This story will be a difficult swallow especially as it’s so open. The implications of Nazi activity in the Dombas( if I have that right?) was dismissed too quickly as a reason for Russia to intervene. The darkness seems to be everywhere if you just look hard enough.
Definitely, Tricia. T. Thank you for reading and engaging))
As things get worse and the whole thing begins to crumble, the mask is slipping more. I don't believe Zelenskiy really believes in a lot of this, but he's compelled to go along with it, for his ego, greed, need for power and self-interest. All of this against what's good for his country too. He may end up getting himself killed by them too.
You can say Donbas or Donbass - it's short for the Donetsk Basin.
There is, of course, a part of Ukrainian nationalism and the will to self-determine that is benign and honest, decent and well meaning, but there is also a great deal of the very dark side too. The West should have learned with ISIS and so many other groups that getting into bed with extremists rarely ends well
Thank you for sharing this. As a Pole, this is a deeply personal and painful issue for me, so I really appreciate you bringing these facts to light.
What’s happening in Ukraine is becoming harder and harder to ignore. These are not just isolated incidents anymore. We are watching outright Nazis being openly celebrated and honoured by the state, with less and less effort to hide it. They are starting to behave like “the Israel of Europe” - aggressive, revisionist, and increasingly shameless and unpunished.
And it’s getting worse. Did you hear that Zelensky recently named a military unit after the “UPA Heroes”, and there are plans to bring back Bandera’s remains for a second state funeral? The mask is slipping faster every month.
Yes, as things get worse and the whole thing begins to crumble, the mask is slipping more. I don't believe Zelenskiy really believes in a lot of this, but he's compelled to go along with it, for his ego, greed, need for power and self-interest. All of this against what's good for his country too. He may end up getting himself killed by them too.
There is, of course, a part of Ukrainian nationalism and the will to self-deterrmine that is benign and honest, decent and well meaning, but there is also a great deal of the very dark side too. Poles know this better than anyone.
I did that in fact, I linked to it too. Nawrocki wants to rescind Z's honours because of it.
Thank you, Adrian. All this means a lot coming from you. I'm happy to get the truth out there in my own small way.
Yes, Nawrocki is at least willing to take a harder line against attempts to normalise the cult surrounding OUN-UPA figures, even if he ultimately backed away from banning their symbols after strong Ukrainian backlash. In many ways, that reaction says more about parts of the Ukrainian political environment than about Nawrocki himself.
Whatever one thinks of him politically, he is probably among the most openly patriotic Polish presidents since 1989 and clearly places Polish national interests first.
What is especially telling is that even Lech Wałęsa, long known for visibly displaying Ukrainian symbols, publicly announced he was removing his Ukrainian flag pin after the recent controversy. Symbolically, that is a major crack in Poland’s previously near-unconditional pro-Ukraine consensus.
I spoke to a woman in Ukraine today. We talk every week. I mentioned Ukraine’s attack on the university dorm in Lugansk and she hadn’t heard about it. They’re being told exactly half of the story. Most of the Ukrainians I speak to didn’t even know that the USA had funded the Maidan or that in the years leading up to the war, most of the independent media in the country had been bought out by USAID money
A great deal has been suppressed there, but older non-extremist Ukrainians know there was also one very dark element in Ukrainian nationalism. Millions fought and died to stop Nazism, where this very dark element did the opposite, killing and murdering their own people.
I never realized Ukraine had such a neo-Nazi problem. And I also didn’t know Ukrainians killed over 1 million Jews during WWII.
I will say, with a dear friend who is Russian and lives just outside Moscow, I haven’t fallen victim to the MSM’s propaganda these past four years of how Russia is all bad and Ukraine is all good. Like everything, it’s way more nuanced than that.
I do appreciate the education I’m getting from reading some of your pieces on the subject.
I caught on to how evil Zelensky when Rick wiles of TruNews reported on it years ago- when the war began. He brought receipts 🧾. So I did not fall for the west bullshit narrative. I think moving forward because of the wests tendency to always lie - just assume they are and try to prove that they are not. Search for the actual receipts 🧾 to show that are being truthful and you will likely find no receipts- just a bullshit narrative. It’s time to stop being naive, gullible, and intellectually lazy. Boomers and Gen X are dreadful for being exactly that. Time to grow up! If the west says the water 💧 is clean - then assume it isn’t and start grassroots activism to get the water clean. It’s called strewardship. Let the elites destroy caring for others as their anthem, our anthem is we care and will not allow the lies to spread.
The Mariupol Theatre was blown up by the Ukrainian Azov Brigade, NOT the Russian air force.
