DISINFO: Canada, US, France, UK and other Western countries train neo-Nazis in Ukraine
SUMMARY
Canada, the US, France, the UK and other Western countries participate in the training of neo-Nazis in Ukraine, according to a report by the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at the George Washington University published last month.
RESPONSE
The claim is a deliberate distortion of the original report, titled “Far-Right Group Made Its Home in Ukraine’s Major Western Military Training Hub”. As the report explains, a far-right group of military officers called Centuria, with strong links to the Azov movement, is gaining strength inside the Hetman Petro Sahaidachny National Army Academy (NAA), Ukraine’s main military education institution. Some of its members seem to have benefited from training opportunities in Western countries. But there is nothing in the report that may indicate that Western countries are deliberately promoting this far-right organisation, contrary to what the headline suggests.
The claim aims to promote several recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives, framing Russia’s rivals, in this case, Ukraine’s army and authorities, as Nazis and the West as a promoter of extremism.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Ukraine is ruled by a Nazi junta, that Zelenskyy backs Nazism in Ukraine, that extremists and Nazis are being trained in Ukraine to act in Belarus, or that under external control, Ukraine is doomed to escalate the conflict in Donbas.