When Russian President Vladimir Putin said he wanted to ‘denazify’ Eastern Ukraine, most of the mainstream media didn’t take him seriously.

But the fact of the matter is that there is a lot of truth to what he is saying and western countries are either ignorant or willfully turning a blind eye to this disturbing reality.

The notorious Azov Battalion is a neo-nazi militia that has been incorporated into Ukraine’s national guard. They are on the front lines in the civil war against Russian loyalists in the eastern regions of the country. Bearing the reputation of a cruel force, the Azov battalion is considered to be the most effective fighters against pro-Russian separatists.

According to Lower Class Magazine, a leftist German publication, the Azov battalion operates a quasi-underground outfit called the “Misanthropic Division.” They recruit heavily among the ranks of neo-Nazi youth in Germany, France, and Scandinavian countries as well. Foreign fighters are offered training with heavy weapons such as tanks. One former sniper for the Swedish army, Mikael Skillit, became a neo-Nazi volunteer for Azov.

Western commentators have no hesitation in calling Putin a modern day Hitler but gloss over Ukraine having a neo Nazi battalion in its military.

The Azov battalion, part of Ukraine’s National Guard, has contract soldiers belonging to neo Nazi militias from across 22 countries. pic.twitter.com/pqPwqEfEBl

— Satish Viswanathan (@satishv1987) February 26, 2022

In 2017, three years after Russia invaded Cremiux, an American military inspection team met with the Azov Battalion on the front lines of Ukraine’s civil war to collaborate on matters such as logistics and deepening collaboration. Images of the meeting featured US servicemen examining maps with their Ukrainian counterparts while ignoring the Nazi-inspired Wolfsangel patches on their uniforms.

Foreign Azov volunteers are seduced by their call for a “Reconquista,” – the mission to subjugate eastern European countries under the thumb of a white supremacist dictatorship that was modeled after the Nazi Reichskommissariat dictatorship which occupied Ukraine during the second World War. The mission is pushed by Azov’s political leader, Andriy Biletsky, a Ukrainian white supremicist and far-right politician. He is the leader of political party National Corps in the Ukrainian parliament. He was the first commander of the  Azov. Biletsky’s assembly pledged to outlaw interracial relationships and promised “to prepare Ukraine for further expansion and to struggle for the liberation of the entire White Race from the domination of the internationalist speculative capital.”

One of the more disturbing stories is that of French volunteer Gregoire Montaux. Montaux was arrested on the ukraine border with a massive arsenal of that included TNT explosives and two anti-tank grenade launchers.

We were beginning to worry that the Ukraine might have a bit of a “neo-Nazi” problem (e.g., here is the neo-Nazi Azov Detachment of the Ukrainian National Guard), but the Goebbelsian German media assure us that there are no Ukrainian Nazis … it’s all just “Russian propaganda.” pic.twitter.com/CDckbOHfoK

— Consent Factory (@consent_factory) February 28, 2022

Driven by violent neo-Nazi ideology, Moutaux plotted to blow up “a Muslim mosque, a Jewish synagogue, tax collection organizations, police patrol units,” and attack the Euro 2016 soccer championship. According to  the country’s SBU security service, Moutaux was in communication “with military units fighting in Donbas” — the eastern Ukraine region where Azov’s training camps are located.