Changes

In their drive to stoke hostilities between [[the West]] and Russia, corporate media ignored the fact that the U.S. and NATO forces have been supporting openly Neo-Nazi paramilitaries in Ukraine for many years. A MintPress study of the op-ed pages of ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'' and ''The Wall Street Journal'' found that only one of 91 articles published in January 2022 mentioned this connection at all, with far more asserting that Vladimir Putin himself is Hitler incarnate. Around 90% of opinion columns pushed a “get tough on Russia” message, with anti-war voices few and far between.<ref>https://www.mintpressnews.com/279612-2/279612/</ref>  “People who take at face value the Western media coverage would have a very distorted perception of the Ukraine conflict and its origin,” Ivan Katchanovski, Professor of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa, told MintPress, adding:

In their drive to stoke hostilities between [[the West]] and Russia, corporate media ignored the fact that the U.S. and NATO forces have been supporting openly Neo-Nazi paramilitaries in Ukraine for many years. A MintPress study of the op-ed pages of ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'' and ''The Wall Street Journal'' found that only one of 91 articles published in January 2022 mentioned this connection at all, with far more asserting that Vladimir Putin himself is Hitler incarnate. Around 90% of opinion columns pushed a “get tough on Russia” message, with anti-war voices few and far between.<ref>https://www.mintpressnews.com/279612-2/279612/</ref>  “People who take at face value the Western media coverage would have a very distorted perception of the Ukraine conflict and its origin,” Ivan Katchanovski, Professor of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa, told MintPress, adding:

{{quotebox-float|"They omit or deny that there is a civil war in Donbas even though the majority of scholars who [have] published or presented concerning this conflict in Western academic venues classify it as a civil war with Russian military intervention. The Western media also omitted that recent ‘unity marches’ in Kharkiv and Kyiv and a staged training of civilians, including a grandmother, were organized and led by the far right, in particular, the [[Azov Battalion|Neo-Nazi Azov [Battalion].]]”<ref>https://twitter.com/I_Katchanovski/status/1490034084600594436</ref>}}

{{quotebox-float|"They omit or deny that there is a civil war in Donbas even though the majority of scholars who [have] published or presented concerning this conflict in Western academic venues classify it as a civil war with Russian military intervention. The Western media also omitted that recent ‘unity marches’ in Kharkiv and Kyiv and a staged training of civilians, including a grandmother, were organized and led by the far right, in particular, the [[Azov Battalion|Neo-Nazi Azov [Battalion].]]”<ref>https://twitter.com/I_Katchanovski/status/1490034084600594436</ref>}}

Conducting a civilian training operation in the middle of the Donbas city of [[Mariupol]] while a crowd of Western journalists looked on, Azov units showed locals how to use rifles. The image of a silver-haired, 79-year-old “babushka” staring down the sights of an [[AK-47]] went viral around the world, allowing the media to construct an “everyone in brave Ukraine is doing their part to oppose an imminent Russian invasion” narrative. The story was covered by a host of outlets, including [[ABC News]], [[MSNBC]], [[Newsweek]], the [[BBC]], ''[[The Guardian]]'' and The Financial Times, as well as by media in [[Ireland]], [[Australia]], [[Israel]], [[Denmark]], [[Thailand]] and [[Indonesia]]. Images from the training day featured on the front cover of six national British newspapers on February 14, 2022.

Conducting a civilian training operation in the middle of the Donbas city of [[Mariupol]] while a crowd of Western journalists looked on, Azov units showed locals how to use rifles. The image of a silver-haired, 79-year-old “babushka” staring down the sights of an [[AK-47]] went viral around the world, allowing the media to construct an “everyone in brave Ukraine is doing their part to oppose an imminent Russian invasion” [[narrative]]. The story was covered by a host of outlets, including [[ABC News]], [[MSNBC]], [[Newsweek]], the [[BBC]], ''[[The Guardian]]'' and The Financial Times, as well as by media in [[Ireland]], [[Australia]], [[Israel]], [[Denmark]], [[Thailand]] and [[Indonesia]]. Images from the training day featured on the front cover of six national British newspapers on February 14, 2022.

This was all despite the fact that the Wolfsangel insignia of the many Azov soldiers instructing the grandmother is clearly visible in a number of the images. The Wolfsangel was the crest of the infamous [[SS]] brigades, [[Hitler]]’s elite paramilitary units that carried out the extermination of millions of people (including countless Ukrainians) in Nazi death camps across Europe. The image is widely used by Neo-Nazi groups in the U.S. and is considered a hate symbol by the [[Anti-Defamation League]]. Azov’s original commander, politician Andriy Biletsky, has stated that he sees Ukraine’s mission as to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against [[Semite]]-led subhumans.” None of the outlets above mentioned the fact that they were profiling Neo-Nazis.<ref>https://www.mintpressnews.com/documents-reveal-us-ned-spent-22m-promoting-anti-russia-narrative-ukraine/279734/</ref>

This was all despite the fact that the Wolfsangel insignia of the many Azov soldiers instructing the grandmother is clearly visible in a number of the images. The Wolfsangel was the crest of the infamous [[SS]] brigades, [[Hitler]]’s elite paramilitary units that carried out the extermination of millions of people (including countless Ukrainians) in Nazi death camps across Europe. The image is widely used by Neo-Nazi groups in the U.S. and is considered a hate symbol by the [[Anti-Defamation League]]. Azov’s original commander, politician Andriy Biletsky, has stated that he sees Ukraine’s mission as to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against [[Semite]]-led subhumans.” None of the outlets above mentioned the fact that they were profiling Neo-Nazis.<ref>https://www.mintpressnews.com/documents-reveal-us-ned-spent-22m-promoting-anti-russia-narrative-ukraine/279734/</ref>