“Post-Maidan Ukraine is the world’s only nation to have a neo-Nazi formation in its armed forces” – Lev Golinkin, Nation correspondent
By Sheldon Ranz and Susan Stevens
In their April 25 article FOR Military Aid to Ukraine: A Dissent From SDUSA’s Ukraine Resolution, our comrades Patty Friend, Jason Sibert and Rick D’Loss address the concerns that some of us have about arming the neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine with the following: “We have no clear count as to how many neo-Nazis are fighting in Ukraine, and no one has determined that anything they may have done (wear Nazi uniforms and SS insignias) are equal to the atrocious acts of the Russians.” Obviously, between one of the world’s global military superpowers and the comparatively puny but numerous fascist paramilitary groups operating inside Ukraine, it’s not much of a contest!
However, we wouldn’t be the first to point out that if it looks like a Nazi and quacks like a Nazi, atrocious acts will follow. In their Salon article Are there really neo-Nazis fighting for Ukraine? Well, yes — but it’s a long story, Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J. S. Davies wrote: “Violent foreign extremists with links to (the Azov Battalion) have included Brenton Tarrant, who massacred 51 worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, and several members of the U.S. Rise Above Movement who were prosecuted for attacking counter-protesters at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in August 2017. Other Azov veterans have returned to Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, the U.K. and other countries.”
Facebook is giving Azov a get-out-of jail-free card after having banned it in 2016: “For the time being, we are making a narrow exception for praise of the Azov regiment strictly in the context of defending Ukraine, or in their role as part of the Ukraine national guard,” a spokesperson from Facebook’s parent company, Meta, told Business Insider. “But we are continuing to ban all hate speech, hate symbolism, praise of violence, generic praise, support, or representation of the Azov regiment, and any other content that violates our community standards,” it added. The reversal of policy will be an immense headache for Facebook moderators, the Intercept, a US-based website, said. “While Facebook users may now praise any future battlefield action by Azov soldiers against Russia, the new policy notes that ‘any praise of violence’ committed by the group is still forbidden; it’s unclear what sort of nonviolent warfare the company anticipates,” the Intercept wrote.
Do we have no choice but to wriggle in a contorted limbo between the rock of Putin’s totalitarian imperialism, and the hard place of white supremacists’ totalitarian genocide? Is feeding one monster truly the only way to subdue the other, such that we can only hope against hope to maintain the upper hand and neuter Azov once they’ve outlived their usefulness? And seriously, when have such forces ever allowed themselves to be cast aside once others have deemed them no longer useful? To fully grasp the grip the far right paramilitary has on today’s Ukraine, we need to do a deep dive into its current President, Volodymyr Zelensky, and ascertain his responsibility for all that as his country’s chief lobbyist for military aid.
Volodymyr Zelensky started out as a TV actor, starring in a comedy called “Servant of the People”, which became an international sensation on Netflix. When he threw his hat into the ring for the presidency, his appeal was that he was different than the usual politician: young, fresh-faced, honest and funny. He promised liberal reforms and an end to corruption. He won the 2019 election going away, with 73% of the vote. Ukraine was proud of the fact that it had just elected its first Jewish president. But outside of Ukraine, few knew what he told the Ukrainian news agency RBC-Ukraine when he was still a candidate: “There are indisputable heroes. Stepan Bandera is a hero for a certain part of Ukrainians, and this is a normal and cool thing. He was one of those who defended the freedom of Ukraine.” In fact, during the Holocaust, Stepan Bandera led the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, whose soldiers murdered tens of thousands of Jews and Poles, including women and children, while fighting alongside the Nazis against the Soviet Red Army. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army rounded up more than 33,000 Jews to be executed by the Nazis in a span of just two days over an open pit at Babi Yar.
