Nationalism always seems to boil down to seig heiling

I chose my moniker for its cute alliteration; I'm always willing to engage in good faith.

What you said about the ubiquity of extremist elements is true. It applies also to modern Russia.

However, following the US-backed coup in 2014^[https://tankie.tube/w/nWdES2mkxMqzeBqRvAz4ez], Western intelligence agencies spent eight years strengthening, emboldening, arming^[https://medium.com/dfrlab/american-lethal-weapons-could-already-be-on-the-ukrainian-front-line-9dc6fd98630d], and protecting the existing fascist elements in Ukrainian government and society. As a result, Ukraine is the only country in the world today which has integrated a fascist militia (Azov Battalion) into its military, and it's been a struggle for the Western media to photograph them without accidentally documenting displays of fascist regalia.^[https://www.rt.com/russia/614353-germany-nazi-symbols-ukraine/]

This extremism is also at the very root of the current proxy war. Because Ukrainian fascism is characterized by—among other things—anti-Russian bigotry, fascist militias in 2014 began traveling to the east of the country to carry out stochastic terrorism on the Russian Ukrainians who reside there.^[https://tankie.tube/w/11tj9DFjVqbdfBMzqVSUU1] Zelenskyy ran on a platform of peace, but was unable (or unwilling?) to rein them in. The West sabotaged^[https://businessmirror.com.ph/2023/01/04/merkel-admits-minsk-meant-to-buy-ukraine-time/] cease fire attempts with the goal of drawing Russia into a military quagmire on its border (similar to how they drew the Soviet Union into Afghanistan in the 1980s).

intellectually dishonest

Hey remember when canadian parliament totally didn't give a standing ovation to a Waffen SS guy, and everyone totally didn't memory-hole it?