I had never heard of Oliver Stone's "Ukraine On Fire" documentary until YouTube banned it, so I watched it last night to see what the problem was. It seemed to be a well documented summary of the events in Ukraine in the last 25 years or so. One notable thing was the number of times Nazis were entered into the picture, and it is strange that no one is talking about it.
I can say my perspective has changed a little bit on the subject.
Those Nazi groups may have been established by a certain foreign nation primarily to discredit the civil movement and to establish cause for military intervention.
I don't disagree, they are the perfect boogeyman. The problem is that if they may have started as just a boogeyman, they have undeniably grown to be an actual problem with huge institutional power.
That's why if you support ukraine, making excuses instead of wanting them gone is just playing right in the hands of russian propaganda. The more those groups grow in influence (like they have been doing since the start of the invasion), the more it's going to be hard to deny for western powers by just claiming it's a Russian red hereing.
Ok, so I took a look, and it doesn't seem like that it was created (or made more biased) in response to the recent events. Here's the history of that Wikipedia page if you'd like to see older versions: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Azov_Battalion&of...
> One notable thing was the number of times Nazis were entered into the picture, and it is strange that no one is talking about it.
The violent phase of the Maiden square riots looked like postapocalyptic neonazi live action roleplaying. Clear nazi esthetics. I guess many of them were to, in hindsight.
It is strange becouse I guess the Ukraine gov. does not need the Azov batallion anymore. They probably can't get rid of them (easely) even if they wanted.
As long as Ukraine fighting a war, that would be impossible. If they will sign peace and focus on economic development to join EU, neo-nazi topic will change its polarity and become toxic again. There is no way Ukraine can join EU with "Pravy sector" being legal organization.
With "war" do you mean 2014+ or the full invasion?
I understand that the gov. can't disband them now since they will just disobey orders and there is no resources to arrest them, but there was plenty of time before that.
Using more or less neonazis as a separate unit is just begging for problems, even if you are fighting separatist militia. Thinking about it, it is total madness. There is a insane internal security risk having them in a unit.
I can say my perspective has changed a little bit on the subject.