DISINFO: Ukrainian neo-Nazis are shooting residents in the Kursk region and the West remains silent
SUMMARY
Ukrainian neo-Nazis are reportedly targeting residents in the Kursk region, yet the West remains silent. These individuals, wearing chevrons and helmets from the era of the Third Reich, are shooting, mocking, and taking prisoners among the local population. The West’s silence implies that "the right to life does not extend to Russians."
RESPONSE
Recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets accusing Ukraine of Nazism and war crimes, allegedly supported by Western countries. This narrative re-emerged amid Ukraine's advance into Russia's Kursk region, which began on August 6, 2024.
This claim is unsubstantiated and contradicts available evidence. Reporters from the Washington Post, who visited the town of Sudzha, stated they found “no evidence that Ukraine’s military had looted or attacked civilians.” The article also quoted Russian civilians expressing that “they were being treated well and did not know of any residents who had been killed.”
In reality, there is substantial evidence of Russian troops committing war crimes, for example their practice of positioning military assets in residential areas. The Russian military also targets civilian infrastructure, including schools, kindergartens, hospitals, orphanages, and churches. One of the most notorious atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine was the airstrike on a maternity and children's hospital in Mariupol on March 9, 2022, which resulted in the deaths of three people, including a child, and left 17 others wounded, according to official reports.
The myth of ‘Nazi Ukraine’ has been widely used by Putin and pro-Kremlin outlets since Russia attacked Ukraine and illegally annexed Crimea in 2014. The myth of Nazi-ruled Ukraine appeared during the Euromaidan popular protests in late 2013 - early 2014, falsely presented in pro-Kremlin disinformation as a coup. The Kremlin has been using this myth since then to discredit Ukraine's shift towards Euro-Atlantic policy.
Russia has a long background of falsely blaming others or denying its responsibility in face of war crimes and atrocities.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that Ukrainians don’t evacuate their wounded but execute them, that Ukrainian fascists kill civilians at point-blank range in Kursk, use orphans as human shields or that Okhmatdyt hospital bombing is a savage Ukrainian crime.