Expressions of admiration for Bandera had increased since Ukraine’s Maidan Uprising of 2014, which toppled the regime of Viktor Yanukovych and triggered its first armed conflict with Russia, which led to the rise of the Azov Battalion and the other far-right paramilitary units (Svoboda, Right Sector, C14 are among the most well-known) now dominating Ukraine’s National Guard. Zelensky allows memorials and street renamings honoring Bandera and his ilk – the butchers of his own people – to occur unimpeded. Every year, a torchlight parade paying tribute to Bandera takes place on the streets of Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, with no interference from its Jewish president. Calling out Zelensky by name, Eduard Dolinsky, Director General of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, declared on April 10: “Our government encourages nationalistic groups. Our government encourages glorification of Nazi collaborators, mass murderers and murderers of Jews. Literally, there are hundreds of monuments, streets named after killers of Jews.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFOuk3EEUSY)
Accompanying this ongoing ‘cultural Nazification’ of Ukraine has been a decline in civil liberties and due process. In February, 2021, the National Security and Defense Council, at Zelensky’s initiative, banned three TV channels — NewsOne, Channel 112, and ZIK, owned by Ukrainian lawmaker Taras Kozak — for being pro-Kremlin. Then, Kozak himself was also charged with treason for Kremlin ties. Later that May, Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of the opposition For Life party was accused of treason. No evidence was made public, although the press made much of the fact that Putin is godfather to Medvedchuk’s daughter (Medvedchuk fled the country). Ukraine’s National Bureau of Investigation afterward accused former president, Petro Poroshenko, of corruption, treason, supporting “terrorist organizations” and being pro-Kremlin; the accusations are thus far unsupported.
Russia’s recent invasion accelerated the erosion of freedoms already underway, Zelensky invoked emergency powers under martial law to ban 11 opposition parties – all to his left – who he claimed, without proof, were pro-invasion. The largest one is the aforementioned For Life party, which has 44 seats in the Parliament; For Life’s current leader Yuriy Boyko, had demanded that Russia “stop the aggression against Ukraine,” but the party has been accused of being pro-Kremlin anyway. Another banned party is the Socialist Party of Ukraine, a kindred group to Social Democrats USA. In addition, all of the country’s remaining TV stations have been shut down except for the government’s.in order to prevent “Russian misinformation.”: And the situation promises to worsen: Zelensky stated that once the invasion is over and Russia leaves, there will be, just like in Israel, “representatives of the Armed Forces or the National Guard in cinemas, supermarkets, and people with weapons.”(Ha’Aretz, April 5)
So why has Ukraine’s government, headed by a Jewish president no less, been making common cause with a wide array of tattooed neo-Nazi and other assorted fascist paramilitary punks? If one were to follow journalists’ Woodward and Bernstein’s sage advice and follow the money, the trail would lead straight to…Ihor Kolomoisky. Ihor (pronounced Igor) Kolomoisky is a billionaire who made his money on the energy market and is a dual Ukrainian-Israeli citizen (Billionaire Ukrainian Oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky Under Investigation by FBI).His TV network produced Zelensky’s “Servant of the People” and he bankrolled both Zelensky”s run for the presidency…and the Azov Battalion. He uses other fascist militias such as the Aidar Battalion and the Dnipro Squad as his own private bodyguards.(Reuters, March 20, 2015). Kolomoisky was ideally positioned to broker the infamous 2018 arms deal that featured Israeli Tavor rifles being sold to the Azov Battalion, a deal uncovered in Ha’Aretz by Israel human rights attorrney Eitay Mack.
While the far right did poorly in Ukraine’s last general elections, Zelensky promotes them regardless because Kolomoisky is literally invested in them. When the offices of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee were vandalized in 2019 by a branch of the Azov Battalion, the Zelensky government did nothing about it, but was quick to invite an Azov representative to a round-table discussion on veterans issues. In October 2021, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Honcharuk attended a veterans benefit concert organized by the far right C14 movement and featuring an anti-Semitic metal band. In December 2021, Zelensky awarded Right Sector commander Dmytro Kotsyubaylo the “Hero of Ukraine” commendation. And just a few months ago, he awarded the same commendation to Azov commander Denis Prokopenko.
In sum, Volodymyr Zelensky and Ihor Kolomoisky are sociopaths with low ethnic self-esteem bent on transforming Ukraine into an increasingly right-wing authoritarian regime where hate crimes would be the order of the day. That is exactly why Putin’s invasion serves their interests – getting Ukraine on a war footing accelerates this transformation. Forget about billions of dollars in military aid – just sending a book of matches to a country with this kind of leadership should raise eyebrows. And since the invasion began, it has never been clear into whose hands US military aid has fallen – the official armed forces (army, navy, air force) or the National Guard, which consists of the most retrograde elements of Ukraine, including the far-right paramilitary groups? (What happens to weapons sent to Ukraine? The U.S. doesn’t really know) Given US history in conflicts of choice, we can only assume the worst.
