Thread by @DavidNorthWSWS

Snyder has betrayed his intellectual responsibilities. The ex-historian is now a shameless peddler of State Department propaganda. His latest thread purports to tell progressives what they must know about Ukraine, singing the praises of its democracy and demonizing Russia. 1/

https://twitter.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/1489372603840139265

While branding the Kremlin as "a beacon for white nationalists and homophobes," Snyder says nothing about the historical roots of fascistic and racist elements within Ukrainian nationalism and their dangerous presence within the existing Ukraine state and its military. 2/

The growing global network of neo-Nazi forces is a real danger. But Snyder is silent about the major role of Ukraine in the development of this phenomenon.3/

Newsweek magazine posted an extensive report, dated January 5, 2022, detailing the extensive links of American neo-Nazis with Ukrainian military forces. They are going to Ukraine to gain combat experience fighting Russia. 2/
newsweek.com/ukraine-war-dr…

Newsweek interviewed journalist Mariana van Zeller, who reported on her extensive research into the role played by Ukraine as a military training ground for American Nazis. Van Zeller told Newsweek: 4/

"We interviewed members of a white supremacy group called the Atomwaffen Division ... who has sent members to train in Ukraine, where neo-Nazi militias have recruited white supremacists from around the world to join their fight against Russia and advance racist ideology." 5/

Newsweek also interviewed journalist Oleksiy Kuzmenko, who, according to the magazine, "specializes in research on Ukraine's internationally active far-right as well as its access to the Western military training that is provided to the Ukrainian armed forces." 6/

Kuzmenko told Newsweek: "Since the 2014 Maidan revolution, the government, military and security forces have institutionalized in its ranks former militias and volunteer battalions linked to neo-Nazi ideology." 7/

He continued: "Without screening for extremist ties or views, their integration has not led to depoliticization and/or dissolution once incorporated within the larger body of the government military and security forces." 8/

Ukraine Interior Ministry set up the Azov Battalion (aka Azov Division) in 2014. It is, Kuzmenko told Newsweek, "a highly-capable and heavily armed unit reportedly numbering 1100 or more fighters that is also the military wing of the internationally active Azov movement." 9/

In 2019, Newsweek notes, 40 US congressmen "signed a letter asking for the Azov Regiment to be declared a foreign terrorist organization." 10/

Newsweek's efforts to solicit from US government officials a clarification of its attitude to fascist forces in Ukraine and their relations with American and international neo-Nazi networks were unsuccessful. 11/

Snyder is well aware of the deep historical connections between Ukrainian nationalism and fascism, and once wrote about these connections in considerable detail. But now history conflicts with the political agenda of pro-war propaganda. 12/12