The US Has Long Supported Nazi Collaborators in Ukraine

A Monday article in the New York Times highlighted what Western media has sought to downplay for the past year: the existence of neo-Nazis in the Ukrainian military and the proliferation of Nazi symbolism, including the Totenkopf "Death's Head" emblem used by the SS and the Sonnenrad "Black Sun," which was also heavily used by the Nazis and subsequent groups sympathetic to their ideology. However, the Times sought to downplay the symbolism, casting it as devoid of the fascist meanings associated with it and repeating Ukrainian nationalist talking points about how the symbols have unique traditional meanings in Ukraine. In the final stages of World War II, the US rushed to make contact with Nazi collaborators from the Soviet Union and parts of Europe liberated by the Soviets, most of all those in Ukraine. After the war, the newly-created CIA helped sponsor an insurgency in Ukraine that by the agency’s own estimates killed more than 35,000 people by the time it was suppressed in the mid-1950s. "Basically, that's what we're seeing again: the US CIA mobilizing neo-Nazi networks to take on the Russians. A lot of the front line fighting is carried out by these militias, many of which openly wear that insignia," Kuzmarov said.