Archived link for the curious: https://archive.md/TzJBp
The article mentions this sort of thing happens with Russian soldiers as well, with a solder on video receiving a medal while wearing the totenkopf: https://archive.md/I4QGG
_The Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact with Germany in 1939, so it was caught by surprise two years later when the Nazis invaded Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union. Ukraine had suffered greatly under a Soviet government that engineered a famine that killed millions. Many Ukrainians initially viewed the Nazis as liberators.
Factions from the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and its insurgent army fought alongside the Nazis in what they viewed as a struggle for Ukrainian sovereignty. Members of those groups also took part in atrocities against Jewish and Polish civilians. Later in the war, though, some of the groups fought against the Nazis._
Not everything is as it seems, there is a lot of nuance and history here and I think it would be silly to say that Ukraine was a nazi country.
I have seen actual nazi rallies in the US and Australia, there are probably more across the world. White supremacists are a thing, the vocal disgusting minority.
I’m not sure I follow all the information you have given, but it is interesting and led me down a few rabbit holes of reading.
The famine is an interesting one, your first article seems to cast doubt on it, but later on you mention a journalist who risked his career to report it. In any case, the famine is historical fact, though both the US and Russia did try to dispute it.
You mentioned the allegations of genocide in Donbas which appear to have been false allegations, I cannot find any reputable sources that the Azov brigade did anything of the sort.
The article mentioning Stepan Bandera is interesting, it seems he was another figure “seen as a symbol of a revolutionary who fought for Ukrainian independence.” Though he had facist beliefs, at the time, I can see an impoverished people (and their later descendants) clinging on to any symbol of hope.
The information about Lebed and his later contributions to the Prologue Research and Publishing Association.
I admit I am not 100% sure where you were going with all this information, but it made for an interesting read with my morning coffee! <3