For all the reasons stated above, then, US military aid to Ukraine is wrong. What is perverse is that there used to be some members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus – and Bernie Sanders – who understood that and articulated that. Now, just a few weeks ago, they suddenly turned around and joined with all the other Democrats to unanimously support a $40 billion military aid package to Ukraine without explaining why. Do they really think this posture of party unity will help them stave off defeat in the upcoming midterm elections? No matter. The real labor movement is not playing these games in Congress, but organizing in the shops and on the picket lines, both here and abroad, and they have some fine ideas on the matter of Ukraine.
In Italy, airport workers in Pisa stopped arms shipments going to Ukraine that were falsely labeled as humanitarian aid(https://www.leftvoice.org/italian-airport-workers-stop-arms-shipment-to-ukraine-under-guise-of-humanitarian-aid/) There have been other reports of workers in Belarus going on strike to halt Russian logistics (https://www.leftvoice.org/greek-railroad-workers-block-delivery-of-u-s-tanks-to-ukraine/) In Greece, railroad workers blocked a shipment of American tanks to Ukraine for more than two weeks. It was also in Greece that President Zelensky appealed to the Greek Parliament for military aid. It started out well but then he brought along some surprise guests to speak – soldiers from the Azov Battalion. That’s when he lost his audience (https://www.euractiv.com/section/europe-s-east/news/zelenskyy-speech-at-greek-parliament-overshadowed-by-azov-video/). Yanis Varoufakis of the left opposition party Syriza tweeted: “President Zelenski just abused the Greek Parliament’s invitation by sharing its platform with members of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, thus undermining the Ukrainian people’s heroic resistance to Putin’s criminal invasion. We stand with Ukraine, not with the (sic) Azov neo-Nazi Battalion”
Contrary to what most people realize, we in the US are not safe from the Ukrainian paramilitaries. As our government’s military support for Zelensky has grown, American supporters for Azov have come crawling out of the woodwork. In April, they staged rallies in lower Manhattan in the new Congressional District 10 as well as opposite the nearby Russian Consulate:
One would hope that the 17 Democratic hopefuls vying for that open Congressional seat (including Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, who just yesterday received the endorsement of the Working Families Party) are paying close attention.
David Van Deusen, President of the Vermont AFL-CIO, offers a compelling alternative to current US policy toward Ukraine in his March 24 CounterPunch piece Concerning the War in Ukraine: No Love For Putin; No Guns For Nazis. Van Deusen points out that Putin is wrong to call Ukraine a Nazi country when only a small minority of the people voted for fascists; yet the US and NATO are also wrong to act like Ukraine is free from a concerning Nazi problem when the government has been arming fascist paramilitary groups for quite some time. He maps out a policy towards protecting Ukraine and the world from Putin’s imperialism while simultaneously protecting Ukraine and the world from Nazi domination: “The U.S. and NATO must demand that the Ukrainian government immediately sever all formal ties with and forcibly dismantle Azov. They must also pledge to withhold weapons from any and all Nazi or fascist groups active within their borders. The Ukrainian government must further agree to take steps that would allow for the verification that such conditions are being met. While this effort would inevitably be resisted by the Zelenskyy administration (as they will claim they need those far right forces on the front lines), their reliance on Western arms does not allow them the latitude to resist such demands with vigor should such conditions be imposed.”
Van Deusen continues, “The West must also provide massive humanitarian aid and free passage for non-fascist refugees seeking to escape the conflict, and for the cancellation of all IMF and World Bank debts (and austerity requirements associated with them) in order to not exasperate the conditions under which fascism can thrive. The U.S. and NATO can also assist in defusing global tensions by publicly stating a commitment to not expand NATO any further into former Soviet territories (historically NATO has its own imperialist interests that have destabilized international relations). Further, as circumstances arise, Organized Labor should look to provide material and political support for those leftist armed formations taking shape as part of the resistance (and moral support to those Russians who continue to protest the war). Doing so shall help restore a favorable balance of power internally in the post war period. And recognizing that Russia is a nuclear power, under no circumstances should the U.S. and NATO seek to impose a no-fly zone. Such an act would amount to the start of an air war with Russia thereby risking World War III.” A salient point, Brother Van Deusen, which is why opposition to a no-fly zone was a key part of SDUSA’s Ukraine resolution in the first place!
