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DESCRIPTION:4/10 SF Protest Against Ukranian Government Repression\nProtest Ukrainian 
 Government Repression!\n\nAll out for the Monday, April 10 International 
 Day of Solidarity with the People of Odessa!\n\nIn San Francisco Protest at 
 Ukrainian Consulate \n\n12 Noon  530 Bush Street\n\nStop the repression 
 against relatives & supporters of the 47 people murdered on May 2, 
 2014!\n\nFree Alexander Kushnarev, Anatoly Slobodyanik & all political 
 prisoners in Ukraine!\n\nNo to fascism in Ukraine & all over the 
 world!\n\nDear Antiwar and Social Justice Activists,\n\nSince the 2014 U.S. 
 and European Union–backed and fascist-led coup in Ukraine the coup 
 government, especially in Odessa, has stepped up its persecution and 
 imprisonment of anti-fascist and social justice activists. (See the 
 detailed information below.)\n\nPlease join us on Monday, April 10 at 12 
 Noon in San Francisco for a peaceful protest at the: \n\nUkrainian 
 Consulate, 530 Bush Street, San Francisco, CA 94108 \n\nIn solidarity, Jeff 
 Mackler, Administrative Committee, United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC 
 jmackler(at)lmi.net\n\nInitial sponsors: UNAC • Odessa Solidarity 
 Campaign\nEndorsers/co-sponsors welcome \n\n\n\nFrom the Odessa Solidarity 
 Campaign\n\nPO 23202, Richmond, VA USA\n\nPh: 804-644-5834  -  Email: 
 DefendersFJE@hotmail.com\n\nIn the SF Bay Area contact: United National 
 Antiwar Coalition 510-268-9429\n\nApril 10: International Day of Solidarity 
 with the People of Odessa\n\nIn response to the increasing repression of 
 anti-fascist activists by the government of Ukraine, the U.S.-based Odessa 
 Solidarity Campaign is calling for an International Day of Solidarity with 
 the People of Odessa, to take place on April 10, the 73rd anniversary of 
 the liberation of Odessa from fascist occupation. The day will include 
 protests outside Ukrainian embassies, including in Washington, 
 D.C.\n\nFollowing is the statement calling for the Day of Solidarity. You 
 can support this effort by widely sharing the statement.\n\nFor more 
 information about the situation in Odessa, see: 
 www.odessasolidaritycampaign.org.\n\nThe Odessa Solidarity Campaign is an 
 all-volunteer team of human rights activists dedicated to supporting the 
 people of Odessa, Ukraine, in their heroic resistance to fascism. More 
 information can be found at our website: 
 www.odessasolidaritycampaign.org.\n\nThe OSC is a project of the United 
 National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC). www.unacpeace.org.\n\nA Call for an 
 April 10 International Day of Solidarity with the People of Odessa!\n\nThe 
 Odessa Solidarity Campaign is calling for an International Day of 
 Solidarity with the People of Odessa on April 10, 2017, to draw attention 
 to the Ukrainian government’s repression of anti-fascist activists in 
 that city. We are calling for rallies, vigils and demonstrations outside 
 Ukrainian embassies and consular offices around the world. April 10 is a 
 date of great significance to all Odessans, as it marks the day in 1944 
 when Odessa was liberated from years of fascist occupation.\n\nFebruary 
 2014 saw the overthrow of the elected president of Ukraine in a violent, 
 right-wing coup supported by the U.S. government. Just three months later, 
 on May 2, Odessa experienced one of Europe’s worst civil disorders in 
 many decades, when 46 mostly young progressives were brutally murdered by a 
 fascist-led mob at Odessa’s Kulikovo square.\n\nEver since that day, 
 relatives, friends and supporters of those who were killed have been 
 demanding an international investigation into the massacre, a demand that 
 has been blocked by the federal government working hand-in-hand with the 
 fascist organizations responsible for the deaths. This obstruction by the 
 Ukrainian government has been noted by the United Nations, the Council of 
 Europe and other international bodies, as well as the U.S. State 
 Department.\n\nIt should be noted that, despite many videos taken of the 
 fascists participating in the massacre, not one of those responsible for 
 the murders has ever been brought to trial, while many anti-fascists 
 arrested that day are still in prison, many never having been charged with 
