Latest news with #denazification
Russia Today
11-08-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Ukrainian court secretary posts Nazi flag photo
A court worker in Kiev has been caught sharing a photo of herself posing with a Nazi German flag, according to Ukrainian media. Russia has for years sounded the alarm over the resurgence of Nazi ideology in Ukraine, accusing the West of deliberately ignoring far-right tendencies in the country. Moscow has named the 'denazification' of its neighor as among its key goals in the conflict with Ukraine. Ukrainian outlet Telegraf and several other media shared photos on Sunday which they claimed came from the Instagram page of Anastasia Mirzak, secretary of the Svyatoshinsky Court in the Ukrainian capital. Her post could not be immediately verified. In one photo, apparently taken during outdoor recreation with friends, Mirzak was captured holding the Reichskriegsflagge, a military flag used by the Third Reich during the Second World War, which features a swastika. Another photo featured Mirzak posing with a group of bare-chested men, one of whom had a tattoo of the Wolfsangel, a symbol adopted by several Nazi German units. According to reports, Mirzak deleted the photos within ten minutes of their publication, although they were up long enough for the media to spot them. The Strana news outlet also said Mirzak later shared a screenshot of a news article about her posing with a Nazi flag in her stories. Telegraf reported on Monday that police have launched criminal proceedings against the court worker over the display of illegal symbols. Legal expert Radislav Kravtz told the outlet that Mirzak could be dismissed from her post and faces a prison sentence if found guilty of deliberate propaganda. Nazi symbols have been banned in Ukraine since 2015. Despite this, the authorities have erected monuments and named streets in honor of Ukrainian nationalist leaders who collaborated with Adolf Hitler's forces during the Second World War. Right-wing groups also frequently stage torch-lit rallies in Kiev and other cities. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stated that by arming and funding Ukraine, 'Western Europe has once again found itself under a Nazi flag by committing to a completely misguided, disastrous venture of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia.'
Russia Today
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
‘Obvious similarity' between Ukraine and Nazi Germany
Ukraine bears similarities to the Nazi state at the end of World War II and should undergo 'demilitarization,' 'denazification,' and 'democratization' in a manner similar to postwar Germany, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has told TASS. He spoke to the Russian news agency on Thursday, the 80th anniversary of the Potsdam Conference, which began on July 17, 1945. The conference was the last wartime meeting between leaders of the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It laid the groundwork for postwar Europe, including plans for Germany's demilitarization and denazification. Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, explained that the concept of the 'three D's' had originally been formulated for Nazi Germany, which he described as an aggressor state that had disrupted the international order, according to TASS. 'The 1945 Reich and modern Ukraine are, of course, very different - in scale, global role, and even (formally) in state ideology. But there is also obvious similarity.' Medvedev said Ukraine shares its 'crisis of identity' with Hitler's Germany and engages in the 'open use of Nazi symbols,' while showing signs of dictatorship and economic degradation. 'All this makes the idea of applying the three D's relevant,' he stated. He added that demilitarization for Ukraine should not be seen as punishment, but rather as 'a chance to stop being a pawn in someone else's bloody geopolitical games.' He described denazification or 'debanderization' as a long-term effort involving public consciousness and historical memory. Democratization, he said, involved not only elections but also the restoration of legal institutions, free media, political competition, and the separation of powers. Many historic ultranationalist leaders, including Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) Stepan Bandera, a notorious Nazi collaborator, are widely revered by Ukrainians today. Russia has repeatedly condemned Kiev's elevation of these collaborators to national hero status and has demanded the 'denazification' of the country as part of a negotiated peace agreement. Russia has accused Western governments of deliberately ignoring continued neo-Nazi activity in Ukrainian ranks.
