Alistair P-M
Jun 21, 2023
When discussing the issue of Nazis in Ukraine, especially with respect to Putin's stated goal of 'denazification' as a justification for the Special Military Operation, there are some common responses one hears used to downplay their significance. One common response is disbelief, another is that there are neo-Nazis everywhere, and yet another is that although they may exist in Ukraine, they only represent a tiny minority and Russia is using their existence to justify its aggression.
The video below deserves to be seen by more people because in it, Ukrainian nationalist Yevhen Karas proudly declares that he and his group C14 (also referred to as S14) were instrumental in making the Maidan protests of 2013/14 happen, despite being a minority.
Perhaps most jaw dropping is his matter-of-fact statement that
we perform the tasks set by the West, because we are the only ones who are ready to do them, because we have fun, we have fun killing and we have fun fighting.
In a media environment that wasn’t blatantly propagandistic, this would be held up as evidence, direct from the extremely racist horse’s mouth, that the West was involved in Maidan and told neo-Nazis to fight and kill people. But our media is blatantly propagandistic, so this is considered a conspiracy theory and very few people know about the video.
Another common bit of apologia you hear a lot from NAFO-adjacent Ukraine sympathisers is that the neo-Nazis in Ukraine only represent a tiny proportion of the population (true) or the military (but they are in the military), therefore Russia’s response is disproportional. The video is from early February 2022, but Mr Karas dismisses the idea that a small proportion of neo-Nazis can’t have a big impact:
Maidan was the victory of the nationalist ideas, nationalists were the key factor there, and clearly at the frontlines, now there is a lot of speculation saying "well there were only few neo Nazis ... maybe only 10% of [protesters were] real ideological ones" ... [they] don't understand that those 10%, maybe even less, 8% ... how much more effective in the proportion of influence [they were].If not for those 8% (of neo-Nazis) the effectiveness (of Maidan) would have dropped by 90% ... If not for the nationalists that whole thing would have turned into a gay parade
The last line is all the more darkly ironic when you take into account the way Russia’s LGBT laws are often held up as evidence of Russia/Putin’s inherent evil.
As if it needed to be repeated, of course many if not most Ukrainians find this ideology abhorrent. However, the nationalists have been active in indoctrinating people, notably kids (some of whom have gone on to fight and die in the Donbass), with their ideas since Maidan.