America teaches Ukrainian neo-Nazis? ("The Daily Beast", USA)
Officially, no, but it seems that no one in the US government knows this for sure.
Everyone knows about the neo-Nazi and racist views of members of the Azov battalion, a volunteer armed group that fights on the front lines against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. As the founder and head of this battalion Andrei Beletsky once said, “historical the mission of our nation at this critical moment is to lead the world White Race in the last crusade for its survival. "
Undoubtedly, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his propagandists took advantage of this fact to substantiate their aggression and nullify the attempts of the international community to help Ukraine defend its independence. However, awareness and desire to confront this movement does not solve a number of crucial issues.
What does the US government have to do with these Azov fighters? Does it teach these people? Would it like to arm them? Is this not - like the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s - one of those times when we encourage monsters that sooner or later turn into our enemies? Recently, this kind of fear has been heard on Capitol Hill.
Due to the atmosphere of uncertainty that surrounds the Azov battalion in American initiatives to train the Ukrainian armed forces, and concerns about the possible supply of man-portable air defense missiles to similar parties to the conflict, the House of Representatives unanimously adopted amendments to the 2015 Defense Act. One of these amendments contains a direct ban on the training of members of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi armed group "Azov". Members of the House of Representatives John Conyers and Ted Yoho prepared this amendment to the law, which was adopted unanimously.
This amendment was an addition to the requirements formulated in the amendment to the Law on Assistance to Foreign States 1961 of the Year, prepared by Senator Patrick Leahy, who proposed the introduction of a special verification procedure. This procedure consists of verifying foreign forces that turn to the US government for support and assistance in education and training, in order to make sure that they are innocent of "gross violations of human rights." If the verification process reveals that they have committed such crimes, they are denied assistance.
But the sad truth is that at the moment the US has no way of guaranteeing that members of neo-Nazi groups, like the Azov battalion, do not receive training provided by the American military, because most of them - if not all - did not commit " gross violations of human rights. " It is even more difficult to determine if former members of the American armed forces are not teaching crypto-Nazis privately. All of this testifies to the serious problems that the United States faces in their attempts to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian-supported separatists.
In an interview with the Daily Beast, sergeant of the Azov battalion, Ivan Kharkov, spoke in detail about the experience of the interaction of his battalion fighters with American coaches and volunteers, adding that American engineers and physicians still help them on a voluntary basis. He also mentioned the substantial and active support of the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States. As for military training, they passed and continue to pass it with the help of military personnel of the armies of several foreign states. Kharkiv explained: "We must learn from all armies ... We pay for our mistakes with our lives."
Those US officials who take part in the verification process obviously received instructions to insist that the US military did not conduct military training for members of the Azov battalion. They also claim that in the process of checking the members of Azov are identified and eliminated, but no one seems to know exactly how this happens. In fact, given the way the Ukrainian government works, this is almost impossible to do.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine sends a “hodgepodge”, as one American official called it, consisting of volunteers, members of armed formations and military personnel of the Ukrainian army for training, and the check procedure of Leah is carried out in order to find out whether any of them “Gross violations of human rights” - and, of course, it turns out that almost none of them have committed such crimes, at least for now. Meanwhile, the issue of the ideological affiliation of these people is paid much less attention. When officials are asked questions about how the verification procedure is conducted, they give very ambiguous answers, offer contradictory explanations and refuse to give any details.
In an interview with the Daily Beast, the public relations officer of the US military from the 173 airborne brigade training the Ukrainian military in Lviv in western Ukraine, captain Steven Modugno assured that no member of the Azov battalion and The “Right Sector” is not studying in Lviv, because the embassy uses the Lehi’s verification procedure, which allows to find out if any of the servicemen committed serious crimes against human rights. But when asked how members of the Azov battalion who did not commit serious crimes against human rights are revealed, he replied: “You know, in fact, this is a very difficult question. This is the question that the State Department should answer. ”
Then the Daily Beast edition talked to the State Department spokesman, the press attaché of the US Embassy in Ukraine, Yarina Ferentsevich. Ferentsevich assured us that "at this stage, as far as we know, there is no" - that is, the members of the "Azov" do not receive military training from the US military. “Could several members of the battalion get on training lists? This is possible. But, to be honest, we check for violations of human rights, and not for adherence to this or that ideology. Neo-Nazis can get into the US Army. The aforementioned battalions were included in the National Guard of Ukraine, so their members may be allowed to undergo military training. But, with all frankness, I cannot say whether there are members of these formations on the training lists. As far as I know, they were not in the first shift. ”
Ferentsevich confirmed that there is almost no way to determine which of the participants of training events is a member of the above-mentioned battalions: “This is a group of very different people - volunteers, soldiers, war heroes, Maidan veterans - and we cannot carefully check each of them ".
