https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/foreign-fighters-in-ukraine-a-time-bomb-back-home

Foreign fighters in Ukraine; a time bomb back home?

"The death of a French volunteer in Ukraine is the first clear evidence that there are at least some far-right extremists among the foreign fighters who have been deployed to fight Russian forces," The Intercept website reported. Wilfried Bleriot, 32, was killed in combat on June 4, 2022, according to a Facebook post by Ukraine's so-called "International Legion".

Bleriot wears the black-and-white patch of the so-called Misanthropic Division - said to be an overtly fascist volunteer wing of Ukraine's ultranationalist Azov Battalion - on the front and center of his body armor in a photo posted by the International Legion, which was formed after the Russian military operation began and is open to volunteer fighters from all over the world.

The Misanthropic Division's violent, hate-filled Telegram group was the first to report Bleriot's death one day earlier, on June 3. The statement said Bleriot died on June 1 in Kharkov and attached a photo of him wearing a T-shirt with the words "Misanthropic Division" across the front.

What is the Misanthropic Division?

The Misanthropic Division was defined as "one of the numerous neo-Nazi groups that have mushroomed around Ukraine in recent years" by the Los Angeles Times in 2018. The Daily Beast described it in 2020 as "the aggressive overseas volunteer arm of Ukraine's neo-Nazi Azov Battalion."

A spokesperson for the Azov Battalion, which began in 2014 as a far-right street gang and has since evolved into a professional special operations regiment of the Ukrainian army, did not immediately answer a question about Bleriot and the Misanthropic Division.

However, Andriy Biletsky, the founder of the Azov movement, commenting on the presence of foreign fighters among their ranks, said, “We have volunteers from different countries."

“We’ve had Europeans, Japanese, people from the Middle East.”

Where is the Azov base?

The Azov base is located in an abandoned Soviet factory property on the semi-industrial outskirts of Kiev. Inside the main building, a yellow flag with Azov's infamous Wolfsangel insignia in the center-hung from the rafters inside the main structure.

Black Sun clocks can be seen hanging on the walls in two spots, such sun wheels or Sonnenrads, which were also found on the floor of Heinrich Himmler's castle in Germany. The Black Sun symbol is extensively utilized by contemporary Nazi supporters to express their Aryan supremacist ideas.

On the battlefield, there is plenty of photographic evidence of Azov fighters wearing Nazi emblems. Azov has attempted to clean up its image and depict itself as depoliticized in recent years, but its actions speak louder than anything else.

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