"The 3rd Assault Brigade became known for its intensive fighting during the battle for Bakhmut, which destroyed the city, and more recently, in clashes east of Kharkiv. Its founder Andriy Biletsky was a far-right politician before the war.
"Israel is arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine” 4 July 2018 (hey, wasn’t Trump President then, and in military alliance with Israel on waging "Irregular Warfare?")
BLUF: "But Racheli Chen, the head of the agency, confirmed to Mack she had “carefully read your letter,” which detailed the fascist nature of Azov and the reports of Israeli arms and training.
. . .
"Starting as a gang of fascist street thugs, the Azov Battalion is one of several far-right militias that have now been integrated as units of Ukraine’s National Guard.
"Staunchly anti-Russian, Azov fought riot police during the 2013 US and EU-supported “Euromaidan” protests in the capital Kiev.
"The protests and riots laid the ground for the 2014 coup which removed the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych.
"When the civil war began in eastern Ukraine against Russian-backed separatists, the new western-backed government began to arm Azov. The militia soon fell under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian interior ministry, and saw some of the most intense frontline combat against the separatists.
"The group stands accused in United Nations and Human Rights Watch reports of committing war crimes against pro-Russian separatists during the ongoing civil war in the eastern Donbass region, including torture, sexual violence and targeting of civilian homes.
Avakov last year metwith the Israeli interior minister Aryeh Deri to discuss “fruitful cooperation.”
Azov’s young founder and first military commander Andriy Biletsky is today a lawmaker in the Ukrainian parliament.
As journalist Max Blumenthal explained on The Real News in February, Biletsky has “pledged to restore the honor of the white race” and has advanced laws forbidding “race mixing.”
At a military training camp for children last year, The Guardiannoticed that several Azov instructors had Nazi and other racist tattoos, including a swastika, the SS skull symbol and one that read “White Pride.”
One Azov soldier explained toThe Guardian that he fights Russia because “Putin’s a Jew.”
Speaking to The Telegraph, another praised Adolf Hitler, said homosexuality is a “mental illness” and that the scale of the Holocaust “is a big question.” (TP-Just like Tucker Carlson’s favorite “historian!"
An Azov drill sergeant once told USA Today “with a laugh” that “no more than half his comrades are fellow Nazis.”
An Azov spokesperson played that down, claiming that “only 10-20 percent” of the group’s members were Nazis.
Nonetheless, the sergeant “vowed that when the war ends, his comrades will march on the capital, Kiev, to oust a government they consider corrupt.” (TP-Just like Republican’s plans!)
After Azov’s founder Andriy Biletsky entered parliament, he threatened to dissolve it. “Take my word for it,” he said, “we have gathered here to begin the fight for power.”
Those promises were made in 2014, but there are early signs of them being fulfilled today.
This year the battalion has founded a new “National Militia” to bring the war home.
Led by its military veterans, it specializes in pogroms and thuggish enforcement of its political agenda.
Earlier this month, clad in balaclavas and wielding axes and baseball bats, members of the group destroyed a Romany camp in Kiev. In a YouTube video, apparently shot by the Azov thugs themselves, police turn up towards the end of the camp’s destruction.
They look on doing nothing, while the thugs cry, “Glory to the nation! Death to enemies!” (TP-just like Trumpites!)
Israel’s military aid to Ukraine and its neo-Nazis emulates similar programs by the United States and other NATO countries including the UK and Canada.
So obsessed are they with defeating a perceived threat from Russia that they seem happy to aid even openly Nazi militias – as long as they fight on their side.
This is also a throwback to the early Cold War, when the CIA supported fascists and Hitlerites to infiltrate from Austria into Hungary in 1956, where they began slaughtering Hungarian communist Jews and Hungarian Jews as “communists.”
. . .
They said Canada is “strongly opposed to the glorification of Nazism and all forms of racism” but that “every country must come to grips with difficult periods in its past.” (TP-including Canada and the U.S. with taking in so many Nazis after WW II!)
The spokesperson, who did not provide a name, wrote that Canadian training “includes ongoing dialogue on the development of a diverse, and inclusive Ukraine.”
The statement said nothing about how alleged Canadian diversity training goes down with the Azov Battalion.
Also part of Colonel Irwin’s meeting was the head of Azov’s officer training academy, an institution named after right-wing Ukrainian nationalist Yevhen Konovalets.
Konovalets was the founder of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which later allied itself to Nazi Germany during its invasion of the Soviet Union.
Under pressure from the Pentagon, a clause in the annually renewed defense bill banning US aid to Ukraine from going to the Azov Battalion was repeatedly stripped out.