More to the point, subsequent events have confirmed the wisdom of not taking a stance in favor of military aid to Ukraine, even if one were unaware of the totality of its vile history, especially toward minorities. David Van Deusen offers a serious idea that should be looked at by any of the up-and-coming newly-elected Congressional progressives and, first and foremost, be promoted as a social democratic idea!
Sheldon Ranz is Director of Special Projects for Social Democrats USA and the editor of Socialist Currents.
Susan Stevens is the Chair of the Kansas City, Kansas chapter of Social Democrats USA.
I truly wish our pro-military aid comrades would respond to Van-Deusen’s excellent idea on CONDITIONAL military aid. I’m opposed to military aid as things currently stand because we are arming the likes of Azov, whom I DON’T believe will just lie down and allow themselves to be neutered once they’re no longer deemed useful.
You guys seem to think that if we keep SAYING they’re not Nazis anymore, they’ll just magically start loving the minorities that they, up to the start of this war, loved to terrorize. I DO believe words have power and all that, but there’s also such a thing as personal choice. A person can reform, but there will be clear signs, such as admitting where they were wrong, expressing genuine repentance towards those they’ve harmed, and taking action to prepare the damage and restore right relations.
I am perfectly fine with neo nazis dying while fighting Russians imperialists, two birds with one stone. Also, they are a super minority, acting like Ukraine is full of nazis is foolish
No one’s acting like Ukraine is “full of” nazis. Like Van Deusen pointed out, most Ukranians do not vote for neo-Nazis. However, this hasn’t stopped Ukraine’s President from glorifying some of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi minority — or. as Sheldon pointed out in his response to you, from stifling Ukraine’s labor movement, which I see as an indication that Zelenskiy’s behaving like a fascist and embracing fascists because he envisions fascism as Ukraine’s path forward.
I’m disappointed in our nation’s leaders because I think Van Deusen is right that if we made our military aid conditional on Zelenskiy breaking ties with neo-Nazis and ensuring that the arms were not going to them, we could have changed the trajectory rather than running the risk that the world’s fascist and white nationalist minority will come out of this exponentially more powerful.
And yes, I agree that nazis and other fascists are a minority. Social Democrats (which includes many poor and working class people who don’t think of themselves as political, but yearn to actually live and breathe easily instead of just surviving) are the vast majority. Yet a heavily-armed, driven, and visionary minority can do a lot of harm till the majority come together, say enough is enough, and resist in the form of voting, running for office, and organizing.
Eduard Dolinsky’s April 10 speech was given OUTSIDE of Ukraine, and for good reason: criticizing the Zelensky regime inside the country would have gotten him arrested on charges of treason. The Ukrainian authorities would have cited the martial law decree as pretext, undoubtedly.
Contrary to President Biden’s recent statement that we would never have US boots on the ground in Ukraine, we already do! The June 26 New York Times article, “Commando Network Coordinates Flow of Weapons in Ukraine, Officials Say” details how the US Special Operations Forces are in Ukraine, fully pictured in uniform. Our tax dollars at work!!
This is disappointing stuff from the SDUSA, I have hope for the organization as a means to promote social democracy, but I cannot possibly agree with this position. Opposing Russian imperialism and defending the sovereignty of the Ukrainian people from the terror of the fascist of the Putin regime should be a goal of all social democrats. I quite frankly do not care if there is a small amount of neo nazis in Ukraine, I am actually happy to see neo nazis and imperialists kill each other, let the enemies of democracy and freedom destroy each other. What I care about is the millions of Ukrainian civilians under the shadow of invasion
Andrew, I am puzzled by your objection. Our piece is quite clear in opposing Putin’s imperialism and defending Ukraine’s sovereignty. But simply throwing money at Zelensky simply because it feels good is no answer, especially when Susan and I went to great lengths to show that Ukraine’s president has gone out of his way to promote the ‘small amount’ of neo-Nazis in his own country.
As a social democrats, I’m also focused on the rights of working people, and I could not help but notice that Zelensky recently announced a crackdown on the trade unions, ostensibly in the name of ‘martial law’. Indeed, the millions of Ukrainian civilians you are concerned about are having their rights violated by their own government under the shadow of Putin’s invasion.
