Azov Brigade Invades London, Greeted as Liberators

 

Warm Welcome for Neo-Nazi Movement in England

“We must not believe a single word of Putin’s propaganda about the Azov Brigade,” insisted Boris Johnson, former Prime Minister of the UK, at the Reform Club in London last week, where the “Conservative Friends of Ukraine” (CFU) hosted a fundraiser for this neo-Nazi unit and its “Association of Azovstal Defenders’ Families.” Johnson, president of the CFU, praised Azov’s “gallant soldiers,” and declared that “we rely wholly on heroes such as the people who are here tonight with us from the Azov Brigade,” because there is no path to peace in Ukraine, and the only choice is to achieve “as speedy a Ukrainian victory as possible.”

Western mainstream media outlets have predictably ignored the social media firestorm ignited by the image of Boris Johnson holding the neo-Nazi flag of the Azov Brigade with representatives of this infamous unit from the National Guard of Ukraine. Earlier that day, Conservative leaders of the UK All-Party Parliament Group on Ukraine hosted a “roundtable discussion” with an Azov delegation in the Palace of Westminster, the meeting place of the British Parliament.

The far-right Ukrainian delegation’s recent trip to England came on the heels of a pro-Azov propaganda campaign and the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Azov Battalion, a notorious neo-Nazi militia group. The polished and professionalized but ideologically unreconstructed Azov Brigade (est. 2023), consisting of multiple battalions, constitutes one of the most elite military units in Ukraine and an important component of its most formidable neo-Nazi movement.

The Guardian and The Times helped to pave the way for the Azov Brigade to dispatch some of its unofficial ambassadors to London without significant controversy. In late April, these major British newspapers published a pair of articles whitewashing Azov. “The 5,000-plus strong brigade has shed any far-right associations,” the Guardian reassured its readers, lying to them. According to the Times, the unit “has moved on from its far-right origins, its men say.” Less than a month later, the Azov delegation arrived in London.  (more...)

Azov Brigade Invades London, Greeted as Liberators