This went on for three straight years before Democratic lawmaker Ro Khanna and others pushed it through earlier this year.
For his trouble Khanna was smeared in Washington as a “K Street sellout” who was “holding Putin’s dirty laundry.”
Despite the ban finally passing, Azov’s status as an official unit of the Ukrainian armed forces leaves it unclear how US aid can be separated out.
The ADL argued that “the focus should be on Russia,” while the Wiesenthal Center pointed to the fact that other far-right leaders had met at the Israeli embassy in Ukraine – as if that somehow absolved their anti-Semitic views.
Attempts by some in Congress to bar US military aid to Nazis in Ukraine may explain military aid from Israel. (TP-Yes, one of Reagan’s schemes to arm the Contras, etc., and here, with Trump’s obvious permission.)
Israel’s “deepening military-technical cooperation” with Ukraine and its fascist militias is likely a way to help its partner in the White House, and is another facet of the growing Zionist-White Supremacist alliance.
Israel has historically acted as a useful route through which US presidents and the CIA can circumvent congressional restrictions on aid to various unsavory groups and governments around the world.
In 1980s Latin America, these included the Contras, who were fighting a war against the left-wing revolutionary government of Nicaragua, as well as a host of other Latin American fascist death squads and military dictatorships.
It also included the South African apartheid regime, which Israeli governments of both the “Zionist left” and Likudnik right armed for decades.
As quoted in Andrew and Leslie Cockburn’s book Dangerous Liaison, one former member of the Israeli parliament, General Mattityahu Peled, put it succinctly: “In Central America, Israel is the ‘dirty work’ contractor for the US administration. Israel is acting as an accomplice and an arm of the United States.”
Amid an alarming rise in anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism, Israel now appears to be reprising this role in eastern Europe.
With translation from Hebrew by Dena Shunra.
Asa Winstanley is an associate editor with The Electronic Intifada.
Model, Maria, 25, is photographed on Aug. 31 as she sits on the hood of a Humvee on the set of the shoot for the 3rd Assault Brigade’s next military recruitment campaign in Kyiv. (Ed Ram for The Washington Post)
KYIV — The machine-gunner gripped his weapon — body taut, eyes focused, finger on the trigger.
Atop the hood of his Humvee, a model in cutoff shorts and cherry-red stilettos leaned back on her elbows, bare legs dripping with bubbles. The soldier took aim with his weapon — a power-washer.
This was no battlefield, but the front lines of Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade’s next advertising campaign — a modern take on World War II-style pinup girls, complete with scantily-clad models gripping pistols and straddling soldiers. The brigade hopes this campaign will attract recruits, which are increasingly in short supply as the war with Russia drags toward its third year.
With the public grown leery of draft efforts, military units across Ukraine are competing with each other to refill their depleted ranks. To better fight the war, they have to sell it, and few do it better than the 3rd Assault brigade, known for its innovative billboards and dollar-generating YouTube channel, as well as the controversial ideology of its founder.
Unique to Ukraine is the fact that its military’s more than 130 brigades are now allowed to directly seek out recruits — avoiding the national draft centers altogether. The 3rd Assault Brigade has taken the approach of appealing to the ordinary citizen and showing them the kind of soldier they’d be if they volunteered for Ukraine’s “top fighting unit.”
“This is a modern war that requires us to be more open,” said media teamcommander Khrystyna Bondarenko in the brigade’s first interview about their advertising process. “We need to commercialize and sell the idea that it is cool to be in the army.”
At the photo shoot, she and two other members of the 20-person creative team perched on canvas director’s chairs in front of a computer screen, previewing the day’s images. In one shot, a soldier’s profile is reflected in the sunglasses of a pretty redhead, her bangs lightly curled. In another, a model in a pleated schoolgirl skirt is draped across a soldier’s lap in the back of a Humvee.
The brigade expects this campaign to drum up controversy — but they hope the attention will work in their favor.
‘Come join’
Military advertisements blanket Ukraine, along highways and city streets and all across social media, marketing different versions of warfare — some placid and devoid of violence, others patriotic and valorous.
The 93rd Mechanized Brigade asserts that “Everyone can do it!” with photos of ordinary civilians on the battlefield — the tractor driver behind the wheel of a tank, the professional chef whipping up meals on the front lines. The 13th Operational Brigade of Khartia reassures that not all jobs are combat, superimposing the message “Your brain, your weapon” on a picture of a man wearing glasses and sitting at a computer.
