Once again, SS symbol-flaunting Nazis have been spotted among the ranks of Ukraine’s military; this time the individuals are not part of some (of the many) pro-government militia tied to the ‘Internal Troops’, but are soldiers fighting within the elite Ukrainian airborne forces.
On Wednesday, Ukraine deployed several units of airborne assault forces branch to “dangerous” parts of the Ukrainian-Russian border. One of the soldiers photographed (in the picture above, a zoom-in shown in the picture below) amid the deployment displayed clear symbolism related to the 3rd Waffen-SS Division, specifically the iconic ‘Totenkopf’ (translated: ‘Death’s Head).
During the German invasion and occupation of the Soviet Union, the 3rd Waffen-SS Division was for the most part deployed on the southern front in what is today Ukraine (and Russian areas directly west of it), partaking in major battles around Kharkov, the Donbass region and Kursk.
Part of the German plan to colonize Ukraine was to divide its population along perceived racial lines; Ukrainians west of the Dnieper were labelled as being more Aryan (and thus apparently superior) to the ‘subhuman’ population east of the river.
On this basis, the 14th Waffen-SS Division (formed by an officer cadre from the 3rd Waffen-SS ‘Death’s Head’ Division) made up mostly of ethnic Ukrainians from the country’s western Galicia region was mobilized.
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The idea was that these soldiers were Aryan ‘Galicians’ rather than Slav Ukrainians. Even long after the defeat of Hitler’s Germany, Nazi idealism has remained in the minds of Ukrainian ultra-nationalists with a seething hatred for Russia.
