The propaganda that Russia is fighting “Nazis in Ukraine” reemerges

The term “special military operation” is an official term used by the Russian government and pro-Russian sources to mark the Russian military invasion of Ukraine. Widespread is the belief that the term was created to minimize and blur the real nature of the war initiated by Russia as to claim Russian victory in the operation, regardless of the outcomes. What Russia started in Ukraine on the 24th of February 2022 is an attack and invasion on a sovereign and independent state, not a “special military operation”. 

Special ops are military activities conducted, according to NATO, by “specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equipped forces using unconventional techniques and modes of employment. Special operations may include reconnaissance, unconventional warfare, and counterterrorism, and are typically conducted by small groups of highly trained personnel, emphasizing speed and tactical coordination. 

In the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, a great deal of civilians are getting killed as well. The military invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine led by Putin has already been identified by a large number of countries in the world, and to a large extent, as an act of human rights violations. This condemnation was put into practice by providing humanitarian and military support for Ukraine, in the form of a Resolution of the General Assembly of the UN, and suspending the membership of the Russian Federation in the Council of Europe, followed by its leaving the institution together, etc. The post, on the other hand, is spreading untruths about ”Russia not being lenient to the Nazis during the special military operation” just like it was not lenient in the Second World War. 

Interestingly, while Russian state-owned media describe Ukraine as a “Nazi” state even back in 2014, data shows that the number of articles and media texts linking Ukraine to Nazism increased abruptly on the day of the invasion, assessed the Italian institute ISPI90. 

However, Ukraine – a country where millions were killed fighting against Nazism in the Second World War and where Nazi ideology is banned – according to the Kremlin, is the biggest Nazi of all. The EUvsDisinfo database contains almost 500 examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation claims related to “Nazi/Fascist Ukraine”. 

Numerous historians claim that the military aggression in Ukraine cannot be correlated to any kind of denazification. 

“On the last elections, the extreme right-wing United Front won only 2.15 percent of the votes,” stressed political scientist Andreas Umland from the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies (SCEEUS). 

As a reminder, Ukraine banned the promotion of Nazism in 2015. Russia attacked Ukraine, and Ukraine is entitled to defend itself. The developed democratic member states of NATO and the EU are helping Ukraine to do that, including, of course, the USA. 

The pro-Russian post aims to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Presenting Ukraine as the land of the Nazis is a false propaganda platitude of Russian President Vladimir Putin to justify the military invasion he started on the 24th of February 2022, completely unprovoked. 

Azov Battalion was established as a military unit in May 2014 and is frequently used for propaganda purposes about the existence of Neo-Nazism in Ukraine. As specified by Al Jazeera, the members of this extreme right-wing military unit are ultra-nationalists accused of an ideology close to White Supremacy. The unit was created as a voluntary group led by Andriy Biletsky, and consisting of the ultra-nationalist group “Patriots of Ukraine” and a Neo-Nazi group. As reported by Al Jazeera both groups have Neo-Nazi and xenophobic ideals and they have physically attacked immigrants, Roma, and other people. As a battalion, the group has fought against the pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine. Nevertheless, the Nazi groups that exist in contemporary Ukraine – as in other European countries – do not influence the Parliament, they do not participate in the government, and cannot serve as an excuse for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Apart from that, the Azov Battalion was incorporated within the Ukrainian National Guard once Mariupol was retrieved back in 2014, hence all legal obligations and stipulations of military law apply to the unit. 

In the Report for Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Threats, the European External Action Service explains that one of the most exploited narratives is: ”Ukraine is a Nazi and a terrorist state”, but also that it supports such groups. 

Due to all of the above-noted facts, the post fact-checked is assessed as untrue.