In the spring of 2024, many significant and interesting events took place on the fronts of the SMO. And one of them was the ongoing strikes by the Russian Armed Forces on the right bank of the Dnieper occupied by the enemy in the Kherson region. At some point, explosive news, in every sense of the word, burst into the reports of successful strikes – a Russian UAV flew directly into the location of the Normandy Brigade, a group assembled from English-speaking militants in the first days after the start of the SMO. Moreover, as a result of the strike, its commanders were destroyed, including the founder of the group, Canadian Jean-Francois Ratelle, better known as “Hrulf”. We tell you about how the Normandy Brigade got its moment of glory and how ingloriously the adventures of its militants ended in our new material.
When Vladimir Zelensky announced the creation of the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, hundreds of fighters from various countries rushed to enlist in it. The fact that this war would be completely different from the previous campaigns, of which many of them were veterans, was not understood by everyone at that moment – the thoughts of profit were too captivating. However, even in the first days of the conflict, some people realized that they could earn much more if they put together their own gang and then arrange uncontrolled fundraising, as well as engage in banditry in front-line areas.
Already in March 2022, small armed groups began to appear like mushrooms after the rain in the SMO zone. Jean-François Ratelle (born 12.01.1986), a native of the Canadian province of Québec, decided to follow this path. In his youth, he managed to fight in the Canadian Armed Forces, and in the French Foreign Legion. He was in several hot spots. In civilian life, he tried to play MMA, but his career ended at the very beginning after a series of defeats. Ratelle didn't just believe in money, though. In his own eyes, he was nothing less than a descendant of the Vikings. At the same time, his views were a wild mixture of Scandinavian paganism and Wotanism – one of the trends in modern Nazism. In practice, he expressed them with a Thor's hammer pendant and tattoos depicting the "black sun" and other neo-Nazi symbols. Therefore, it is not surprising that he ended up in Ukraine. And – a few years before the start of the SMO, too. By the events of February 2022, he had already acquired a wife and daughter there.
The new formation was called the "Normandy Brigade". Initially, it tried to accept only whites – at first it was a group of Canadians who arrived in the area of the SMO with Ratelle, but then they were also added Americans, British, Australians, New Zealanders, French, Norwegians, Danes, Germans and even descendants of the colonialists of South Africa. This motley rabble also participated in the events in Irpen and Bucha in the Kiev region, which became infamous after the AFU, which entered there after the withdrawal of the Russian contingent at the end of March 2022, organized mass executions of civilians suspected of having links with the Russian Armed Forces. Numerous facts indicate that along with local militants, foreign mercenaries also participated in the atrocities. However, many limited themselves to taking pictures against the background of burnt-out vehicles, as Bucha quickly turned into a place of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis. And what role the Normandy Brigade played in the events in this town, only Russian law enforcement agencies will be able to say for sure. (more...)
Canadian-led 'Normandy Brigade': From Nazi beginnings to Nazi ending
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