NEW from me: The DOJ's been investigating seven Americans for alleged war crimes committed while fighting with far-right extremists in eastern Ukraine.
One man named in the probe is now an active-duty Army soldier.
The US probe is centered on former Army soldier Craig Lang, who fought with Right Sector and is separately wanted in connection with a double killing in Florida and is fighting extradition from Kyiv. More on that case here: buzzfeednews.com/article/christ…
The probe's been open since at least 2017, a doc I obtained suggests, meaning Lang was on the feds' radar before 2018 Florida killings he's charged in connection with. Here are pics of 3 of the Americans (standing & Lang middle) & Right Sector base where alleged crimes committed.
There’s a lot grim details in this story but it’s important & I hope you’ll read it. The men accused deny they committed war crimes; some were definitely not present when they happened but they were tied to Lang. The DOJ, FBI wouldn’t confirm or deny probe buzzfeednews.com/article/christ…
There’s also another war crimes investigation mentioned—Ukraine’s probe into foreign fighters on Russian side which I interviewed Prosecutor General Venediktova about. 250 foreigners from 32 countries, including one American—Russell “Texas” Bentley—are accused of terror offenses.
Here’s the breakdown of those foreign fighters by country, in English.
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Underway now: Sentencing hearing for Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, leader of the far-right group the Proud Boys, who pleaded guilty last month to burning a Black Lives Matter banner stolen from a historic Black church and carrying high-capacity ammunition magazines in DC. @BuzzFeedNews
Lucas Dansie, Tarrio’s attorney, called him “a man of moral character who respects the laws” and says Tarrio “Is extremely sorry for what he did. He made a poor decision and wasn’t thinking clearly.”
Tarrio, in glasses and a blue shirt, tells the court after hearing Rev. Dr. Ianther Mills, Asbury Church’s Senior Pastor, that he made a very, very big mistake. "What I did was wrong." He says what was right was "to plead guilty in this case."
The canceled passport had been mentioned in an Australian govt report but his not name, other info.
“In January 2020, Foreign Minister Marise Payne cancelled Mr Sretenovic’s passport on the basis he was preparing to fight with the notoriously neo-Nazi Azov Battalion in Ukraine.”
Conor Sretenovic is believed to be one of four Australians who wanted to go to Ukraine to fight alongside Azov soldiers and get combat experience. As the article says, the government was worried what he might do when he returned to Australia after that experience.
The US and several EU countries have also grown worried about far-right extremists going to Ukraine. The war and subsequent rise of Ukraine’s militant extremist groups has made the country a destination for Western extremists to get combat experience and make connections.
Tucker Carlson popped over to Budapest where he met Viktor Orban today. The Fox News host and conspiracy theorist will also speak this Saturday at a far-right event in the Central European country. His segment on the main stage is titled "The world according to Tucker Carlson."
Another shot of Orban and Carlson today with one of the organizers of this Saturday's far-right event.
Ugh. Rattled and no doubt under duress, Roman Protasevich, the Belarusian journalist dragged off a RyanAir flight in Minsk after a bogus bomb threat, tells a state propaganda channel that he pleaded guilty to organizing "riots" to try to oust Lukashenko, who isn't all that bad.
The disturbing "interview" is being pushed by Lukashenko's propagandists as well as Russian state-run and pro-Kremlin media in an attempt to whitewash the Belarusian dictator in the eyes of Belarusians and smear his opposition and the West.
Protasevich says in the full-length video, which I'm not sharing here, that he "realized that many things for which Alexander Grigoryevich [Lukashenko] is criticized are in fact just attempts to pressure him, and that in many moments he acted...like a man with balls of steel." 😏
Ukrainian President Zelensky met today with US Sens. @ChrisMurphyCT, @SenatorShaheen, @robportman. He told them US & EU sanctions against Russia "are no longer working" and that it's "necessary not just to put pressure [on Russia], but to build a new format of sanctions policy."
And here on Nord Stream II. "Nord Stream 2 will disconnect Ukraine from gas supplies, which means 'disconnecting' us from at least $3 billion a year… We will have nothing to pay for the Ukrainian army." president.gov.ua/en/news/volodi…
Read quickly and overlooked this earlier: Zelensky told the US senators that Russia has only pulled back about 10,000 soldiers of some 100,000 that it had mobilized near the Ukrainian border this spring. "Russia is only declaring in words the withdrawal of its forces," he said.
Horrific scene. This Belarusian activist, before trying to slit his throat with a pen in court, said, "the GUBOPiK (a brutal police force of Lukashenko's) promised that if I don't admit my guilt then there will be criminal cases opened against my relatives and neighbors."
Stepan Lapytov (In Belarusian, Sciapan Latypaŭ), in the video above, was arrested for organizing a community protest against the brutal Lukashenko regime. His father told local media he'd been abused while in custody.
Here's a video of him being carried out of the courtroom after the incident.