Ukraine’s foreign legion has clear neo-Nazi links

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Foreign Legion has a very clear link to Ukraine’s neo-Nazis. Writes Paul Antonopoulos

The entire Western media and information apparatus is fetishizing war in Ukraine to the point that foreign fighters from Europe, North America, South America, Australia and East Asia are flocking to “fight the Russians.” This of course is not surprising when even Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has allowed violent speech against Russians, saying in a statement:

“As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules like violent speech such as ‘death to the Russian invaders.’ We still won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians.”

Meta Platforms did not clarify whether the “Russian invaders” includes the defence forces of Luhansk and Donetsk, all of whom also hold Ukrainian citizenship – but it can be assumed that they are also counted as the “Russian invader”. It is also noteworthy that Meta Platforms did not make this exception to violent speech against the Ukrainian army and its Far-Right militia allies despite their slaughter of thousands of civilians in Donbass since 2014.

None-the-less, the actions of Meta Platforms and Western mainstream media is to encourage the world’s Far Right, mercenaries, Russophobe ex-military personnel from NATO countries and naïve foreigners to descend on Ukraine.

A photo of the so-called Foreign Legion, with fighters from Spain, France and England, was published on March 13 as they were being welcomed to Ukraine by Olena Semenyaka, the Azov Battalion’s International Secretary. The Foreign Legion is exactly as the name suggests, a legion for foreigners to fight in Ukraine against Russia.

It is recalled that even the Bellingcat had to acknowledge in a series of tweets in 2019 that an FBI report “detailed how members of the U.S. neo-Nazi group Rise Above Movement (RAM), based in California, had contacts in Ukraine. Olena Semenyaka, mentioned in this FBI report, is a central figure in this investigation. She works with Azov as their “International Secretary of the National Corps”. She’s well-known in European neo-Nazi circles.”

The Bellingcat also claimed that American neo-Nazis in 2019 and earlier wanted to fight in Donbass against the Russians. It now appears that with Russia’s military directly intervening in Ukraine, Western media and social media are now encouraging neo-Nazis across the world to fight the Russians. In this way, neo-Nazis in Ukraine are serving as American and NATO proxies against Russia.

One British foreign fighter, an ex-Army medic named Jason Haigh, told The Sun newspaper on March 9 that: “We got very close to getting whacked. I’ve never experienced firepower like that, I don’t think anyone of this generation ever has. Iraq and Afghanistan was totally different. The Russians are a conventional modern army.”

This is the stark reality – the war is certainly not a video game and also cannot be comparable to the US’ invasion of Afghanistan or similar. Despite this reality, many more foreigners who have nothing to do with the war or region will continue to be killed as they are encouraged by the West to fight in Ukraine.

In another example, British media lionised Leon Dawson, a British gym-owner who volunteered to fight for Ukraine despite having no military experience. The Foreign Legion ultimately rejected his application as he would be more of a “liability than a help” because of his inexperience. However, as former Washington Post reporter Amie Ferris-Rotman and Vice reporter Ben Makuch noticed, a British journalist was in the March 13 photo of the foreign fighters and Olena Semenyaka. Whether the journalist is reporting or a foreign fighter is unclear, but it does demonstrate that the Foreign Legion will take onboard inexperienced people. It must be questioned whether Leon Dawson was rejected by the neo-Nazi influenced Foreign Legion because he is multiracial.

None-the-less, his rejection will ultimately keep him out of danger, especially as Russia made a powerfully clear statement to foreign fighters that they will likely be killed if they enter Ukraine to battle the Russian military.

In the early hours of March 13, Russian airstrikes hit the so-called International Peacekeeping and Security Center (IPSC) near Lviv and the Polish border. The IPSC, as Times reporter Simon Shuster said: “is where American and other NATO instructors do the most training of Ukrainians.” He added that: “When Russia bombed the base near Lviv, it had to assume Americans were likely to be killed or injured. A coordinator of foreign volunteers in Ukraine told me the base was a hub for 1000s of them, coming from all over to help Ukraine. I met some from [the] US, UK, Australia.”

Of course, this was officially denied by Ukraine, with a supposed Foreign Legion ‘source’ telling a Buzzfeed reporter that “no foreign fighters were killed in [the] Russian attack on Yavoriv.”

However, this was immediately contradicted when a Brazilian foreign fighter uploaded to his social media a harrowing account of the Russian strike, saying: “I don’t even know what to say… there were special forces soldiers from all over the world [US, France, South Korea, Chile]. The information we have is that everyone died, they [Russians] managed to destroy everything… you guys don’t understand what it means when a jet drops a missile on you. Thank God I got out earlier.”

The news of the devastating attack was initially denied, but then acknowledged, with a death toll of 35 people given. However, the number is likely to be much higher but underreported as not to deter foreigners from fighting against Russia. It remains to be seen whether foreigners will now be deterred, but what cannot be denied is that the Foreign Legion has a very clear link to Ukraine’s neo-Nazis, something that will likely be ignored as Western media and social media continue to fetishize, fighting against the Russians.

Paul Antonopoulos, independent geopolitical analyst

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