.@SocDoneLeft, supposedly an Ukraine supporter, obviously hasn't being reading up on Azov, blindly believing Kremlin propaganda. He went as far as to wish for their deaths.
Let me clear this somehow still very controversial topic up for all you uninformed people: 🧵
When russia started it's war in the Donbas in 2014 the ukrainian army wasn't well prepared for combat, so a lot of volunteer battalions were formed in order to deter the agressor. Azov consisted mostly of volunteers from the football fan community in the very beginning.
YES, some members, even founding members had a far right background, not even gonna deny that, but amongst the early members were also Jews (among them atleast one Israeli citizen), Greeks, Tatars AND even russian citizens and Pro-russians(!!).
Now, you might be wondering how Pro-russian people made their way in. Well, one of the reasons was the very loose screening process, which allowed literally anybody to join. The unit was very unorganized in these early stages, where nearly all of the controversy originates from.
Fact: without such volunteer battalions russia's plans for "Novorossiya" would have definitely found more success. Despite that the government knew that change had to come, so they made the move to officially incorporate the unit into the National Guard of Ukraine as a regiment.
With this came a lot of changes. Most of the far-right members present in the beginning left the newly formed regiment as well as russian agents infiltrating the unit. The regiment also had to create a new logo and now officially became known as "Azov".
This new logo of Azov has been critized by Western media for supposedly being a wolfsangel (as seen on the right), but in fact it's a combination of the letters N and I. This combination of letters stands for "Ідея Нації", which translates to "Idea of the Nation".
After this point the newly found regiment received a large influx of new members from all over Ukraine, whith most of them now not having any political background, their motivation solely being the protection of their people against russia.
Many of the former far right members moved into politics hoping to gain political success from the achievements of the Azov regiment. As expected every single far right party in Ukraine failed miserably. Ukraine doesn't have a far right problem, as some like you to believe.
How exactly the Azov regiment is perceived by some as a "threat" rather than a group of brave men and women defending their homeland remains a mystery to me. Mariupol has large Jewish, Greek and muslim communities and non of them have reported any harassment from the regiment.
In fact they even have Jewish people in high ranks and Israel even welcomed one of the commanders as a honored guest. Azov cooperates with a lot of the muslim units in the AFU, like for example the Sheikh Mansur and Dudayev battalions.
In 2017 most of the remaining members with "neo-nazi" tendencies left the regiment, as from this point onwords the display of political views was forbidden, especially if it affects members of the regiment belonging to minority groups.
The reason this rumor about the Azov battalion is still in circulation, is due to the fact that russia has utilized the chaotic first year of the regiment as a propaganda tool from the very beginning and especially since 2022, due to their "denazification" excuse for genocide.
They have literally being pinning every single conspiracy theory and "justification" for their genocide in Ukraine to this one regiment. From the "Donbas genocide" lie, to the "Denazification" lie. There are real Neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine. The Azov battalion is not one of them.
These very harmful, genocide enabling rumours about "Neo-Nazi battalions" in Ukraine were strengthend a lot by certain individuals in the West, who didn't care to do proper research, like our man SDL here. It certainly had an influence on the brutality Mariupol was treated with.
Eternal memory to ALL defenders of Mariupol, who died defending the city from the absolute bloodbath russia caused. May the tens of thousands of civilians who died in that city, rest in peace.
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Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny must be one of the most underated military leaders in history
You will definitely be suprised at the things he managed accomplished only in the short time period between 1615 and 1621:
- Conducted several major raids on major Ottoman cities and in 1615 and 1616, he even raided ISTANBUL the largest city in Europe at the time, only using small boats called "Chaikas", against the Ottoman Navy which was one of the strongest. His men even entered the Sultan's palace
- In 1616 the newly elected Hetman CAPTURED Kaffa, which was one of the biggest cities at the time, housed one of the best fortified Ottoman fortresses and one of the largest Slave markets in the World. Again only using "Chaikas"
As another Holodomor Rememberence Day approaches, I want to spread awareness to the fact that @nytimes journalist Walter Duranty still hasn't been stripped of his 1932 Pulitzer prize, he got for spreading Soviet propaganda to the West and covering-up the death of millions.
Joseph Stalin himself praised Duranty on Christmas Day of 1933: "You have done a good job in your reporting of the USSR (...) you try to tell the truth about our country (...) I might say you bet on our horse to win when others said it had no chance"
His career only started seeing big success when he got insights into the USSR, that other journalists couldn't attain. He was even allowed to interview Stalin. And while he lived a luxurious life in Moscow, millions were starving to death.
As Holodomor Rememberence Day is coming up soon, I want to share some of the posts I made on the topic, In hopes it may give you some insight into the deep Trauma Moscow has inflicted onto the Ukrainian nation.
1. Recognition of the Holodomor as a genocide against the Ukrainian Nation
2. The Holodomor in the Kuban Region. A russian territory with a Ukrainian majority. It was specifically targeted for its strong Ukrainian identity and reluctance to russify.
Ukrainian cuisine. Let's talk about it and why and how it's still in a colonized state, why it's far from reaching it's full potential and why many Ukrainians settle for mediocre asian food and below average Kebap, instead of exploring/enjoying the depths of their own cuisine.
How is it in a "colonized" state you ask?
Well, I think it's pretty obvious. Many russified names, recepies and culinary history is still being upheld by modern day Ukraine.
Why? Primarily due to the Soviet Union and its devastating effects on Ukrainian culture.
Prime example: Pelmeni
The "New Soviet cuisine" dictated that meat dumplings be called "Pelmeni" (Udmurt/Komi) and vegetable/fruit dumplings be called "Vareniki" (Ukrainian), thereby mixing different cuisines and separating them from their roots.
Thread on the Ryazan incident (russia) in 1999, where FSB agents planted a bomb in an apartment building, just to claim that it was all just a "training exercise" two days later, after agents got arrested by the police🧵 1/9
This incident occurred a few days after the latest apartment bombing in Volgodonsk (17 deaths), that was directly attributed to Chechens and resulted in air bombings of Grozny and later the Second Chechen War.
Chechen authorities always denied those claims. 2/9
On September 22nd 1999 two suspicious men were noticed carrying bags into an apartment building in Ryazan. When the police arrived to check the suspicious activity, the men were already gone and 2 sacks of powder with a detonator and timing device were found in the basement.
Yeah, so there's probably going to be a lot of Anti-Ukraine propaganda posts about the May 2nd 2014 Odesa Clashes today, so let me freshen up your memory on what happened real quick:
> russia had similar plans for Odesa as they had for Donetsk
> They call for a "Odesa People's Republic"
> They plan on capturing government buildings and on March 3rd they already tried seizing the Odesa Council Building and replaced the Ukrainian flag with a russian flag there
> This never worked though as they could only gather a couple hundred people at most every time they tried
> On May 2nd they try starting shit once again
> All of them are geared up and some even armed with real guns
> There are around 300 of them