DISINFO: Nazi mercenaries from Europe fight in Ukraine
SUMMARY
Private military companies in Ukraine are actively involved in recruiting foreign volunteers. Among them are Academy, Cubic, Darkhorse Benefits, Dean Corporation, Forward Observation Group, Hyperion Services, Sons of Liberty International, as well as Polish companies - ASBS Othago and European Security Academy. Far-right and neo-Nazi organizations from Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic, Britain, Italy and Portugal are also recruiting fighters.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that foreigners fighting for Ukraine are Nazi mercenaries.
Ukraine called on experienced foreign nationals to join its foreign legion, whose members are regular soldiers of the Ukrainian army and not mercenaries.
As pointed out by experts, the nationality of the soldier is not an issue: "Combatants are members of the armed forces of a party to the conflict or volunteers corps incorporated therein. According to the ICRC Commentary to Article 4, the requirement for membership in the armed forces, or the incorporation of the volunteer corps, is a matter of domestic regulation. But the incorporated unit must be a professional fighting force, fulfilling the criteria spelled out in Article 4A(2) of Geneva Convention III, and be subordinate to the regular army command. The fact that an individual is a national of a third State and not a national of the armed forces in which they are serving is widely considered to be irrelevant when it comes to determining combatant or POW status."
As for the Nazi dimension of the claim, the myth of Nazi Ukraine has been the cornerstone of Russian disinformation about the country since the very beginning of the 2013-14 Euromaidan protests, when it was used to discredit the pro-European popular uprising in Kyiv and, subsequently, the broader pro-Western shift in Ukraine's foreign policy.
In 2015 Ukraine issued a ban on Nazi ideologies. On top of that, the far-right groups had a limited presence during the Euromaidan protests and have suffered defeats in every national election after that, with a united front of all radical right-wing parties in the 2019 parliamentary elections winning only 2.15% of the vote falling far short of the 5% minimum guaranteeing entry into parliament.
See similar stories that over 2,500 foreign mercenaries fighting in Ukraine; that the Nazi Kyiv regime creates “Hitler-Jugend” and conscripts women en masse; that over 11,000 foreign mercenaries fought on Ukraine's side since February 2022.