Neo-Nazi Factor in Drive
for War on Russia Exposed
by Jeffrey Steinberg
Feb. 23—Almost a year after EIR published two dossiers[1] on the neo-Nazi profile of the Euromaidan coup against the Victor Yanukovych government in Ukraine, and a week after a fragile ceasefire deal was reached in Minsk among Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, French President François Hollande, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, temporarily halting U.S. weapons shipments to the Kiev government, news media in Europe and America are at last waking up to the danger posed by the central role of the Banderite fascists in the fighting in eastern Ukraine.
These new confirming revelations put a further spotlight on the role of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, who has been the biggest booster of the Banderite terrorists since the “color revolution” took off in late 2013.
Lyndon LaRouche has emphasized that the U.S. support for the fascist coup in Ukraine in Februrary 2014, and for the fascists operating inside and outside the government of that nation today, has put the world on the very edge of thermonuclear war with Russia. Those fascists’ key supporter, neo-con Nuland, must be kicked out of office, opening the way for Barack Obama himself to be either removed outright, or “considerably constrained.”
Kiev: ‘We Need the Nazis’
One of the most shocking revelations about the role of neo-Nazi brigades in eastern Ukraine came from the Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, in a prime-time German TV interview on Feb. 18. The relevant section, with English subtitles, can be accessed on YouTube.
Confronted with a picture of Ukraine’s volunteer fighting forces in southeastern Ukraine, where the swastika insignia of the Azov Battalion is clearly visible, Ambassador Melnyk candidly admitted that these “volunteers”—Right Sector and other neo-Nazi organizations—were fighting in eastern Ukraine, side by side with regular units of the Ukrainian Army. He defended the role of the fascists, claiming that, without their backing, “the Russians” would have been able to grab even more territory in the east of the country.
Melnyk lied that the scores of battalions of fighters, emerging out of the Right Sector and other outright neo-Nazi groupings, were no threat to the State, because they were deploying under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the government in Kiev. He also lied that there were no neo-Nazis elected to the Supreme Rada (parliament) in the last elections, and that the extreme right had been marginalized.
When asked if Kiev could be sure these forces would not do anything untoward, Melnyk claimed that since they are being deployed by the government, “there is no danger they’ll do something on their own.” Given the finding of Amnesty International that these pro-Kiev militias have carried out kidnappings, torture, and extrajudicial executions, the ambassador’s statement effectively amounts to an admission of war crimes by the Kiev regime.
Melnyk’s claims were proven false by none other than the head of one of the militias, the Donbas Battalion, Semyon Semenchenko, who announced that his force was establishing a separate command structure, apart from the Ukraine military. And, while outright Banderite parties are not in the government, leaders from those parties were absorbed onto the slate of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s own party, and are, indeed, playing a leading role in the Kiev government.
Vox.com, a new online news outlet headed by former Washington Post correspondent Ezra Klein, on Feb. 20 published a dossier on the battalions, warning that they pose a direct threat to the Ukrainian State.
The Drive for War
As we reported last week, these fascist militias have outright rejected the Minsk ceasefire agreement. Now there are strong indications that the government—backed by Britain, the United States, and NATO—is following suit.
In an interview with Fox News on Feb. 22, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk repeated demands for American weapons, claiming that “there is no ceasefire” in eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, his Deputy Foreign Minister, Vadym Prystaiko, on a visit to Canada, told CBC Radio on Feb. 21 that “we don’t want to scare everybody, but we are preparing for full-scale war.... What we expect from the world is that the world will stiffen up in the spine a little. Everybody is afriad of fighting with a nuclear state. We are not anymore, in Ukraine.”
In reality, both the Donetsk and Luhansk forces signed the written agreement and vowed to begin the withdrawal of heavy weapons in the next 48 hours. The ceasefire is largely remaining in force in much of the east. Most important, sources in Washington emphasize the fact that the four heads of state that participated in the Minsk accord remain committed to the ceasefire and to larger settlement talks, and continue to maintain daily contact to secure that outcome. There was never any doubt that hardliners on the ground would try to subvert the deal.
The British government continues to agitate for a direct showdown between the U.S. and Russia, even while admitting that Britain’s own military forces have been so gutted by budget cuts under the Cameron government, that they are incapable of playing any significant role in a conventional conflict. Despite this, the British Minister of Defence came out with wild allegations that Russia’s next target of conquest is the Baltic states, which, he claimed, are in grave danger.
In addition, Gen. Sir Adrian Bradshaw, the deputy Supreme Commander of NATO, according to the Daily Telegraph, told the Royal United Services Institute that there is a danger that President Putin could try to invade and seize NATO territory, after calculating that the alliance would be too afraid of escalating violence to respond.
In London, en route to Geneva meetings with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was pressed by his British counterpart, Philip Hammond, to impose new sanctions on Russia for alleged violations of the Feb. 12 Minsk agreement. Obama has confirmed that he is considering new sanctions, but has not yet decided on whether to ship lethal aid to the Ukrainian military.
Andriy Parubiy, the Banderite who was chief of the National Security Council in the post-Maidan period, and is now a deputy in the Supreme Rada, is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Feb. 24 to press for lethal aid. During a late 2014 visit to Washington, no doubt arranged by Nuland, other fascist activists peddled fake pictures claiming to show a Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine. Duped Senate Republicans jumped on the photographs, some of which turned out to be pictures of Russian tank units fighting in Georgia during the 2008 war, and pressed for military aid to the Ukraine Armed Forces and for further anti-Russia actions.
[1] “Western Powers Back Neo-Nazi Coup in Ukraine,” EIR, Feb. 7, 2014; “British Imperial Project in Ukraine: Violent Coup, Fascist Axioms, Neo-Nazis,” EIR, May 16, 2014.