 a crime.\n\nEach week since the massacre, Odessans have gathered in 
 Kulikovo square to remember their dead and press the demand for an 
 investigation. And nearly every week, neo-Nazi organizations like the 
 notorious Right Sector harass and sometimes physically attack them. The 
 police occasionally intervene, but the fascists are never arrested.\n\nIn 
 an alarming new development, several anti-fascist Odessans have been 
 arrested by federal authorities and falsely charged with serious crimes. On 
 Feb. 23, Alexander Kushnarev, 65, a deputy of the Limansk District Council 
 and father of one of the young people murdered at Kulikovo square, was 
 arrested by agents of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). Also arrested 
 was Anatoly Slobodyanik, 68, a retired military officer and the head of the 
 Odessa Organization of Veterans of Armed Forces. The Odessan region’s 
 chief prosecutor claims the two men were planning to kidnap a member of the 
 country’s Rada, or parliament.\n\nThe Rada deputy, Alexei Goncharenko, a 
 member of a parliamentary bloc allied with Ukrainian President Petro 
 Poroshenko, was in fact missing for a short time. But he quickly reappeared 
 and was interviewed on the Ukrainian television channel EspresoTV, stating 
 that his abduction had been staged by law enforcement officers. Kushnarev 
 may have been selected for a government frame-up because Goncharenko was at 
 the scene of the 2014 massacre where Kushnarev’s son was 
 killed.\n\nKushnarev and Slobodyanik are now languishing in the Odessa 
 prison where conditions are aimed at breaking the prisoners’ will to 
 resist. Both elderly men have had long-standing heart problems and it is 
 feared they may not survive their confinement.\n\nSince the two men were 
 taken into custody, the homes of other relatives of the victims of May 2 
 have been searched by police. Ominous reports are now surfacing about plans 
 to arrest more relatives and supporters and extract “confessions” of 
 plans to commit violent acts against the government.\n\nSince the coup of 
 2014, the right of the Ukrainian people to free speech has been steadily 
 restricted. The continuing demand of Odessans for an international 
 investigation into the massacre at Kulikovo square has been a particular 
 irritant to the federal government. If the voices of these brave people are 
 allowed to be silenced, Ukraine will have taken another huge step toward 
 becoming an undemocratic police state in collusion with murderous fascist 
 groups.\n\nAll out for the April 10 International Day of Solidarity with 
 the People of Odessa!\n\nFree Alexander Kushnarev, Anatoly Slobodyanik & 
 all political prisoners in Ukraine!\n\nStop the repression against 
 relatives & supporters of those killed on May 2, 2014!\n\nNo to fascism in 
 Ukraine & all over the world!\n\nThe Odessa Solidarity Campaign is a 
 project of the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC).\n\nIt was founded 
 in May 2016 following the second anniversary memorial of the massacre of 
 May 2, 2014.\n\nA delegation of UNAC members from the United States 
 attended the memorial, which was held at Odessa’s Kulikovo square. 
 \n\nwww.odessasolidaritycampaign.org  -  www.unacpeace.org\n\nUS Backing 
 Regime That Honors Ukraine Nazi Collaborators\nUkrainian marchers in Kiev 
 chant ‘Jews out’Demonstrators celebrate the birthday of WWII Nazi 
 collaborator Stepan Bandera, who fought against Soviet 
 army\nhttp://www.timesofisrael.com/ukrainian-marchers-in-kiev-chant-jews-out/\n\nBY 
 JTA January 3, 2017, 9:33 pm 8\n\n\nUkrainian nationalists in Kiev chanted 
 “Jews out” in German at a New Year’s Day march celebrating the 
 birthday of a Nazi collaborator whose troops killed thousands of 
 Jews.\n\nThousands attended the event in the center of the Ukrainian 
 capital celebrating Stepan Bandera, a leader of Ukraine’s nationalist 
 movement in the 1930s and ’40s. They held up his portrait while an 
 unidentified person shouted the anti-Semitic slogan on a loudspeaker, 
 prompting many participants to repeat it, a video published by the Federal 
 News Agency showed.\n\n\nBandera’s movement included an insurgent army 
 which fought alongside Nazi soldiers during part of World War II. 
