still claims to belong to the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). This has a complex history. It should be noted, however, that its armed wing (UPA) actively collaborated with the Nazis during the Second World War and massacred the Jews of Galicia (western Ukraine). Every year, Svoboda commemorates the creation, in 1943, of the Waffen SS division “Galitchina” (Galicia)."
===============


Associated Press: Poland probes burning of Ukrainian flag at far-right march, 2016
quote:
===============
Poland’s Foreign Ministry says the country is investigating the burning of a Ukrainian flag during a march by far-right nationalists, an incident that comes amid increased tensions between the Slavic neighbors. The nationalists burned the flag while screaming vulgarities about Stepan Bandera, a fascist Ukrainian leader during World War II whose followers slaughtered many Poles.
===============


BBC News: Torch-lit march in Kiev by Ukraine's right-wing Svoboda party, 2014
quote:
===============
Thousands of supporters of a far-right Ukrainian party Svoboda have held a procession through the centre of the capital Kiev. The protesters were marking the 105th anniversary of the birth of a controversial World War II Ukrainian nationalist leader [Bandera] whom western historians accuse of being the perpetrator of ethnic cleansings in Ukraine.
===============


P.S. The red and black 🟥⬛ flag which you can see almost on every photo from Ukraine is the flag of Bandera's OUN. Now you know what it stands for. Beware!

Is it that hard to take a picture of a Ukrainian without a nazi symbol of some sort? Or are those Buddhists of the Ukraine resistance?

TVN24 „Wstajesz i wiesz” (Poland). 39th day of Russia's treacherous invasion of Ukraine, 03/04/2022

On 03/04/2022 Polish TV channel TVN24 during a morning broadcast show „Wstajesz i wiesz” (Stand up and see) made an interview with a Polish volunteer from Kharkiv, Ukrain.

The said volunteer introduced the host to her friends: Anastasia and Antonio, who were going to be married that same day.

During the conversation with the couple a plaque or a plate with swastika engraved is clearly visible in the background.

CNN: The elevation of fascists into Ukraine key government positions, 2014

The link to the original CNN article

quote:
"After all, in the eyes of many ethnic Russians, it is the Ukrainian nationalists -- not Putin -- who are the Nazis. The Russians have asserted, quite accurately, that the revolution that overthrew a pro-Russian, democratically elected leader has resulted in the elevation of Russophobe fascists into key government positions. For example, the new secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council is Andriy Parubiy -- co-founder of the Neo-Nazi Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU) (a dedicated post or a wiki article)."