Don't want to help mainstream neo-Nazis? Then don't do what Ukraine's Prime Minister did last week.
Oleksiy Honcharuk, Ukraine's PM, appeared on stage at a concert organized by a notorious far-right figure and headlined by an openly neo-Nazi band
bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…
Oleksiy Honcharuk, Ukraine's PM, appeared on stage at a concert organized by a notorious far-right figure and headlined by an openly neo-Nazi band
bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…
Both Ukraine's PM Oleksiy Honcharuk and veterans affairs minister Oksana Koliada appeared at the "Veterans Strong" event October 13. The organizer of the event was Andriy Medvedko (pictured here), a leading member of the neo-Nazi C14 who's on trial for murder 
Of the three bands playing the event, the headliner - as was obvious from ads leading up to the event - was Sokyra Peruna. The band, with its swastika-like logo (visible behind Ukraine's PM here), has a long history on Ukraine and eastern Europe's neo-Nazi music scene
Honcharuk claimed he was in no position "to dictate to our veterans what songs they should sing." But he probably would prefer them not hear Sokyra Peruna songs like "Six Million Words of Lies," a song denying the Holocaust that says “the time of reckoning, a holy war is coming”
Other Sokyra Peruna lyrics include lines like: “Who is guilty, who sold Ukraine? / Jews are walking in the streets / writing laws / ruling the state."
Remember, of course, that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish
Remember, of course, that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish
Bilodub also runs the Svastone neo-Nazi fashion label, which sells shirts like "white boy" for babies that also manage to reference the neo-Nazi "14 words."
The man behind this, remember, is is the same one headlined the concert and was featured on adverts for the concert
The man behind this, remember, is is the same one headlined the concert and was featured on adverts for the concert
Having two cabinet ministers, including the prime minister, at an event organized by the far-right & headlined by a known neo-Nazi band is the stuff of the far-right's dreams, and further shows they have an outsized level of influence in Ukrainian politics and society
But, as we will detail in an upcoming investigation, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the way Ukraine's far-right exploits legitimate veterans' issues to mainstream itself in Ukrainian politics and society. So stay tuned!