 Supporters of Bandera claim they sided with the Nazis against the Soviet 
 army, believing that Adolf Hitler would grant Ukraine independence. Bandera 
 was assassinated in 1959 by Russia’s KGB in West Germany.\n\nOleksandr 
 Feldman, a Ukrainian Jewish lawmaker and president of the Ukrainian Jewish 
 Committee, called on authorities to investigate the march and prosecute 
 those responsible for the hateful slogans.\n\n\nUkrainian WWII figure 
 Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Ukrainian nationalist and independence 
 movement who in the 1940s encouraged members to ‘destroy’ Jews. 
 (Wikimedia)\n\n“I still can’t get over hearing it at the rally in honor 
 of Stepan Bandera’s birthday,” Feldman wrote in an emotional post on 
 Facebook Tuesday. “I admit, I’m choking up with tears. I love Ukraine, 
 love the Ukrainians.”\n\nAdding that the chants came from a “gang of a 
 few idiots who don’t represent anyone,” he nonetheless wrote: “I 
 can’t ignore it when I, a man who worked so much for my country and city, 
 created the hundreds and thousands of jobs, am being screamed at by some 
 bastards to leave my homeland.”\n\nFeldman also accused the Svoboda 
 party, a far-right movement whose leaders and followers often have engaged 
 in anti-Semitic hate speech, of being responsible for what he termed “a 
 provocation” during the march.\n\nBandera is being celebrated across 
 Ukraine as a national hero. In July he had a street named after him, also 
 in Kiev, despite protests from the Jewish community.\n\nSeveral other 
 Ukrainian nationalists with ties to anti-Semitic acts and policies before 
 and during the Holocaust have been the subject of veneration in Ukraine in 
 recent years, especially after the ousting in 2014 of President Viktor 
 Yanukovych in a bloody revolution over his alleged corruption and ties to 
 Russia.\n\nUS Backed Ukrainian government officials celebrate Nazism, 
 anti-Semitism\nhttps://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/01/04/anti-j04.html\nBy 
 Jason Melanovski \n4 January 2016\nSeveral recent incidents in Ukraine have 
 further exposed the far-right nature of the forces unleashed by the 2014 
 Maidan “revolution” that ousted then-President Viktor Yanukovych and 
 eventually brought to power the country’s current, widely despised 
 leader, oligarch Petro Poroshenko, whose approval rating has collapsed to 
 just 17 percent.\nIn a recent video posted to the internet, Artyom Vitko, 
 parliament member and representative of the nationalist Radical Party, can 
 be seen riding in an SUV drinking vodka and singing along to an 
 anti-Semitic song titled “Adolf Hitler is Together with Us” by a 
 Russian neo-Nazi rock group. Vitko, who has also served as a commander in 
 the government-backed Luhansk Battalion that is fighting to suppress 
 pro-Russian breakaway regions in Ukraine’s Donbass, is shown enjoying the 
 lyrics to the song’s chorus, “Adolf Hitler is together with us, Adolf 
 Hitler is in each of us, and an eagle with iron wings will help us at the 
 right time.” As part of his duties as a member of the Ukrainian 
 parliament, Vitko sits on a committee dedicated to improving ties between 
 Israel and Ukraine.\nThe far-right leader first made international 
 headlines in January 2015 when he supposedly threw blood in the face of 
 Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of Russia, at a meeting of 
 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg, 
 France. According to a public Facebook posting by fellow Radical Party 
 member Dmytro Linko, “At the entrance to PACE’s building, Artyom Vitko 
 and I hurled blood at the face of Russian Communist Zyuganov. We smacked 
 him in his hostile mug.”\nThe video’s exposure was preceded by reports 
 that the mayor in the city of Konotop, located in northern Ukraine, has 
 been openly displaying anti-Semitic symbols.\nAccording to the Jerusalem 
 Post, Mayor Artyom Semenikhin, who is a member of the far-right Svoboda 
 Party, “drives around in a car bearing the number 14/88, a numerological 
 reference to the phrases ‘we must secure the existence of our people and 
 a future for white children’ and ‘Heil Hitler’; replaced the picture 
 of President Petro Poroshenko in his office with a portrait of Ukrainian 
 national leader and Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera; and refused to fly 
 the city’s official flag at the opening meeting of the city council 
 because he objected to the star of David emblazoned on it.”\nThe release 
 of the video with Vitko singing neo-Nazi songs coincided an official visit 
 to Israel by Ukrainian President Poroshenko. In meetings with Labor Party 
