‘Risible’ whitewash downplays prevalence of neo-nazis in Ukraine – but BBC interview this week showed Jeremy Bowen interviewing neo-nazi troops
The BBC’s Ros Atkins has published a video downplaying the number of nazis in Ukraine – bizarrely while showing footage of nazis in Ukraine. The video has been condemned as ‘risible’ and ‘bilge’ by commentator Peter Hitchens and others:
But on its flagship 6pm news on Thursday, the BBC broadcast a report from Ukraine by Jeremy Bowen with Ukrainian troops said to be on their way to fight Russian invaders, titled ‘Inside Irpin the town destroyed in the battle for Kyiv’ – and the report was full of soldiers sporting neo-nazi insignia, including some shown with Bowen himself.
The BBC subsequently deleted the programme from its iPlayer, but the video remained on the BBC’s YouTube page:
The yellow wording and insignia seen on the troops’ sleeves and chest tags – see the stills from the video below – belong to the Ukrainian far-right Svoboda group, including the three-fingered salute and the nazi ‘Wolfsangel’.
Hitchens was withering about the BBC whitewash, pointing out on Twitter that before the invasion the broadcaster has published analysis about the extent of nazi infiltration, influence and coercion over the government in Ukraine:
Alex Rubinstein, the journalist cited by Hitchens as part of his dismantling of the BBC’s propaganda, pointed out that Svoboda’s neo-nazi youth organisation has carried out pogroms against Roma gypsies, is deeply embedded in the Zelenskiy government and was welcomed by US president Biden’s representatives:
Meanwhile, emails obtained from the old laptop of the US president’s son, surprisingly published by the right-wing Daily Mail but ignored by other UK media, show that the US was funding the creation of military biotech facilities – potential biological weapons sites – close to Ukraine’s border with Russia.
The BBC and other UK media had already been caught out publishing fake footage of the invasion, but arguing against itself about the extent of right-wing extremism in Ukraine as if its earlier reports had never happened – while showing footage of one of its senior journalists interview what appears to be a nazi battalion – is a new low. The people of the UK deserve honest news about the invasion and the reality on the ground in Ukraine from its ‘mainstream’ media, not to be taken for fools.
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