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“American white nationalists have tried to join the ranks of Azov in recent years."...In 2017 “the FBI warned that Azov’s military wing was “believed to have participated in training and radicalizing United States-based white supremacy organizations.”"...”In September 2019, the FBI arrested Jarrett William Smith, a 24-year-old soldier who was stationed at Fort Riley and wanted to travel to Ukraine to fight [with] the Azov Regiment,”
10/8/2020, “Ukraine Deported Two American Members Of A Neo-Nazi Group Who Tried To Join A Far-Right Military Unit For “Combat Experience”," Buzzfeed, Christopher Miller
“The two men were members of the US-based Atomwaffen Division who tried to join Ukraine’s far-right Azov Regiment, Ukrainian security officials said.”
(Image: Security Service of Ukraine)
“Two American neo-Nazis check their bags while being deported at an airport in Ukraine.”
Ukraine has deported two men from a notoriously violent American neo-Nazi group who tried to set up a local branch and join a far-right military unit to gain combat experience in the war-torn country, according to two Ukrainian security service officials.
The men, both US citizens, are members of the neo-Nazi group known as Atomwaffen Division (AWD), one of the Ukrainian officials confirmed to BuzzFeed News. Both officials declined to provide the men’s names and other personal information.
It was not immediately clear whether the men were being deported back to the US. A video from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) showed an agent alongside the two men with their backpacks in tow at an airport check-in counter.
The deportation of the American neo-Nazis comes as US security officials warn that violent domestic extremists, including white supremacists, pose the greatest terror threat to the US and
ahead of next month’s [Nov. 2020] presidential election.
During last week’s debate [2020], President Donald Trump gave a shoutout to one such group of extremists, the Proud Boys.
[Trump said, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.”]
AWD is a neo-Nazi group that emerged in 2016 alongside the US alt-right segment of the white supremacist movement, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Members of AWD have already been connected to several killings in the group’s short history, the ADL added. Five senior members were arrested in February and charged with federal crimes….
The SBU said in a statement on its website Thursday that the two Americans “produced a video promoting neo-Nazism and urging citizens to commit particularly serious crimes, including murder and terrorist attacks” in Ukraine. The SBU [Ukraine Security Service] said the video, screenshots of which it shared online and showed the “Atom” in Atomwaffen, was spread across social networks.
BuzzFeed News has viewed the video, which was originally published in 2019.
It showed several men in masks and camouflage fatigues donning what appear to be assault rifles.
The Americans carried out “illegal activities” in the capital city, Kyiv, as well as the western city of Lviv and the eastern city of Kharkiv, the SBU said. Moreover, it said, they “tried to join one of the Ukrainian military units in order to gain combat experience, which the representatives of the group planned to use in illegal activities.”
The SBU did not say when the Americans arrived in Ukraine, but it banned them from reentering the country for three years.
The US Embassy in Kyiv, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The deportation of the American neo-Nazis
comes after a DHS threat assessment report on Tuesday said
white supremacist extremists
will remain the deadliest domestic terror threat to the US.
Since 2018, white supremacists have conducted more lethal attacks in the US than any other domestic extremist movement, demonstrating a “long-standing intent”
to target people of racial and religious minority groups, LGBTQ people, politicians, and
those they believe promote multiculturalism
according to the report.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary
wrote in the report released this week that he is concerned about any form of violent extremism.
“However, I am particularly concerned about white supremacist violent extremists
who have been exceptionally lethal in their abhorrent, targeted attacks in recent years,” he said.
Terrorism experts have warned about Ukraine, which is [allegedly] fighting a war against Russia and its separatist proxies in the country’s eastern Donbas region,
becoming a fertile training ground for Western white nationalist extremists.
One group of particular concern has been the far-right
which began as a volunteer battalion when the war broke out in 2014
but has since grown
into a movement consisting of a political party,
a vigilante unit that works closely with police,
and various NGOs.
The Azov Regiment was officially incorporated
into Ukraine’s National Guard in late 2014.
One Ukrainian official confirmed to BuzzFeed News
tried to join the Azov Regiment.
To become a member of the Azov Regiment, a Ukrainian or foreigner
would have to go through official channels.
American white nationalists have tried to join the ranks of Azov in recent years.
In September 2019, the FBI arrested Jarrett William Smith, a 24-year-old soldier who was stationed at Fort Riley and
wanted to travel to Ukraine
to fight [with] the Azov Regiment,
…[and plotted] to bomb a US news network. He was sentenced in August to two and a half years in prison.”
Added:
“The issue of U.S. white-supremacist organizations
being drawn to Ukrainian groups
is a concern that was
raised by U.S. law enforcement as recently as 2017.
That year [2017], the FBI warned that Azov’s military wing was “believed to have
participated in training and radicalizing
United States-based white supremacy organizations.”
The statement came as part of case against a California man
who traveled to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv,
to participate in a fight club with Ukrainian ultranationalists.
The founder of the Azov Battalion, Andriy Biletskiy, later went on to found a Ukrainian political party known as the National Corps,
which has been labeled by the U.S. State Department
as a “nationalist hate group.””…
Above, “Azov Battalion members and supporters from various right-wing movements burn flares during a rally in front of parliament in Kyiv in May 2016,” epa
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9/23/2019, “U.S. Soldier Plotted Attack, Wanted To Fight With Far-Right Ukrainian Paramilitary, Prosecutors Say," Radio Free Europe, Mike Eckel
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