‘Neo-Nazi’ leader Dmitry Yarosh becomes Ukraine military advisor
A leader of Right Sector, described as a neo-Nazi, Dmitry Yarosh, has been appointed as an adviser to Ukraine’s Chief of General Staff.
Yarosh has reportedly agreed to legalize thousands of fighters as an assault team subordinate to the regular army.
“Colonel General Viktor Muzhenko, Chief of General Staff, and Dmytro Yarosh agreed the format of cooperation between ‘Pravy Sector’ [Right Sector] and the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” Ukraine’s defense ministry said in a statement.
The appointment apparently comes after successful negotiations took place between the so-called Ukrainian Volunteer Corps (DUK Right Sector) and Ukraine’s top military command regarding possible options of incorporating the armed response teams inside the defense ministry’s structure of command.
The Right Sector’s armed paramilitary battalions agreed to be “subordinated to military leaders,” the ministry said. According to the statement, Muzhenko and Yarosh stressed the need for “unity”, confirming fighters’ readiness to obey Kiev’s central command.
“DUK is ready to perform common tasks with the Army, ready to obey the army leadership in matters relating to national defense against an external enemy, which enables every patriot to protect Ukraine,” Yarosh said.
Yarosh said this past March in an interview with Newsweek, he has “been training paramilitary troops for almost 25 years,” and his “divisions are constantly growing all over Ukraine, but over 10,000 people for sure.”
More recently, in October, a pro-Government Ukrainian site interviewed Yarosh and he mentioned specifically a “DUC,” or Volunteer Ukrainian Corps of fighters. He was then asked “How many soldiers in DUC?” and he answered, “About seven thousand men.”
Yarosh told the Ukrainian Pravda newspaper (via Forward) that his outfit shares many beliefs with the xenophobic Svoboda party and cooperates with it, but rejects the xenophobia displayed by Svoboda members and leaders.
“We have a lot of common positions on ideological issues, but there are big differences. For example, I do not understand racist elements and I do not adopt them,” he said.
Yarosh said that “non-Ukrainians” should be treated according to principles set forth by Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera.
A one-time ally of Nazi Germany who later turned against the Nazis, Bandera said non-Ukrainian allies should be treated as brothers and neutral parties should be respected.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center and other Jewish organizations have condemned the glorification in Ukraine of Bandera, whose troops are believed to have killed thousands of Jews when they were allies of the Nazis in 1941.
Svoboda lawmakers have regularly used the pejorative “zhyd,” which is equivalent to “kike,” to describe Jews. In response to protests from Jewish leaders, Svoboda argued “zhyd” was a correct and neutral, albeit archaic term.
[…] Ukrainian “Right Sector” Leader Becomes Top Military Adviser, Legalizes Paramilitary Fighter… […]
In Russian, the word “zhyd” is perjorative and the word “yevrey” is the polite word for “Jew”. In Polish, “zhyd” is the only word for “Jew”, and is not perjorative. In the part of Ukraine that was under Polish rule between the World Wars, Polish style usage was the norm, and began to fall out of favor after the Russian invasion of 1939.
Today, the leadership of the Jewish community in Kiev, notably Mr. Josef Zissels, looks much more kindly on Dmitry Yarosh than on Vladimir Putin.
Natan