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[deleted] t1_iu46rpt wrote

Reply to comment by hideous-boy in Ukrainian soldier with vermontese maple syrup and pancakes by kievit4ukraine

Asking in good faith here: according to this article that patch is the new one. They dropped the old Nazi-like symbol. Does that make a difference?

Apparently, as of 2016, a Ukrainian Jewish organization was supportive of the Azov unit. More generally, is it naive or incorrect to think that the unit has been de-politicized since being brought into the Ukrainian National Guard?

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hideous-boy t1_iu489fd wrote

  1. It's just optics. Replacing a symbol that made them look bad doesn't change what the regiment stands for. The wolfsangel will still hold the meaning it does to them and will probably still appear all over the place.

  2. That organization's justification isn't that Azov isn't filled with Nazis, it's that Russian aggression matters more and that they aren't officially a neo-Nazi militia. To the first point I would argue that Russia can be successfully fought without empowering far-right bodies. To the second, who cares if it's official or not? Azov still has the exact same people in it and attracts the same kind of person. It's like arguing that because the Greek police are an arm of a democratic government that they can't have deep ties and allegiances to the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party.

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Human802 t1_iu4as3d wrote

“Russia can be fought with out empowering far right” a statement like this indicates you don’t know what happened when Russia first invaded in 2014, and far right militia were the only forces ready to fight them. Azov was one of these, and it was then integrated into the rebuilt national military. Also should be noted that connections between the far right and the military is true in most countries, certainly true for the US.

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