The US, Russia, and Ukraine: 75 Years of Hate Propaganda

A more contemporary expression of fascist hatred was articulated by Ukraine’s notorious Azov Battalion founder, Andriy Biletsky, a member of the Ukrainian parliament from 2014 to 2019. Ukraine’s mission, he said in 2010, was to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans].” Today, through the intense lobbying of devoted pro-fascist followers, Bandera statues and street names are seen all over western Ukraine – and with the support of former presidents Yushchenko and Poroshenko (Yanukovych objecting), the former Nazi ally was bestowed the title of “national hero.”  The subtext of the honor was hatred of Russia and subjugation of the country’s ethnic Russians.  The US turned to another Ukrainian Nazi, a co-founder of OUN, Mykola Lebed, who was trained by the Gestapo in the most advanced methods of torture. Lebed was known by the US Army counterintelligence to have participated in the mass murder of Jews and Poles.  For the CIA, the postwar Nazis were acceptable then as Ukraine’s neo-Nazis are today, the agency having secretly trained the fascist-oriented Azov battalion starting in 2015 for anticipated insurgency against Russia and ethnic Russians in the eastern provinces. In the long run, Zelensky’s value to the US is his role of helping to marginalize Russia and behaving like a good neoliberal ward of the West and showing the world that his country is open for business, even if that requires a large share of the hundreds of millions in kickbacks given to himself and his generals.