Azov fighter video overshadows Zelenskiy's address to Greek lawmakers
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appears on a screen as he addresses the Greek parliament via teleconference in Athens, Greece, April 7, 2022. REUTERS/Costas Baltas
ATHENS, April 7 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy's address to the Greek parliament on Thursday caused an outrage from opposition parties after a man who identified himself as an ethnic Greek member of Ukraine's ultranationalist Azov battalion appeared on a video.
Zelenskiy spoke about the destruction of the Russian-besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol - home to thousands of ethnic Greeks - and appealed to Athens for help. read more
During his speech he showed a video with a message by a man who identified himself as a member of the Azov battalion, a far-right militia now part of Ukraine's National Guard.
"I address you, as a Greek by origin. I am Mikhail, my grandfather fought against the Nazis... I participate in the defence of Ukraine through the Azov Battalion," he said.
Zelenskiy, who was invited to address the Greek parliament by conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, received a standing ovation from lawmakers present in the room.
But the video caused a backlash on social media and an angry reaction from leftist parties.
Shortly after the speech, the head of the leftist Syriza party Alexis Tsipras said the incident was a provocation. "Solidarity with the Ukrainian people is a given. But the Nazis can not have a say in parliament," he tweeted.
His tweet had won more than 3,900 likes by Thursday evening.
A Greek government spokesman responded that the message of a member of the Azov Battalion was "mistaken and inappropriate".
Western countries say Moscow's invasion, the biggest assault on a European country since World War Two, was entirely unprovoked. Russia says it is carrying out a "special operation" to disarm and "denazify" its neighbors.
Ukraine's embassy in Athens said the Azov regiment, set up as a far right group in 2014, has been reformed and integrated into the National Guard of Ukraine.
"For many years Russia tried to 'plant' into Greek minds the myth that "Azov" Regiment is a paramilitary independent unit operating in Mariupol," it said.
"The video ... has nothing to do to those Nazi deeds, Russians commit on our land and against our people."
There r many more of those atrocities committed by the Azov battalion in the Donbass region, both recently & since 2014.
ReplyDeleteMany of them r independent reports of individual investigators.
Yet all of these reports r banned, blacklisted by almost all the known western MSM of all hues!
https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/oped/is-the-truth-about-bucha-too-inconvenient-to-be-discovered--3773388
ReplyDeleteThe other view on Bachu massacre by Scott Ritter.
All the western MSM have banned this write-up. His Twitter a/c has been suspended.
You are absolutely spot on, CK. Scott Ritter's Twitter account was taken off and so was Brian Berletic's of NewAtlas. In fact we were all advised to sign up for alternative sites like Rumble, Telegram, etc in the event of some of these independent journalists on YouTube 'meeting an untimely end'. So much for the West's nonsensical endless trumpeting of so-called Western Democratic values of Freedom of Speech, Free Media, wa ka ka ka. Full of shit.
Delete