It was NBC that was there that covered the story guess they didn’t check to see who the firearm instructors were that day.
It was featured on Fox News who was training the lady.
“On Monday’s “Morning Joe,” NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Richard Engel led a report on the ground about some communities in Ukraine “are taking matters into their own hands,” showing militants in a training session in a room filled with civilians, calling it “basic training for the whole family.” Engel’s report highlighted a 79-year-old “great grandmother” learning how to use a rifle.”
“But critics point out the Canadian Forces does not actually conduct vetting of those foreign troops that it trains, which is at the heart of the problem. It leaves such vetting up to the nation providing the troops to be trained.”
Well ya if that’s true some could have very well been trained by these groups. The biggest is the Azov battalion they have been incorporated into the Ukrainian national guard but have somewhat autonomy on their actions from what I have read.
They are many other far right groups there but the Azov battalion is the biggest by far. They are mostly congregated in east southern Ukraine in the city of Mariupol. My wife’s family lives in the Ukraine the last time we were there was in 2016 visiting was planning on going back right when covid hit. We saw a few of the Azov battalion soldiers and their logos make them stand out while in the town of Ivano Frankisk her home town which isn’t to far from the polish border.
So they are plenty of them and they have expressed their views openly. The government can’t kick them out they are literally some of it not their best fighters look at wiki “battle of Mariupol” it was the first battle Ukraine won when the conflicts began it was the Azov battalion who came in when the government troops were on the run and did the fighting and routed the separatists out of the city. Since they are held as heroes in Ukraine.
That’s not to say they are not many Ukrainian soldiers who are not with Azov or hold their views but it shouldn’t be understated as if it’s some fringe force it’s not they are large, well trained, and armed to the teeth. And yes literal Nazis the real deal not the tiki torch idiots in this country.
Samm here is a one minute video on the basics of the Azov battalion they are now considered a contract unit or special forces unit contracted out by the Ukrainian government and have now grown from a battalion and are labeled regiment status. They incorporate two Nazi symbols in their logo the Wolfsangel and the black sun both SS emblems in WW2.
This is one of the many ways I am conflicted about this whole thing.
I have relatives in Ukraine.
I know there are Neo-Nazis there and I know the West has backed them.
I think if Russia goes into Ukraine whole hog he will get bogged down, which is good geopolitically.
But short term thousands and thousands will die, the global economy will take a shot, and a world in which there are still thousands of nukes and no real balance of power will be further destabilized.
It looks like the real story is that the war in Donbas is reigniting.
Here is what Voice of America is saying:
Analyst and longtime Kremlin-watcher Dmitri Trenin of the Moscow Carnegie Center, a think tank, suspects the Kremlin is creating “strategic tension” with its actions in the Donbas along with planned nuclear-force drills Saturday and Sunday in Belarus, a Russian ally.
“Moscow’s objective appears to be coercing Ukraine into talking directly with Donetsk and Luhansk,” he tweeted Saturday, with the goal of intimidating Kyiv into accepting a 7-year-old peace deal, the Minsk Accord . . .
Has all the hype from DC about a Russian invasion really been a distraction for a possible US-backed Ukrainian offensive in Donbas?
Not saying I agree with Bill’s sources, but there’s other ways to disagree with him. They’ve been “evacuating” the US embassy in the Ukraine for a month. War with Russia? has been rumored since December. Remember this?
There’s a lot of ■■■■■ footing going around if it’s war, and if not, what is it? Posturing by either side?
I think it’s Donbas. But yes i def didn’t think it was going to get as far as it has.
My propaganda line actually isn’t about the sources but the fact that I think that Ukraine is going to attack is coming straight from Russian state television. They are using it as a reason to defend Russians in Donbass
I couldn’t have said it better we often find ourselves in this situation except this time it’s not Shia and Sunni and more extreme elements on one side. It’s the red army, nazis, regular joes, former communists and you really can’t tell them a part just like in Iraq.
People just have to accept there is an abundance of extreme far right groups there, to be honest I wouldn’t even bring it up but ever since Charlottesville happened that term has rung out loud on the media since 2017 as one of the worst things possible if that is the worst thing ever one would think we wouldn’t want to be providing arms to them. And if lethal arms are going to the Ukraine they sure as hell are going to these groups as well. And these are the real deal neo nazis not like a lot of the pretenders we have here.
It’s baked in part of the population and has been since WW2, then the fall of communism many fascists groups popped up. As I said in another post when the organizer of Jewish Pogroms Stepan Bandera is held as a national hero just in the last few years with new buildings a holiday and street names popping up with his name one should not dismiss that.
I understand your frustration. I am a conservative but distance myself far from that stuff I don’t want that stain on the republican name.
