The two men were members of the US-based Atomwaffen Division who tried to join Ukraine’s far-right Azov Regiment, Ukrainian security officials said. Ukraine has deported two men from a notoriously violent American neo-Nazi group who tried to set up a local branch and join a far-right military unit to gain combat experience in the war-torn country, according to two Ukrainian security service officials. The men, both US citizens, are members of the neo-Nazi group known as Atomwaffen Division (AWD), one of the Ukrainian officials confirmed to BuzzFeed News. Both officials declined to provide the men’s names and other personal information. It was not immediately clear whether the men were being deported back to the US. (…) AWD is a neo-Nazi group that emerged in 2016 alongside the US alt-right segment of the white supremacist movement, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Members of AWD have already been connected to several killings in the group’s short history, the ADL added. Five senior members were arrested in February and charged with federal crimes. The Southern Poverty Law Center said AWD is “organized as a series of terror cells that work toward civilizational collapse.” The SBU said in a statement on its website Thursday that the two Americans “produced a video promoting neo-Nazism and urging citizens to commit particularly serious crimes, including murder and terrorist attacks” in Ukraine. The SBU said the video, screenshots of which it shared online and showed the “Atom” in Atomwaffen, was spread across social networks. BuzzFeed News has viewed the video, which was originally published in 2019. It showed several men in masks and camouflage fatigues donning what appear to be assault rifles. The Americans carried out “illegal activities” in the capital city, Kyiv, as well as the western city of Lviv and the eastern city of Kharkiv, the SBU said. Moreover, it said, they “tried to join one of the Ukrainian military units in order to gain combat experience, which the representatives of the group planned to use in illegal activities.”
via buzzfeed: Ukraine Deported Two American Members Of A Neo-Nazi Group Who Tried To Join A Far-Right Military Unit For “Combat Experience”
