Sunday, November 12, 2017

Der Spiegel — REVEALED: 2,500 German neo-nazi mercernaries fought in Ukraine conflict


German news. Will the US and UK new report it?

Fort Russ
REVEALED: 2,500 German neo-nazi mercernaries fought in Ukraine conflict
Der Spiegel
Translated by J Flores

5 comments:

Vytautas Vakrina said...

You would better remove this fake.

Salsabob said...

This is as insightful as stating that the little green men in Donetsk are Stalinist. But whatever floats your boat.

Tom Hickey said...

You would better remove this fake.

Here is the link to Der Spiegel.

Deutsche heuern bei rechtsextremem ukrainischen Bataillon an

Vytautas Vakrina said...

The size of battalion was ~2500 soldiers in 2014.
Spiegel found one of them to be from the East Germany.

Tom Hickey said...

Agree that the headline is wrong about the number of Germans being 2500. The article says that the foreign participation is estimated at 2500, not limited to Germans. I should have pointed that out at the time.

But it would also be a stretch too say only one German based on the report, a paragraph of which is reproduced below. Only one is identified. But the article suggests more.

So I don't think that the erroneous headline proves the piece useless. It seems to me concerning that this group is now advertising in Europe and attracting foreign participation. Clearly, the editors at Der Spiegel are concerned about it, too. I think that most people likely thought that they had seen the end of it the after WWII. Not so.

Jan K. from the East Germany, for example: With his thumb stretched he poses on a Facebook photo, he wears a T-shirt in camouflage colors, a protective vest, on it an emblem with the letters "Azov". This right-wing extremist volunteer battalion, which is fighting against pro-Russian separatists in the Ukraine conflict, is getting increasingly popular in Europe, especially in Germany, according to SPIEGEL information. In 2014 about 850 mercenaries fought in the militia; today, there are already more than 2500, according to security agencies.

Jan K. aus dem Osten Deutschlands zum Beispiel: Mit ausgestrecktem Daumen posiert er auf einem Facebook-Foto, er trägt ein T-Shirt in Tarnfarben, eine Schutzweste, darauf ein Emblem mit dem Schriftzug "Asow". Dieses rechtsextremistische Freiwilligenbataillon, das im Ukraine-Konflikt gegen prorussische Separatisten kämpft, bekommt nach SPIEGEL-Informationen verstärkt Zulauf aus Europa, vor allem auch aus Deutschland. Kämpften 2014 noch rund 850 Söldner in der Miliz, sind es heute nach Angaben von Sicherheitsbehörden bereits mehr als 2500.


The originally paramilitary Avoz Battalion was officially incorporated into the Ukrainian National Guard in Nov 2015 and upgraded as the Azov Regiment in 2016.