Ferentsevich advised us to speak with the public relations officer of the 173 airborne brigade. We explained to her that it was he who sent us to her. She laughed. Welcome to the US government!
When we asked Captain Modugno whether it was possible to identify all the members of the Azov battalion serving in the battalions of the National Guard, he replied: “I don’t know if any of them could get there.” He explained that he was not an expert on the Likhi verification procedure, but “according to my observations, here I did not see any extremists, I saw patriots”. Acting National Guard commander Nikolai Balan said in an interview with the Daily Beast: “The members of the Azov did not receive training from American servicemen. They are currently on the front line. ”
Speaking about the participation of the Ukrainian government in the Likhi verification procedure, Captain Modugno explained that one of the government bodies plays the main role here: “I suppose that the Ministry of Internal Affairs is responsible for selecting people for training”.
The battalion "Azov" not only reports directly to the Ministry of the Interior, it is an integral part of this structure. The founder and head of Azov, Andrei Beletsky, works closely with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, and the battalion itself, as reported by BBC last year, "was formed and armed by the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs."
Beletsky himself insists that the men of his battalion are not trained by the US military. In a conversation with the Daily Beast, he said: “No, the representatives of the American army do not train and have never trained the battalion fighters. As far as I know, the Ukrainian armed forces are currently being trained, and Azov has nothing to do with this. ”
According to Captain Modugno, “when it comes to the verification procedure and the Ukrainian government, all I can tell you is that we conduct military training at the request of the government, and where these guys came from and where they will go next is their [government Of Ukraine] is a decision, not ours. ”
As for the American citizens who are training Ukrainian fighters privately, Captain Modugno said: “I cannot say that there are no Americans here, because any American who believes in this or that idea can go anywhere in the world. I can say that in the official order, no, there is no American military to the east of Kiev ”.
When asked whether the fighters of the Azov battalion could undergo military training from the US military in the official order, he replied: “I don’t know. I don’t want to say no, because I’m not too knowledgeable about how military training took place here before me. As far as I know, no. But I also know that the United States and other countries have been conducting exercises here in Ukraine since 2002. One example is the Rapid Trident teachings. I do not know which units took part in them, I believe, it was the military who were on active military service. I'm not sure, but I think not. ”
Captain Modugno continued: “As for who is undergoing military training in the field, two companies arrived to us in the first shift. They were called "Jaguars" and "Cheetahs". As far as I understand, at the time of arrival there were two full-fledged companies. Their numbers have somewhat increased due to war heroes from various ATO zones. Their training was completed last week. Now we are working with companies "North" and "East." They are a hodgepodge of fighters from various units and soldiers who are trained here. One of the goals of the Ukrainian government is that when these people receive training here, they can return to their units throughout Ukraine and pass on to their colleagues the knowledge and skills that they will gain here. ”
But it is precisely this that worries those who are interested in who exactly the American military is training in Ukraine.
“In this case, I can speak only hypothetically, because I do not know the whole process. But I know for sure that the State Department is aware of the anxiety voiced by many news agencies and American citizens, that is, that we are training neo-Nazis in Ukraine. I saw these posts. I follow the news. I am not saying that we are doing this. I believe that in fact the State Department is carefully checking these guys before allowing them to come here [to Lviv]. I repeat, I speak hypothetically. But, I believe, since the concern is very serious, the State Department is extremely careful. ”
Then the captain continued to talk about what is happening on the ground. “In most cases, the guys I’ve come across here aren’t like extremists.” To convey the cultural diversity that he observes in Lviv, he began to list the various Christian sects he encountered: “I saw Catholics, I saw Mormon soldiers both in the United States and in Ukraine. I saw the last day Saints. But I did not see anything unusual, nothing that could not be seen in the armed forces of other countries. ”
On the question of whether there are Jews in the Ukrainian troops, he replied: “This is an interesting question that I cannot answer. I know that there are Jews among the US military who work here, but I don’t know if they are among the Ukrainian military. ”
The head of the defense cooperation department of the US embassy in Ukraine, Colonel Cynthia Matuskevich, also assured us that the US military is not training fighters from the Azov battalion. According to Col. Matuskevich, “The National Guard informed us that there are no such interns here and that all participants in the training program have passed the standard verification procedure, which we are obliged to conduct by the State Department.”
