Who is the real antifascist? Current framings of the war in Ukraine
In conditions of the Russian military campaign to ‘denazify’ Ukraine, how goes the neo-nazi movement in Ukraine?
It's interesting looking at the current discourse which tries to frame the war. On the Russian side, of course, it is framed as an anti-fascist war of 'denazification', whose aim is to remove the post-maidan regime in Ukraine.
On the Ukrainian side, there are also many attempts to frame the war as an anti-fascist war - against Russia. This is justified by reference to the civilian deaths resulting from Russia's offensive.
Interestingly, plenty of Ukrainian political leaders even draw positive parallels to WW2, when the USSR fought against Nazi Germany. Zelensky has done this in his video addresses several times, comparing Russia's invasion to operation Barbarossa. Today, the governor Nikolaiv region did the same, predicting that on the 8th of March Ukraine would repeat the events of the 8th of March, 1943, when the liberation of Nikolaiv from the Nazis began.
All of this is quite ironic considering Ukraine's official attitude towards remembrance of world war 2, of 'the Great Patriotic War' as it is called in Russia. 1 day before the Russian invasion, Ukraine cancelled its participation in the 'commemoration of the memory of the heroism and courage of the peoples of the CIS states in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945' agreement, which Belarus, Ukraine and Russia signed in 2011. Following euromaidan, a new holiday in Ukraine emerged, 'the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation' on May 8th, which clearly competes with the Soviet Victory Day on May 9th. As many critics remarked, why should 'reconciliation' be an emotion felt regarding the defeat of Nazi Germany? But such a strange attitude was inevitable given the state-level glorification of figures such as Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych, who build an 'independent Ukrainian state' with the temporary backing of Nazi Germany.
As for the open Ukrainian fascists, who have of course enjoyed a huge surge in popularity lately, they have an even more contradictory approach. Sometimes they use term 'rashist', a popular term now to denote Russia as a fascist nation. But there are some posts on popular nazi telegrams which harshly critique the framing of Russia as a fascist nation, saying that such an approach reeks of Soviet communist leftism, and that it is better to characterize Russia as an asiatic ‘horde’ of ‘terrorists’.
It’s impossible to say with any certainty the effect that this war will have on Ukrainian politics. It all depends on the course of the war, and events or decisions in Russia and the West.
However, there are several key problematics that intersect with the whole question of how the war is conceptualized as an ‘anti-fascist’ one in Ukraine currently:
- The Russian demand for ‘denazification’, which, in negotiations with Ukraine, is apparently sometimes reducible to ‘simply’ a ban on rightwing nationalist organizations and their ideology in Ukraine. While such a move seems extremely politically difficult, it still seems more likely than the official recognition by Ukraine of the sovereignty of ‘L/DPR’ and that of Russia over Crimea, which Russia also demands in return for ending the war.
- The Russian demand for an official guarantee of Ukraine’s non-NATO status. Since the first days of the war Zelensky declared that he is prepared to discuss this demand, unlike the other ones, and each day his public addresses become more spiteful vis a vis NATO. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian official ‘mindset’ is still one of bewilderment and shock when NATO refuses to enter a nuclear world war with Russia to save Ukraine.
Since the rightwing nationalist groups have greatly risen in popularity because their predictions of Russian invasion have proven true, and most of the appeal of liberals in Ukraine was based on their promise that the West would help Ukraine militarily and politically, the official abandonment of Ukraine’s ‘NATO aspirations’ could dovetail well with a rise in the strength of rightwing groups. They have always critiqued Ukrainian liberals (with which they have otherwise allied with against the ’pro-Russian’ and leftwing fractions of Ukrainian politics) for their reliance on NATO and the ‘degenerate west’. Just as they have been ‘proven right’ about Russia’s intentions, so have they been ‘proven right’ about the West’s desire to ‘help’ Ukraine.
I mean... do Russian neo-Nazis not do the same thing when they see Ukrainians as Turkic-Mongol hordes that need to be cleansed? The accusations are ironically on both sides (let's be honest both of us are quite mixed with different Eurasian populations).