 members, Poroshenko downplayed the rise of anti-Semitism as a political 
 ideology in Ukraine and blamed Russia for promoting anti-Semitism in 
 Crimea.\nAccording to Labor Party lawmaker Ksenia Svetlova, Poroshenko 
 stated, “In Ukraine, Jews have nothing to fear. But in the Crimea they 
 are oppressed and not allowed in synagogue.” Jewish organizations in 
 Crimea, which is now controlled by Russia, declared Poroshenko’s 
 statements to be false.\nIn a grotesque display of political hypocrisy, 
 during his visit to Israel, Poroshenko declared in a speech before the 
 Knesset, “We must remember the negative events in history, when 
 collaborators helped the Nazis seek the Final Solution.” He announced 
 that Ukraine would hold an official 75th anniversary memorial of the 
 massacre at Babi Yar site in Kiev, where Nazi forces killed nearly 34,000 
 Jews.\nLast April, Poroshenko’s government officially rehabilitated the 
 country’s Nazi collaborators, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists 
 (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), and moved the country’s 
 “Defender of Ukraine Day” to coincide with the formation date of the 
 UPA.\nIn an expression of the Zionist regime’s utter bankruptcy and the 
 falsity of its claim to defend the world’s Jewish population, Israeli 
 leader Benjamin Netanyahu later stated that he plans to attend the memorial 
 ceremony in Ukraine.\nToday, the direct political and familial descendants 
 of the OUN and the UPA are found in Ukraine’s government-backed, 
 far-right military battalions and political parties, such as Svoboda and 
 Vitko’s Radical Party. The latter, for instance, counts Yuriy Shukhevych 
 among its parliamentary members. Yuriy Shukhevych’s father, Roman 
 Shukhevych, was a leader of the UPA. The younger Shukhevych helped draft 
 the April 2015 law honoring Ukraine’s Nazi collaborators.\nSince the Kiev 
 regime came to power in a US-backed coup in February 2014, the fascist 
 forces that carried out the overthrow of elected President Viktor 
 Yanukovych have committed violent atrocities against opponents in an effort 
 to terrorize the population into submission.\n\nUS Supported Allies Salute 
 Hitler In Ukraine-Bringing "Democracy" To The 
 Ukraine\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnpTWKKWQ1o\n\n0:12 / 
 0:49\nUkrainian Government MP Artyom Vitko Toasts Adolf Hitler in Russian\n 
 \nStalinLivesTV Channel 2\n\nPublished on Dec 27, 
 2015\nhttps://thedailystalin.wordpress.com\nA video of a recent Ukrainian 
 Government MP saluting Adolf Hitler found its way online only days after 
 Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko officially apologized for the role 
 played by ‘Ukrainian collaborators’ role in the Great Patriotic War 
 sometimes referred to as World War II during an official state visit to 
 Israel.\n\nIn the video posted online, Artyom Vitko, the former commander 
 of the government backed Neo-Nazi Luhansk-1 Battalion and now a member of 
 the Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko, can be seen sitting in the back of a car 
 wearing NATO issued camouflage fatigues and singing along to a song by a 
 Russian Neo-Nazi band extolling the virtues of the German Nazi dictator 
 Adolf Hitler.\n\n“Adolf Hitler, together with us, Adolf Hitler, in each 
 of us, and an eagle with iron wings will help us at the right time,” 
 Vitko sang, saluting the camera with his water bottle as the car’s sound 
 system blared “Heil Hitler.” Sings Vitko.\n\nVitko’s pro-Nazi 
 sentiments emerged after party leader Oleh Lyashko denunciation of 
 President Petro Poroshenko for for his recent comments apologizing or 
 Ukrainian complicity in the Holocaust. It also follows the Israeli Knesset 
 refusal to recognise the so called Holodomor as equiviant of the 
 Holocaust.\n\nSpeaking before the Knesset last week, Poroshenko said that 
 “we must remember the negative events in history, in which collaborators 
 helped the Nazis with the Final Solution.”\n\n“When Ukraine was 
 established [in 1991], we asked for forgiveness, and I am doing it now, in 
 the Knesset, before the children and grandchildren of the victims of the 
 Holocaust… I am doing it before all citizens of Israel,” he 
 added.\n\n“This kind of humiliation of Ukrainians has not been recorded 
 in our history yet. During a visit to Israel, President Poroshenko 
 apologized for the ‘Ukrainian participation in the Holocaust,’” 
 Lyashko posted on Facebook on Thursday.\n\nUS Backed Ukrainian government 
 officials celebrate Nazism, 
 anti-Semitism\nhttps://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/01/04/anti-j04.html\nBy 