The neo-Nazi Azov Brigade controlled the city of Mariupol, the population of which was firmly against the unconstitutional government of Ukraine. It is well documented that Azov Brigade fighters rounded up civilians and detained them in the Mariupol Theatre, which had been rigged with explosives beforehand. The Azov Brigade members then detonated the explosives, blaming the death and destruction upon the Russians for publicity purposes.
These events have been well documented by many main stream reporting sources, including western ones. There were no Russian planes in the air over Mariupol that day. The Ukrainian government forces, including the Azov Brigade, had been shelling and mass-murdering the inhabitants of the Donbass and other other resistors for eight long years prior to the Russian assault on the Azov Brigade in Mariupol, so it should be no surprise the Azov would continue those practices on the inhabitants of Mariupol.
It is shameful the author of this post failed to do his due diligence as a journalist by investigating the circumstances of the destruction of the Mariupol Theatre, instead of repeating the lies of the neo-Nazi Azov Brigade and the illegitimate Ukrainian government.
As Consortium News journalist Patrick Lawrence notes:
"In May, roughly when the Azov Battalion, heroic and democratic as it is, was forced to surrender in Mariupol, it was time for — this just had to be — Russian atrocities. We had the theater and the maternity hospital in Mariupol, we had the infamous slaughter in Bucha, the Kiev suburb; various others have followed. Just what happened in these cases has never been established by credible, disinterested investigators; plentiful evidence that Ukrainian forces bear responsibility is dismissed out of hand. But who needs investigations and evidence when the brutal, criminal, indiscriminately ruthless Rrrrusssians, must be culpable if the imaginary war is to proceed?"
Thank you, I'll take a look. I think the evidence for Bucha being Azov and not Russia is pretty convincing. This is why I didn't include it in the article. Wrote about Bucha a few years back in my Medium days.
Get nothing else out of the article apart from disagreeing with me on Mariupol, Beady? You can call me Shaney, quite like it actually.
Appreciate the job you did reporting the latest Ukrainian terrorist atrocity and Nazi hero worship, as well as the historical links to the Bandera-Melnik era of which many in the United States of Amnesia (Gore Vidal: "we learn nothing because we remember nothing") are blithely unaware (and kept that way by the MSM).
I do, however, think the article would have been better had you devoted a few more words to the origins of the civil war which didn't begin with Zelensky, no matter how responsible he may be for its continuance. How about a mention of the funding by the CIA and MI6 of the ultra-nationalists, including the neo-Nazis, to the tune of 5 billion dollars, culminating in the violent Maidan coup d'état in 2014? After all, Ukraine today has the best neo-Nazi government U.S. money could buy.
I also think you are doing your readers a dis-service in writing the following: "Ukraine alleges that Russia has committed over 150,000 war crimes, and while this is likely to be highly inflated, Russia has committed a great many heinous, barbaric and unconscionable acts in Ukraine." Shouldn't such a conclusively damning statement be accompanied by at least a small measure of evidence, apart from the self-serving claims of a bunch of neo-Nazis? May I suggest the actual evidence of war crimes is not as two-sided as you lead your readers to believe?
War is war, and civilian casualties are always going to occur. But when I compare Russian military practices in Ukraine to any other modern war of memory, I am struck by how much effort the Russians have made to limit civilian harms. Compared to the U.S. military, the Russian military resembles nothing so much as an organization of Orthodox Christian saints when it comes to avoiding civilian casualties. This is not to mention the many documented acts of terrorism, overt and deceptive, perpetrated by Ukraine against the civilian populations of both Russia and Ukraine itself.
You don't have an eye for writing though. This is a small contained piece. The more you include all that you want, the more you destabilise it and make it what it's not and what it shouldn't be. If you want my deeper analysis, I have many pieces. Issue-based pieces need to exclude a lot to get across their main idea.
Fine, point taken. But that's no excuse for misleading your readers with unsubstantiated claims of Russian war crimes while ignoring the substantiated crimes of the U.S. in instigating a violent civil war in Ukraine to further its aims against Russia.
It's easy to tell the west and its allies since it has a thing for bombing girls, like it has recently in Iran and Russia. Not the good guys.
100%, Diana.
This story will be a difficult swallow especially as it’s so open. The implications of Nazi activity in the Dombas( if I have that right?) was dismissed too quickly as a reason for Russia to intervene. The darkness seems to be everywhere if you just look hard enough.
Definitely, Tricia. T. Thank you for reading and engaging))
As things get worse and the whole thing begins to crumble, the mask is slipping more. I don't believe Zelenskiy really believes in a lot of this, but he's compelled to go along with it, for his ego, greed, need for power and self-interest. All of this against what's good for his country too. He may end up getting himself killed by them too.
You can say Donbas or Donbass - it's short for the Donetsk Basin.
