These are mostly pretty flimsy arguments. For example: Zelensky did beat the coup-installed candidate, but he did so on a platform of being more conciliatory to Russia (not surprising, he barely spoke Ukrainian). Once he got into office, however, he pivoted to a platform that was very similar to the coup candidate’s, suggesting that the coup was about more than changing who held one single office.
Secondly: Ukraine does not have a “Nazi problem”, in the sense that the Ukrainian government finds it to be a problem. They had 8 years from the coup to the invasion to do something about the Nazis and they did: They helped them. It was around then that Azov was formed, and over time Azov went from being a paramilitary to an actual Ukrainian military battalion, to an influential force across Ukraine’s military. It was also the coup government, Zelensky included, that decided the thing to do would be heighten state worship of Holocaust perpetrator Stepan Bandera, and now Ukraine has Banderites in pretty high offices.
Azov aren’t a threat because they can invade Russia and win, they are a threat because they have been given immense power in the Ukrainian military and therefore the government. Anyone with eyes can see that Zelensky has a gun to his back, and based on how he has acted in brash defiance of his western handlers, it seems like an inevitable conclusion that it’s the domestic fascists holding the gun.
These are mostly pretty flimsy arguments. For example: Zelensky did beat the coup-installed candidate, but he did so on a platform of being more conciliatory to Russia (not surprising, he barely spoke Ukrainian). Once he got into office, however, he pivoted to a platform that was very similar to the coup candidate’s, suggesting that the coup was about more than changing who held one single office.
Secondly: Ukraine does not have a “Nazi problem”, in the sense that the Ukrainian government finds it to be a problem. They had 8 years from the coup to the invasion to do something about the Nazis and they did: They helped them. It was around then that Azov was formed, and over time Azov went from being a paramilitary to an actual Ukrainian military battalion, to an influential force across Ukraine’s military. It was also the coup government, Zelensky included, that decided the thing to do would be heighten state worship of Holocaust perpetrator Stepan Bandera, and now Ukraine has Banderites in pretty high offices.
Azov aren’t a threat because they can invade Russia and win, they are a threat because they have been given immense power in the Ukrainian military and therefore the government. Anyone with eyes can see that Zelensky has a gun to his back, and based on how he has acted in brash defiance of his western handlers, it seems like an inevitable conclusion that it’s the domestic fascists holding the gun.