German TV Shows Nazi Symbols on Helmets of Ukraine Soldiers

[Purveyor]

Germans were confronted with images of their country’s dark past on Monday night, when German public broadcaster ZDF showed video of Ukrainian soldiers with Nazi symbols on their helmets in its evening newscast.

In a report on the fragile cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, Moscow correspondent Bernhard Lichte used pictures of a soldier wearing a combat helmet with the "SS runes" of Hitler’s infamous black-uniformed elite corps. A second soldier was seen with a swastika on his gear. “Volunteer battalions from nearly every political spectrum are reinforcing the government side,” the ZDF correspondent said in his report.

The video was shot last week in Ukraine by a camera team from Norwegian broadcaster TV2. “We were filming a report about Ukraine’s AZOV battalion in the eastern city of Urzuf, when we came across these soldiers,” Oysten Bogen, a correspondent for the private television station, told NBC News. Minutes before the images were taped, Bogen said he had asked a spokesperson whether the battalion had fascist tendencies. “The reply was: absolutely not, we are just Ukrainian nationalists,” Bogen said.



http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ukraine-crisis/german-tv-shows-nazi-symbols-helmets-ukraine-soldiers-n198961

[Tommy_Carcetti]

1. Azov Battalion is not the Ukrainian military.

There's no government oversight of them. They are a private militia and fairly small.

[Comrade Grumpy]

4. They fight on the same side, and I don't see Kiev trying to rein them in.

[geek tragedy]

11. Kiev is busy resisting an invasion from the world's #2 nuclear power.

They don't exactly have the resources to round these guys up.

[Union Scribe]

9. Why do you keep making excuses for this shit? nt

[Tommy_Carcetti]

10. I'm pointing out the truth.

And the truth is, yeah, there are some neo-Nazis in Ukraine. But there's a rush by people in the pro-Russia crowd to ascribe that sentiment to the Ukrainian government itself in order to make them an easy strawman target. And that's just not necessarily an accurate reflection of the situation.

The truth regarding Ukraine has been bent up and down and in and out repeatedly. Words have been stripped of all meaning, and events have been stripped of all context.

[Nye Bevan]

2. Kind of like pretending that Cliven Bundy and his merry men are the US Army (nt)

[Karmadillo]

7. Really? Bundy & Co have played a role in the US army similar to

what is described in this article?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/azov-far-right-fighters-ukraine-neo-nazis

<edit>

Dmitry – which he said is not his real name – is a native of east Ukraine and a member of the Azov battalion, a volunteer grouping that has been doing much of the frontline fighting in Ukraine's war with pro-Russian separatists.

The Azov, one of many volunteer brigades to fight alongside the Ukrainian army in the east of the country, has developed a reputation for its fearlessness in battle.

more...

[bullwinkle428]

12. Until Bundy's crew is fighting alongside U.S. Special Forces in

the Middle East, this is the ultimate analogy fail.

[pa28]

6. The State Department will crawl into bed with anybody if it serves to advance neoliberalism.

They know and they don't seem to care.

[Oilwellian]

8. Huh. Imagine that.

I wonder how the Russians feel about Nazis on their border again.