 Jason Melanovski \n4 January 2016\nSeveral recent incidents in Ukraine have 
 further exposed the far-right nature of the forces unleashed by the 2014 
 Maidan “revolution” that ousted then-President Viktor Yanukovych and 
 eventually brought to power the country’s current, widely despised 
 leader, oligarch Petro Poroshenko, whose approval rating has collapsed to 
 just 17 percent.\nIn a recent video posted to the internet, Artyom Vitko, 
 parliament member and representative of the nationalist Radical Party, can 
 be seen riding in an SUV drinking vodka and singing along to an 
 anti-Semitic song titled “Adolf Hitler is Together with Us” by a 
 Russian neo-Nazi rock group. Vitko, who has also served as a commander in 
 the government-backed Luhansk Battalion that is fighting to suppress 
 pro-Russian breakaway regions in Ukraine’s Donbass, is shown enjoying the 
 lyrics to the song’s chorus, “Adolf Hitler is together with us, Adolf 
 Hitler is in each of us, and an eagle with iron wings will help us at the 
 right time.” As part of his duties as a member of the Ukrainian 
 parliament, Vitko sits on a committee dedicated to improving ties between 
 Israel and Ukraine.\nThe far-right leader first made international 
 headlines in January 2015 when he supposedly threw blood in the face of 
 Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of Russia, at a meeting of 
 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg, 
 France. According to a public Facebook posting by fellow Radical Party 
 member Dmytro Linko, “At the entrance to PACE’s building, Artyom Vitko 
 and I hurled blood at the face of Russian Communist Zyuganov. We smacked 
 him in his hostile mug.”\nThe video’s exposure was preceded by reports 
 that the mayor in the city of Konotop, located in northern Ukraine, has 
 been openly displaying anti-Semitic symbols.\nAccording to the Jerusalem 
 Post, Mayor Artyom Semenikhin, who is a member of the far-right Svoboda 
 Party, “drives around in a car bearing the number 14/88, a numerological 
 reference to the phrases ‘we must secure the existence of our people and 
 a future for white children’ and ‘Heil Hitler’; replaced the picture 
 of President Petro Poroshenko in his office with a portrait of Ukrainian 
 national leader and Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera; and refused to fly 
 the city’s official flag at the opening meeting of the city council 
 because he objected to the star of David emblazoned on it.”\nThe release 
 of the video with Vitko singing neo-Nazi songs coincided an official visit 
 to Israel by Ukrainian President Poroshenko. In meetings with Labor Party 
 members, Poroshenko downplayed the rise of anti-Semitism as a political 
 ideology in Ukraine and blamed Russia for promoting anti-Semitism in 
 Crimea.\nAccording to Labor Party lawmaker Ksenia Svetlova, Poroshenko 
 stated, “In Ukraine, Jews have nothing to fear. But in the Crimea they 
 are oppressed and not allowed in synagogue.” Jewish organizations in 
 Crimea, which is now controlled by Russia, declared Poroshenko’s 
 statements to be false.\nIn a grotesque display of political hypocrisy, 
 during his visit to Israel, Poroshenko declared in a speech before the 
 Knesset, “We must remember the negative events in history, when 
 collaborators helped the Nazis seek the Final Solution.” He announced 
 that Ukraine would hold an official 75th anniversary memorial of the 
 massacre at Babi Yar site in Kiev, where Nazi forces killed nearly 34,000 
 Jews.\nLast April, Poroshenko’s government officially rehabilitated the 
 country’s Nazi collaborators, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists 
 (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), and moved the country’s 
 “Defender of Ukraine Day” to coincide with the formation date of the 
 UPA.\nIn an expression of the Zionist regime’s utter bankruptcy and the 
 falsity of its claim to defend the world’s Jewish population, Israeli 
 leader Benjamin Netanyahu later stated that he plans to attend the memorial 
 ceremony in Ukraine.\nToday, the direct political and familial descendants 
 of the OUN and the UPA are found in Ukraine’s government-backed, 
 far-right military battalions and political parties, such as Svoboda and 
 Vitko’s Radical Party. The latter, for instance, counts Yuriy Shukhevych 
 among its parliamentary members. Yuriy Shukhevych’s father, Roman 
 Shukhevych, was a leader of the UPA. The younger Shukhevych helped draft 
 the April 2015 law honoring Ukraine’s Nazi collaborators.\nSince the Kiev 
 regime came to power in a US-backed coup in February 2014, the fascist 
 forces that carried out the overthrow of elected President Viktor 
