Freuding spoke at the Kyiv Security Forum, “Ukraine's Premier International Platform on War, Peace, and Security,” which was dedicated to the Ukrainian version of “Victory Day” and called on the world to “Unite Again to Defeat the Global Aggressor.” The German general said he is proud that “we equaled Russian military power with regard to drones.” Other speakers included Admiral Rob Bauer, the former Chair of the NATO Military Committee (2021-25); CIA veteran Ralph Goff, who was almost appointed its chief of clandestine operations this spring; the famous historian Timothy Snyder; and former CIA director David Petraeus, another fan of Azov’s drone capabilities.

The opening ceremony of the latest Kyiv Security Forum included a video that claimed in World War II, “hundreds of thousands joined the Ukrainian Insurgent Army [UPA], resisting both Nazi and Soviet forces.” In fact, tens of thousands joined the far-right UPA in 1943-44, and many of them were already [Axis] collaborators and war criminals. The first panel featured Valery Horishny, who[m] I wrote about before on this blog because he made a speech at the United Nations in January. This hardcore neo[fascist] from the Azov unit in Ukraine’s National Guard, who has dedicated poetry to Adolf Hitler, also spoke at last year’s “Kyiv Security Forum for Youth.”

“It now looks like deliberate policy by Western governments to whitewash, support and use open neo-Nazis in Ukraine in proxy war,” the political scientist Ivan Katchanovski commented on the Romanov-Freuding meeting. “There was a similar policy of Western governments to whitewash, support and use open Nazi collaborators from OUN [Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists] and UPA [Ukrainian Insurgent Army] in the Cold War.”

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Russia announced a unilateral ceasefire from May 8-10 to coincide with events marking the 80th anniversary of the defeat of [the Third Reich]. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said that he couldn’t guarantee the safety of foreign officials celebrating in Moscow, and Ukraine launched a large drone attack on the night of May 6-7 that grounded flights in the Russian capital, presumably as some of those officials were arriving. The symbolic drone strikes followed a suspiciously-timed ceremony in Kyiv that saw Zelensky honor the Azovite 3rd Assault Brigade, which is probably the most important neo[fascist] unit in the Ukrainian armed forces.

The President of Ukraine also presented a battle flag to the commander of the Azov movement’s Yevhen Konovalets Military School (YKMS, named after the founder of the fascistic OUN) that has formed the 354th Mechanized Training Regiment in the Ground Forces of Ukraine. Vladyslav Datsky (AKA “Datsyk”) received the “Hero of Ukraine” medal, the highest state award. “Datsyk” has a Slavic swastika, or kolovrat, tattooed on the back of his right leg. He commands the “Decepticons” platoon, which has a Black Sun in its chevron, and co-starred in the Azovite propaganda film “We Were Recruits” that I wrote about in my last post.

Zelensky also awarded the 3rd Assault Brigade “For Courage and Bravery,” which was received by the new commander of the unit, Yaroslav Levenets. Until recently, he was only known publicly as “Bot,” and led the 1st Mechanized Battalion in Andriy Biletsky’s 3rd Assault Brigade. Biletsky, the leader of the Azov movement, will remain in charge as the head of the new 3rd Army Corps. It should include about five brigades, but how many are “Azovite” remains to be seen.