The Offensive Guard takes a different tact, proclaiming “First at the border, first in the attack” with an image of a clean-shaven soldier white-knuckling a weapon, ammunition filling the pockets of his tan flak jacket.
The effectiveness of these efforts is unknown. The military does not release data about the number of voluntary recruits, deeming those numbers sensitive information. But recruitment appears to be sagging as Ukraine continues to be out-resourced by more populous Russia.
Last year, Ukraine set up a new training center, hoping to alleviate public unease over the military’s ability to properly train and outfit new soldiers. Recruitment centers are also sprinkled across the country, according to the website of the Ministry of Defense — which did not respond to calls for comment — to “build a transparent and effective model of attracting citizens to military service.”
The 3rd Assault Brigade became known for its intensive fighting during the battle for Bakhmut, which destroyed the city, and more recently, in clashes east of Kharkiv. Its founder Andriy Biletsky was a far-right politician before the war.
The brigade took the lead in appealing directly to citizens. They offer a no-commitment test week where normal people can try out beingsoldiers, wearing military uniforms and engaging in physical challenges, as well as an intensive 30-day training program for recruits.
Their efforts have spurred other brigades to innovate in similar ways.
“It’s only through healthy competition that we produce a good and high-quality product,” said Buriak Ivan, chief sergeant of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade. “We see them as a kind of competitor. We try to raise our own standards … we pay attention to them, just as they pay attention to us.”
‘Creating an image’
The first of the 3rd Assault Brigade’s campaigns ran in March 2023 and featured five of the elite unit’s commanders.
Though skeptical, the men agreed to take a break from fighting and pose near the front lines, the photo shoot taking place in the basement of a factory. Rather than conceal their faces behind balaclavas, as is traditionally done, they bared them to the world. The message — an attempt at trust and transparency — was “come join.”
The campaign helped generate 150 to 200 daily applications, Bondarenko said. While only about 1 in 10 applications ended in enlistment, she saw it as a success.
“We believe we are creating an image, and we are trying to get people to stand by that image,” said the brigade’s art director Vlad Kulyk, who formerly worked in marketing. “We rally the people who fully believe it is possible to end this war as soon as possible.”
Their second campaign portrayed soldiers facing off against their Russian adversaries — who were depicted as zombies. The landscape surrounding them is washed by sunset oranges and reds.
Their third campaign struck a lighter note and showed recruits seated in lawn chairs, flying drones against a blue summer sky. For the most recent campaign, they wanted to experiment with entirely new imagery while tying into historical themes.
They settled on pinup girls.
“We wanted to bring some sort of light mood,” said chief designer Dmytro, who asked to be identified by only his first name because of the sensitivity of his job in the military. “People think it’s some kind of trick to drag you into the brigade and give you a bayonet and fight in the trenches. We wanted to say, like, war is not always blood and death or guys fighting. Sometimes you just chill and learn.”
The creative work, Bondarenko said, is done by a team of 20 — 13 military personnel and seven civilians. Their messaging feels impossible to escape, covering more than 1,000 billboards across Ukraine, which she said are largely donated. Digital ads are funded by the profits from their YouTube channel, she said, which has nearly 1.3 million subscribers and generates more than $15,000 monthly. On Instagram, they have another 115,000 subscribers.
Soon, they hope to expand into a new area — merchandising. The brigade envisions it as a one-stop shop where people can purchase T-shirts, patches and other mementos of the war.
‘Balance’
On set, the soldier swiped a yellow sponge across the military vehicle’s hood in tight, precise circles. The model again reclined, silver crosses dangling from her ears.
The professional photo shoot was a first for the soldier — gravely injured in Bakhmut and again in Avdiivka, he was back in Kyiv recovering. He would soon return to combat, along with the Humvee. Though the afternoon’s activities would suggest otherwise, he and the creative team know the product they are selling is more serious than the campaign might suggest.
“Yes, war is terrible,” said Kulyk. “We are not romanticizing that you will kill the enemy — but we romanticize that you will have good memories after the war. You will have friendships, you will have connections, you will have lot. We have to balance it.”
They’d also have, he hoped, a victory.
After a few more rounds of photos, the soldier dropped his sponge, damp with soapy water. They moved on to the next portion of the photo shoot before calling it a day.
By early October, the advertisements were popping up across Ukraine to mixed reviews. One Twitter user called it “cringeworthy” — adding, “I seriously want to look into the eyes of the person who came up with this idea” — while on Facebook, a woman posted a photo of a billboard on the highway with the caption: “I love the Third Assault Brigade. I love every unit that holds up this cold autumn sky above us.”
As expected, the campaign certainly had people talking.