 Yanukovych have committed violent atrocities against opponents in an effort 
 to terrorize the population into submission.\n\nUS Supported Allies Salute 
 Hitler In Ukraine-Bringing "Democracy" To The 
 Ukraine\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnpTWKKWQ1o\n\n0:12 / 
 0:49\nUkrainian Government MP Artyom Vitko Toasts Adolf Hitler in Russian\n 
 \nStalinLivesTV Channel 2\n\nPublished on Dec 27, 
 2015\nhttps://thedailystalin.wordpress.com\nA video of a recent Ukrainian 
 Government MP saluting Adolf Hitler found its way online only days after 
 Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko officially apologized for the role 
 played by ‘Ukrainian collaborators’ role in the Great Patriotic War 
 sometimes referred to as World War II during an official state visit to 
 Israel.\n\nIn the video posted online, Artyom Vitko, the former commander 
 of the government backed Neo-Nazi Luhansk-1 Battalion and now a member of 
 the Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko, can be seen sitting in the back of a car 
 wearing NATO issued camouflage fatigues and singing along to a song by a 
 Russian Neo-Nazi band extolling the virtues of the German Nazi dictator 
 Adolf Hitler.\n\n“Adolf Hitler, together with us, Adolf Hitler, in each 
 of us, and an eagle with iron wings will help us at the right time,” 
 Vitko sang, saluting the camera with his water bottle as the car’s sound 
 system blared “Heil Hitler.” Sings Vitko.\n\nVitko’s pro-Nazi 
 sentiments emerged after party leader Oleh Lyashko denunciation of 
 President Petro Poroshenko for for his recent comments apologizing or 
 Ukrainian complicity in the Holocaust. It also follows the Israeli Knesset 
 refusal to recognise the so called Holodomor as equiviant of the 
 Holocaust.\n\nSpeaking before the Knesset last week, Poroshenko said that 
 “we must remember the negative events in history, in which collaborators 
 helped the Nazis with the Final Solution.”\n\n“When Ukraine was 
 established [in 1991], we asked for forgiveness, and I am doing it now, in 
 the Knesset, before the children and grandchildren of the victims of the 
 Holocaust… I am doing it before all citizens of Israel,” he 
 added.\n\n“This kind of humiliation of Ukrainians has not been recorded 
 in our history yet. During a visit to Israel, President Poroshenko 
 apologized for the ‘Ukrainian participation in the Holocaust,’” 
 Lyashko posted on Facebook on Thursday.\n\nS Capitalists Backing Nazi 
 Supported Troops In 
 Ukraine\nhttp://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/03/10/ukraine-azov-brigade-nazis-abuses-separatists/24664937/\nVolunteer 
 Ukrainian unit includes Nazis\n\n Oren Dorell, USA TODAY 3:32 p.m. EDT 
 March 10, 2015\n\n(Photo: Brendan Hoffman for USA TODAY)\n\nMARIUPOL, 
 Ukraine — A volunteer brigade with self-proclaimed Nazis fighting 
 alongside government troops against Russian-backed separatists is proving 
 to be a mixed blessing to its cause.\n\nThough the 900-member Azov Brigade 
 adds needed manpower to repulse the rebels, members who say they are Nazis 
 are sparking controversy, and complaints of abuses against civilians have 
 turned some residents against them.\n\nA drill sergeant who would identify 
 himself only as Alex wore a patch depicting Thor's Hammer, an ancient Norse 
 symbol appropriated by neo-Nazis, according to the Anti-Defamation 
 League.\n\n\n\nUSA TODAY\nUkraine brigade worried over rebel movements 
 despite truce\nIn an interview with USA TODAY, he admitted he is a Nazi and 
 said with a laugh that no more than half his comrades are fellow Nazis. He 
 said he supports strong leadership for Ukraine, like Germany during World 
 War II, but opposes the Nazis' genocide against Jews. Minorities should be 
 tolerated as long as they are peaceful and don't demand special privileges, 
 he said, and the property of wealthy oligarchs should be taken away and 
 nationalized.\n\nHe vowed that when the war ends, his comrades will march 
 on the capital, Kiev, to oust a government they consider 
 corrupt.\n\n\nAlex, a drill sergeant with the Azov Brigade, supervises 
 weapons training. (Photo: Brendan Hoffman for USA TODAY)\nRussian media 
 exploit such statements to describe the brigade in this port city in 
 eastern Ukraine as a bunch of thugs who menace the population yet are 
 embraced by Ukraine's national government.\n\nAndriy Diachenko, a spokesman 
 for the Azov Brigade, said only 10% to 20% of the group's members are 
 Nazis. "I know Alex is a Nazi, but it's his personal ideology. It has 
 nothing to do with the official ideology of the Azov," Diachenko said. 