To the question about the details of this procedure, she answered the following: “In essence, it is very similar to checking data about a specific person. I can not tell you all the details, but we request information from various services, including the consular section, and they are already checking the information about the person. I can’t say what exactly is happening in Washington, because I don’t have access to the process at the other end, but if you want, the State Referee is the main arbiter in Washington. ”
On the question of how the procedure of Likhi allows to identify and weed out the members of “Azov” - for example, those who did not commit “gross violations of human rights” but adheres to Nazi ideology - Matuskevich explained: “Unfortunately, I can’t comment it - that is, we have a procedure for checking Leahy, we check people for human rights violations, but we do not conduct individual interviews with each of them and do not ask them about their philosophical and ideological preferences, because we know that people can lie. However, we are doing everything possible to fulfill all the requirements of the Leahy procedure, and we work with partners who, as you know, we trust and who assured us that there are no members of such organizations among those undergoing training. ”
As for the "partners" with whom the United States cooperates, Matuskevich announced that they work directly with the National Guard of Ukraine, "which oversees those who are undergoing training. They report to the Ministry of the Interior, and our political department at the embassy interacts with them. The Ukrainian government, in particular, I believe, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is compiling lists of candidates for military training. ”
When asked why it was necessary to adopt a new amendment, if Lehi’s verification procedure is already in place, Ferentsevich answered: “This is a good question, and you should ask it to this congressman.” So we did.
In an interview, Rep. John Conyers said: “This is an important precaution. Leahy’s law prohibits assistance to units that are reliably aware that they have committed gross violations of human rights. In this case, first of all, we try to determine who has the right to claim our help, because America must choose allies whose interests and beliefs coincide with ours. Congress can - and should - provide additional advice to the executive branch when applicants for US assistance publicly associate themselves with goals that are contrary to the goals of our foreign policy. ”
Ferentsevich, in essence, confirmed the necessity of adopting this amendment, saying the following: “If these guys violated human rights, then everything is clear. But human rights and ideology are completely different things. If people allow themselves xenophobic statements - this is one thing, but if they start to take some kind of action, this is quite another. ”
When asked if Leahi’s procedure allows us to weed out candidates with Nazi symbol tattoos, she replied: “I don’t know. Is there a tattoo on the neck where everyone can see it? Or is it on a person’s buttocks where no one sees her? I dont know. I am not a professional lawyer. ”
Jack Harris (Jack Harris), a representative of the opposition New Democratic Party of Canada, expressed his concern about what kind of troops Canada could ultimately prepare. “If they integrated (Azov) into a larger organization, then we require explanations from Mr. Kenny [of Canada’s Minister of Defense] about what is happening there,” said Harris. Former Canadian diplomat and now an International Organization for Migration in Moscow consultant James Bissett (James Bissett) argues that it is impossible to identify all members of the Azov battalion scattered across the National Guard battalions. In an interview with the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, Bissett said: “These paramilitary units [such as Azov] merge with the Ukrainian armed forces, therefore we will not be able to determine who we are teaching exactly.”
This is a question that requires much more attention from the US government than a simple "I don't know." Even those closely associated with the selection process cannot answer many questions accurately.
As a congressman and godfather of the American aid program for Afghan Mujahideen Charlie Wilson (Charlie Wilson) once said, looking back at the catastrophe that followed their “victory”, “it happened: it was great, and it changed the world ... and then we failed the end war. The United States is guided by the right motives in its desire to train the Ukrainian military: they want to stop the hidden and obvious aggression of Russia. But the problem lies in the fact that the battalion "Azov" so deeply penetrated into the structure of the Ukrainian government that it is almost impossible to eradicate.
- Will Katkart (Will Cathcart), Joseph Epstein (Joseph Epstein)
- http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/04/is-the-u-s-training-neo-nazis-in-ukraine.html
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