There is, of course, a part of Ukrainian nationalism and the will to self-determine that is benign and honest, decent and well meaning, but there is also a great deal of the very dark side too. The West should have learned with ISIS and so many other groups that getting into bed with extremists rarely ends well
Zelenky is being played like a marionet since at least 2016 when he played piano with his pants down and without using his fingers.
I think THAT was the moment where someone showed the warmongers. Look we can make him do this, we are now in control.
You can believe that Ukrainians do not let to exhume Poles murdered by OUN/UPA during the war.
No, these are the ashkanaci Neo nazi zionazi jews
Ukraine is a nation peopled by honest, clean-living, sainted martyrs. Only.
Haha, that's what the Western MSM loves to tell us))
Forgive me, father, for I have sinned. Really, I have. But I will try never to do it again. And I will resist anyone who tries to make me do it again.
That's the difference. It's not about being perfect; it's about trying to be perfect.
Thank you for sharing this. As a Pole, this is a deeply personal and painful issue for me, so I really appreciate you bringing these facts to light.
What’s happening in Ukraine is becoming harder and harder to ignore. These are not just isolated incidents anymore. We are watching outright Nazis being openly celebrated and honoured by the state, with less and less effort to hide it. They are starting to behave like “the Israel of Europe” - aggressive, revisionist, and increasingly shameless and unpunished.
And it’s getting worse. Did you hear that Zelensky recently named a military unit after the “UPA Heroes”, and there are plans to bring back Bandera’s remains for a second state funeral? The mask is slipping faster every month.
Thank you very kindly, Adrian.
Yes, as things get worse and the whole thing begins to crumble, the mask is slipping more. I don't believe Zelenskiy really believes in a lot of this, but he's compelled to go along with it, for his ego, greed, need for power and self-interest. All of this against what's good for his country too. He may end up getting himself killed by them too.
There is, of course, a part of Ukrainian nationalism and the will to self-deterrmine that is benign and honest, decent and well meaning, but there is also a great deal of the very dark side too. Poles know this better than anyone.
I did that in fact, I linked to it too. Nawrocki wants to rescind Z's honours because of it.
Thank you, Adrian. All this means a lot coming from you. I'm happy to get the truth out there in my own small way.
Yes, Nawrocki is at least willing to take a harder line against attempts to normalise the cult surrounding OUN-UPA figures, even if he ultimately backed away from banning their symbols after strong Ukrainian backlash. In many ways, that reaction says more about parts of the Ukrainian political environment than about Nawrocki himself.
Whatever one thinks of him politically, he is probably among the most openly patriotic Polish presidents since 1989 and clearly places Polish national interests first.
What is especially telling is that even Lech Wałęsa, long known for visibly displaying Ukrainian symbols, publicly announced he was removing his Ukrainian flag pin after the recent controversy. Symbolically, that is a major crack in Poland’s previously near-unconditional pro-Ukraine consensus.
I spoke to a woman in Ukraine today. We talk every week. I mentioned Ukraine’s attack on the university dorm in Lugansk and she hadn’t heard about it. They’re being told exactly half of the story. Most of the Ukrainians I speak to didn’t even know that the USA had funded the Maidan or that in the years leading up to the war, most of the independent media in the country had been bought out by USAID money
A great deal has been suppressed there, but older non-extremist Ukrainians know there was also one very dark element in Ukrainian nationalism. Millions fought and died to stop Nazism, where this very dark element did the opposite, killing and murdering their own people.
I never realized Ukraine had such a neo-Nazi problem. And I also didn’t know Ukrainians killed over 1 million Jews during WWII.
I will say, with a dear friend who is Russian and lives just outside Moscow, I haven’t fallen victim to the MSM’s propaganda these past four years of how Russia is all bad and Ukraine is all good. Like everything, it’s way more nuanced than that.
I do appreciate the education I’m getting from reading some of your pieces on the subject.
You're very welcome, Chris. Thank you for the support.
Yes, Ukraine both lost millions fighting the Nazis, and some Ukrainians butchered many of their own - Ukrainians, Jewish-Ukrainians - and Poles too.
Thank you for keeping the records straight!
I caught on to how evil Zelensky when Rick wiles of TruNews reported on it years ago- when the war began. He brought receipts 🧾. So I did not fall for the west bullshit narrative. I think moving forward because of the wests tendency to always lie - just assume they are and try to prove that they are not. Search for the actual receipts 🧾 to show that are being truthful and you will likely find no receipts- just a bullshit narrative. It’s time to stop being naive, gullible, and intellectually lazy. Boomers and Gen X are dreadful for being exactly that. Time to grow up! If the west says the water 💧 is clean - then assume it isn’t and start grassroots activism to get the water clean. It’s called strewardship. Let the elites destroy caring for others as their anthem, our anthem is we care and will not allow the lies to spread.