 "He's a good drill sergeant and a good instructor for tactics and weapons 
 skills."\n\n\nUSA TODAY\nIn Odessa, anxiety over Russia's next move\nThe 
 brigade's deputy commander, Oleg Odnorozhenko, complained that Alex does 
 not speak for the group. "If he has his own sympathies, it's his own 
 matter," Odnorozhenko said in a former high school serving as a base. "But 
 he has no right to make statements in a way they can be construed as the 
 position of the regiment. He will be dealt with severely for his lack of 
 discipline."\n\nCol. Oleksiy Nozdrachov, a member of the Ukrainian Armed 
 Services' General Staff in Kiev, defended the brigade's members as 
 patriots. "They are volunteers who decided to sacrifice their lives to the 
 country," Nozdrachov said. "They are tough and fierce in battle who stand 
 and fight and won't give up soil."\n\nHe conceded that abuses by the 
 brigade could hurt the nationalist cause among residents. "If any cases of 
 misbehavior by Azov Brigade are brought by the local population, it will be 
 investigated," he said.\n\n\nThe Azov Brigade trains March 7 in Kulykivske. 
 (Photo: Brendan Hoffman for USA TODAY)\nIn one case of alleged abuse, shop 
 owner Svetlana Gudina, 51, said Azov troops detained her two sons, ages 28 
 and 32, and seized their cars, cash, flash drives and documents while 
 searching for separatists last September. The men were released, and she 
 managed to recover the cars and money, but the experience destroyed her 
 trust in Ukrainian authorities.\n\n"If they have come to defend us, let 
 them defend," Gudina said. "But when they come to molest and humiliate 
 civilians, it's wrong."\n\n\nUSA TODAY\nMoldova: Economic gains can defeat 
 Ukraine separatists\nSpokesman Diachenko said he was unfamiliar with the 
 incident, but "such episodes happen because this is war."\n\nNozdrachov 
 offered to send an investigator to look into Gudina's claims, an offer she 
 accepted.\n\nSimilar incidents have been attributed to armed units on both 
 sides of the war. A report March 5 by the United Nations' High Commissioner 
 for Human Rights described "credible allegations of arbitrary detention, 
 torture and enforced disappearances, committed mostly by the armed groups 
 but in some instances also by the Ukrainian law enforcement 
 agencies."\n\nMembers of the Azov Brigade participate in weapons training 
 at one of the group's training grounds. (Photo: Brendan Hoffman for USA 
 TODAY)\nThe brigade's recruits, ranging from teens to middle-aged men, come 
 from the separatist-held eastern Ukrainian cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, 
 the central city of Kirovograd and the former Soviet republic of Belarus. 
 Several said they want to protect their homeland and Europe from the 
 ambitions of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom they blame for the 
 war.\n\nDeputy commander Odnorozhenko said the brigade preaches Ukrainian 
 patriotism and independence, strong leadership and accountability. "Ideas 
 like going to Kiev to change the government in an illegal way should be 
 nipped in the bud," he said.\n\nAlex Borisov, 44, a trainer for Ukraine's 
 military, said he spent two weeks teaching shooting and tactics to a group 
 of brigade members who speak mostly Russian.\n\n"I didn't see any fascists 
 or anti-Semites," Borisov said. "And I tell you this as a Jewish guy."\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2017/04/03/18797950.php
SUMMARY:SF Protest Against Ukranian Government Repression
LOCATION:Ukrainian Consulate \n530 Bush Street\nSan Francisco
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2017/04/03/18797950.php
DTSTART:20170410T190000Z
DTEND:20170410T200000Z
END:VEVENT
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