Ukraine has a small and irrelevant Nazi problem. Far right parties barely mustered 2% of the last election. Less than the US. Reporting on it now only serves Putin's propaganda machine. And making some sort of academic argument about journalistic freedom is maybe technically true but you can't just ignore the reality of the world. The legacy media has been doing a far better job than the agenda-driven substackers.
The media, whether Western or Russian, exists in order to rally support for the actions of the elite, usually by misrepresentation, oversimplification, and blatant lies. When Euromaidan was in progress, it was impossible to even hint that there was a presence of political groups with Nazi sympathies. You were immediately discredited as a pawn of Russian media. I have no idea why the emotional zeal. Of course, it was true, but the West needed support from the demos and downplayed anything that would hurt the geopolitical sparring match with Russia.
Ukraine in general has a history that has been unaddressed. Ukrainian collaboration with Nazis during WWII, genocide against Poles (which many continue to deny, downplay, or rationalize), and Western Ukrainian reverence for national heroes and militant groups entangled in these events (e.g., Stepan Bandera and UPA) remain taboo subjects. They're topics that will likely remain untouched as long as Ukraine is being bought over by Russia and the US.
Could you please stop spouting Russian propaganda at every step? Russia has a far bigger Neo Nazi problem then Ukraine, on top of that it isn't exactly the Ukranian Neo Nazi's that are currently invading another country to slaughter their citizens.
Neo Nazi's are unfortunately all too common, in the context of Ukraine they are merely a very convenient excuse to invade another sovereign country.
I think your 'Goebbels this' and 'Goebbels that' arguments are amusing.
Thanks for confirming that 5 TV channels carrying alternative views are banned in Ukraine. That's no problem for you because you call them propaganda.
Some people disagree. A lot of Ukrainians Russian-speakers feel that their point of view is not represented in Ukrainian official media, and that Russian news provide some valuable alternative. After all, one of the first laws of new Kiev govt was an anti-Russian language law.
And then in a single breath you deny neo-Nazi issue as a bullshit. You obviously know that lenta.ru editor was fired allegedly for publishing a link to Ukrainian "Right Sector" content.
Next you of may want to deny that Svoboda and their paramilitary wing Right Sector are neo-nazis... I could refer to to European Union officials expressing concern about Svoboda's position in Kiev government, but I think my arguments will be lost on you.
I've noticed lots of commentators who seemingly couldn't point to Ukraine on a map before February have suggested that Ukraine's Nazi links are fabricated, when even mainstream media was reporting this before 2022.
It includes things such as Ukraine's police departments providing operational support to Nazi groups, and the groups' history of arming themselves with heavy weapons including missiles. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Ukraine has a long history of directly supporting these groups. Implying either the Nazi groups don't exist or that they're not intertwined with government is opportunistic historical revisionism.
The West not only ignores the problem, but directly supports the Nazi groups through weapons shipments, propaganda lines and protection from censorship. [5] [6]
you mean the ones uncritically parroting Ukrainian propaganda without any verification which just switched from vaccine propaganda to UA war propaganda, that real news?
just because they have Jewish president doesn't mean Nazis can't play significant role in Ukrainian politics, same as just because US had black president US racism didn't go away
Well, for the audience of Russian highly regulated TV, news sites and social networks, the invasion of Ukraine was necessary because the poor neighbour was suffering under a regime of “actual self-described Neo-Nazis”. Russian Ministry of Defence even reports its daily results in terms of ”Neo-Nazis eliminated“. My parents are consumers of Russian media, and it is impossible to discuss the war with them, because they talk and think with these flexible terms like “Nazi”, “terrorist” and “propaganda”. And they are not unintelligent people.
I wish citizens of the free world would be more careful with their freedoms. Democracy and autocracy is a spectrum, and the slide towards dictatorship, from my experience, could be gradual and subtle.
That's unfortunate. The fact that Ukrainians fight alongside neo Nazis and have done for years, is a key part of Putin's started justification for why it's a moral invasion. This sort of censorship has kept the West blind to this reality. I've seen quite a few comments in recent days saying how ridiculous it is for Putin to claim the Ukrainians support Naziism given that their president is a Jew, but the reality is, the Azov Battalion has been around for a while and they aren't subtle about their beliefs. It weakens the West when people criticize "state controlled media" in Russia whilst being totally unaware of what's happening on the ground in Ukraine.
Ukraine is no better than Russia and in some cases is even worse.
Ukraine has a serious Nazi problem.
While in Russia one oppositionist Nemstov was murdered, soon after in Ukraine as many as 8 opposition MEPs were murdered (allegedly committing suicide). The Ukrainian nationalists claimed responsibility for the murders. [1]
Recently the Ukrainian parliament has passed a law (act 2538) that forbids questioning the heroism of fascist organizations such as OUN UPA and their leader Stepan Bandera - which are responsible for massacring and ethnic cleansing 200 000 Polish women and children in the Volhynia Massacre. [2]
Stepan Bandera which also was a Nazi collaborator is commonly regarded as Ukraine's national hero by most of them.
Fun fact: the only time when far right had any power in Ukrainian parliament was during pro-russian president. After he fled to Russia they've never been able to cross electoral threshold. They currently hold one (!) seat in the parliament.
That's all you need to know about Nazis in Ukraine.
Leftists today love to parrot the Ukraine are neo-nazi dreck.
Obviously, the USSR is gone but it did manage to demoralize enough people to shill for Russian foreign policy despite Putin being much more fascist adjacent, and enjoying close support from the bellicose Orthodox patriarchs who rail against western politics instead of sticking to droning on about God.
By pretty much all statics and reports I have seen, Ukrainian neo-nazi problem if massively smaller then Russian one. Every single country has some neonazi ... and Russia has a lot of them and in fairly powerful positions.
Ukraine is not celebrating Stalin the way Russia is celebrating Stalin. Ukraine was not forcibly closing organizations studying communists crimes or Stalin crimes, Russia did.
Ukraine did not moved to make gay or trans materials illegal. Meanwhile, arrests and violence against gays in Russia became quite a serious thing in Russia. Practically, being gay is criminalized.
Ukraine did not started wars with countries around it the way Russia repeatedly did.
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I am not saying Ukraine is country of saints, but Russia is waay worst then that.
I agree that Ukraine was not a thriving liberal democracy, it was an infant democracy trying to shake out a corruption infested political class. The issue was not nazi militias, that's Russia's propaganda.
Because if nazi militias is your main point of contention I'd need to point you towards the USA for you to take a look as well... Not a thriving democracy either?
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