The working people of Ukraine have no future under Russian occupation. Ensuring Ukraine’s ability to militarily repel Russian advancement and to expel them from occupied territories must be the primary concern. Labor rights mean nothing to the people left behind in mass graves by the Russian invaders, nor to those who have been blown up by Russian bombs or have died by other things related to the invasion. Zelensky can be dealt with by Ukrainians in elections after Russian forces have been drawn from Ukraine and a peace deal has been made. And in regards to the Avoz Battalion, it is my understanding that they have gotten the position they hold because in 2014 Ukraine did not have much of a military, so they had to take in anyone they could after Russia annexed Crimea and start to fund and arm pro Russian separatists in the east. This doesn’t concern me too much, let the neo nazis die while actually being useful. If a neo nazi gets shot by Russians by taking out Russian imperialists and strengthening Ukraine’s defense, then I see that as a win in general.
During World War II, fighting Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan were the primary concerns of the United States after Japan attacked our country at Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt did not suppress the rights of the unions or ban strikes, or close down TV stations or ban inconvenient political opponents in Congress, which is what Zelenskyy is doing in the Ukraine.
Social democrats find abhorrent the belief that working people should give up their rights just because their countries are being invaded. What does one thing have to do with the other?
Ukrainian neo-Nazis are not your puppets that they will allow themselves to die or be used in the manner you wish. Anyone well-versed in the history of Hitler’s rise to power and the ensuing Holocaust knows that once these element gains a sufficient foothold, it is they and their backers who call the shots. They have less interest in Ukraine’s defense and more interest in re-enacting Babi Yar. If you read our article carefully, note where we drew attention to Eduard Dolinsky’s talk on Zelensky’s aiding and abetting Ukrainian anti-Semitism.
You don’t get to play neo-Nazis – you’re going to get played BY them.
Excellent point about trying to “play” neo-Nazis and getting played by them instead. Along a similar vein, moderate Democrats keep thinking it’s a good idea to prop up the far right in Republican primaries, after seeing how well it worked out for Hillary in 2016. And they say WE’RE the ones repeating a failed experiment!
I don’t think the WW2 comparison works, it was not within the power of the Axis Powers to occupy America. The only possible result of a land invasion of America would have been mountains of German, Japanese, and Italian corpses, if their boats were even able to make it to shore. That is also besides the point, the war was not occurring on American soil and none of the Axis Powers were an existential threat to us.
Also, what Zelensky does, good or bad, is irrelevant. The only things I care about is the Ukrainian civilians being murdered and buried in mass graves by the invaders from the fascist and imperialist state of Russia. Nothing less than total Russian defeat is an acceptable outcome of this war. The authoritarian bloc cannot be allowed to get the impression that they just annex states. What’s next? China conquers Taiwan? If Russia did not have nukes I’d want American troops marching through Moscow, maybe we’d get lucky and the Russian people would get fed up and give Putin the Mussolini treatment.
And you know, I actually do think fascist imperialist states with nukes threatening world war is the larger threat than a small group of incels.
Why do you think that what Zelensky does is irrelevant? He is the president of Ukraine, and under martial law, he has near-dictatorial power, which he has used in ways reminiscent of the fascists that you claim to deplore.
Your argument seems to be that because Ukraine is undergoing a land invasion – whereas the US was not during WWII – then it’s OK for Zelensky to smash the trade unions. With all due respect, you don’t sound like any social democrat I know.
I never said Zelensky policies are okay, you are avoiding my points because you know your position is indefensible. I don’t give a fuck about Zelensky after the war ends, let him being voted out. What I am saying is since the situation where civilians are being mass murdered, my support for arming Ukraine is unconditional. I am much more concerned at the moment about Ukrainians being shot in the back of the head and dumped into pits. My support is for the lives of Ukrainian people, the men, women, and children who are suffering and dying and will continue to suffer and die as long as Russia is invading. You are also seemly greatly underestimating the threat of a fascist and imperialist state like Russia that now feels bold enough to invade other nations and attempt to annex them while screaming about nukes, and while using a small number of far right wingers in the Ukrainian armed forces, as well as bad actions from the Ukrainian president in order to abandon the principles of internationalism and leave Ukrainian civilians to either be slaughter or displaced from their homes, or to live under Russian occupation. This also seems to be an extreme over correction of the SDUSA’s Cold War policies, looping right back into being bad policy. Still not as bad as DSA’s brain dead takes, idiotically blaming the war of Eastern European countries joining NATO to protect themselves from Russian aggression, and calling for America to withdraw from NATO.