The Mariupol Theatre was blown up by the Ukrainian Azov Brigade, NOT the Russian air force.
The neo-Nazi Azov Brigade controlled the city of Mariupol, the population of which was firmly against the unconstitutional government of Ukraine. It is well documented that Azov Brigade fighters rounded up civilians and detained them in the Mariupol Theatre, which had been rigged with explosives beforehand. The Azov Brigade members then detonated the explosives, blaming the death and destruction upon the Russians for publicity purposes.
These events have been well documented by many main stream reporting sources, including western ones. There were no Russian planes in the air over Mariupol that day. The Ukrainian government forces, including the Azov Brigade, had been shelling and mass-murdering the inhabitants of the Donbass and other other resistors for eight long years prior to the Russian assault on the Azov Brigade in Mariupol, so it should be no surprise the Azov would continue those practices on the inhabitants of Mariupol.
It is shameful the author of this post failed to do his due diligence as a journalist by investigating the circumstances of the destruction of the Mariupol Theatre, instead of repeating the lies of the neo-Nazi Azov Brigade and the illegitimate Ukrainian government.
As Consortium News journalist Patrick Lawrence notes:
"In May, roughly when the Azov Battalion, heroic and democratic as it is, was forced to surrender in Mariupol, it was time for — this just had to be — Russian atrocities. We had the theater and the maternity hospital in Mariupol, we had the infamous slaughter in Bucha, the Kiev suburb; various others have followed. Just what happened in these cases has never been established by credible, disinterested investigators; plentiful evidence that Ukrainian forces bear responsibility is dismissed out of hand. But who needs investigations and evidence when the brutal, criminal, indiscriminately ruthless Rrrrusssians, must be culpable if the imaginary war is to proceed?"
Or Max Blumenthal from The Grayzone:
https://popularresistance.org/was-bombing-of-mariupol-theater-staged-by-ukrainian-azov-extremists-to-trigger-nato-intervention/
Or Eric Zuesse from Global Research:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/was-the-azov-battalion-behind-the-mariupol-theater-bombing-or-was-it-russia/5774510
I have not seen convincing evidence for this. Perhaps the commentator can provide convincing evidence from solid sources?
Got nothing else from the article apart from this criticism, Beady?
See sources listed above, Shaney.
Thank you, I'll take a look. I think the evidence for Bucha being Azov and not Russia is pretty convincing. This is why I didn't include it in the article. Wrote about Bucha a few years back in my Medium days.
Get nothing else out of the article apart from disagreeing with me on Mariupol, Beady? You can call me Shaney, quite like it actually.
Appreciate the job you did reporting the latest Ukrainian terrorist atrocity and Nazi hero worship, as well as the historical links to the Bandera-Melnik era of which many in the United States of Amnesia (Gore Vidal: "we learn nothing because we remember nothing") are blithely unaware (and kept that way by the MSM).
I do, however, think the article would have been better had you devoted a few more words to the origins of the civil war which didn't begin with Zelensky, no matter how responsible he may be for its continuance. How about a mention of the funding by the CIA and MI6 of the ultra-nationalists, including the neo-Nazis, to the tune of 5 billion dollars, culminating in the violent Maidan coup d'état in 2014? After all, Ukraine today has the best neo-Nazi government U.S. money could buy.
I also think you are doing your readers a dis-service in writing the following: "Ukraine alleges that Russia has committed over 150,000 war crimes, and while this is likely to be highly inflated, Russia has committed a great many heinous, barbaric and unconscionable acts in Ukraine." Shouldn't such a conclusively damning statement be accompanied by at least a small measure of evidence, apart from the self-serving claims of a bunch of neo-Nazis? May I suggest the actual evidence of war crimes is not as two-sided as you lead your readers to believe?
War is war, and civilian casualties are always going to occur. But when I compare Russian military practices in Ukraine to any other modern war of memory, I am struck by how much effort the Russians have made to limit civilian harms. Compared to the U.S. military, the Russian military resembles nothing so much as an organization of Orthodox Christian saints when it comes to avoiding civilian casualties. This is not to mention the many documented acts of terrorism, overt and deceptive, perpetrated by Ukraine against the civilian populations of both Russia and Ukraine itself.
Cheers.
You don't have an eye for writing though. This is a small contained piece. The more you include all that you want, the more you destabilise it and make it what it's not and what it shouldn't be. If you want my deeper analysis, I have many pieces. Issue-based pieces need to exclude a lot to get across their main idea.
Fine, point taken. But that's no excuse for misleading your readers with unsubstantiated claims of Russian war crimes while ignoring the substantiated crimes of the U.S. in instigating a violent civil war in Ukraine to further its aims against Russia.
You c