Your points have been addressed directly – nothing has been avoided. In fact, it seems that you did not read our article past the title, since we came up with a nuanced approach to arm Ukraine.
You gave the impression that Zelensky’s actions are OK with you because of remarks like “what Zelensky does, good or bad, is irrelevant.” Shutting down trade unions and TV stations and other violations of our basic freedoms is never irrelevant to social democrats – even if there is mass murder going on.
In fact, the US is continuing to funnel billions in military aid to Ukraine daily. Is it helping to stop the mass murder? There is no plan to win here – it’s mindless jingoism that you are echoing. Being associated with such a policy is not only just plain stupid, but helps the Ukrainian fascist milittias stockpile weapons for future campaigns against anyone they hate.
To be honest this exchange is making me lose interest in the SDUSA, there are probably better ways to promote social democratic ideology and policy than through it, since it small anyway and hasn’t had real influence for decades. Still, it would have been nice to claim direct ties to the greats such as A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin. Frances Perkins and Walter Reuther were right though, unions and the Democratic Party are the real organs where we can use our power to promote our policies. It would be nice to have a social democratic think tank though, to promote social democratic ideology in addition to the policies we share with liberals
I find your appreciation of unions here at odds with your being OK with Zelenskyy throwing them under the bus.
Ukrainian forces are retaking territory at a rather impressive rate. I expect in the next few months to see Ukraine more to the next stage of its counteroffensive and attempt to reestablish its pre 2014 borders.
You very much seem to be straw manning my position, keep bringing up Zelenskyy and his policies like I support them. I can’t care about him in the least, other than his role as the head of state of Ukrainian and commander in chief of the armed forces during the Russian invasion. After Russian forces are driven out of Ukraine and Russia signs a peace treaty, I don’t care if Zelenskyy falls down a staircase and breaks his neck. I also am in disagreement with the policy of many EU countries to denial refugee status to Russians trying to escape the draft, by the way, I think that is immoral.
In all honestly I find your position to be quite cowardly. The primary concerns of foreign policy for social democrats, other than address climate change, should be the defense of nations like Ukraine and Taiwan from the authoritarian bloc of nations like Russia and China, who are feeling emboldened to perform open imperialism and to try to challenge liberal democracy. Russia cannot be allowed to win. While mismanagement of this conflict has the possibility of escalating to war world and even nuclear war, I believe quite strongly that a Russian victory will greatly increase the likelihood of that in the future.
Your last comment strikes me as intentionally dense. Yes, I do support unions. Unions are a great manifestation of the collective power of workers that allows the possibility to challenge the domination of the company over its employees, and is a tool to between the lives of working people. I just happen to think between shoot in the head by Russian soldiers or blown up by an air strike into cities and civilian areas are a bigger threat to worker’s rights than any policy of Zelenskyy, and also since death is permanent and policies can be changed, I think the Russians are the more important thing at this moment. After the war workers and voters can work on reversing any anti labor policy, but you cannot organize or vote if you are dead.
If my last comment is so dense, why did the leaders of the Ukrainian unions protest Zelensky’s measures against them? Surely they understand that “you cannot organize or vote if you are dead”, right? Or is it that only you, O Wise One, understand this and the Ukrainian workers don’t?
Your one-track mind about Russia ignores one salient fact – those on the front lines on Ukrainian anti-Semitism do not share your hypermilitarism. Not once has Eduard Dolinsky or anyone else with the Ukrainian Jewish Committee lobbied for unconditional military aid for Ukraine. If you had bothered to read the article that you protest, you might uinderstand why.
You talk about ‘after the war’, as if Ukraine will still be a democracy afterwards. What makes you think that Zelensky will even permit elections, given the increasing power he has accumulated which has no connection to the invasion?
Andrew, I urge you to re-read the section of our article where we cite David Van Duesen’s excellent solution to providing military aid to Ukraine without arming Nazis.
P.S. misspelled Van Deusen– but in addition to rereading his wonderful idea for providing military aid to Ukraine without arming Neo-Nazis, I also urge anyone taking exception to Sheldon’s and my view to read the counter-opinion expressed by our comrades Patty, Rick and Jason. We’re a decentralized organization of social democrats who work together (and in our different locales) to increase government of, by and for the people. We fervently share one common goal, while respecting one another as individuals with different opinions on various matters. This is the difference between social democracy and a dictatorship. https://socialistcurrents.org/?p=3898