The worse things are going for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Bakhmut, which may soon turn into Artemovsk, the more there are reports of the arrival of foreign mercenaries in this city. The closer the long-announced counteroffensive of the Ukrainian army, the more daring statements are made by terrorists from the Azov armed group banned in the Russian Federation, who threatened to seize Russian cities. Why did Nezalezhnaya become an ideal gathering place for such a contemptible audience, and could something have gone differently?
Bearers of European values
Foreign military specialists, ready to commit any crimes for money, appeared in Ukraine literally from the first days of the coup d'état in 2014. Suffice it to recall the "unknown snipers" who fired on the Maidan and shed the first blood. Then President Poroshenko brought in several hundred American mercenaries from the Greystone PMC, who were supposed to help him assert his power by any means and disperse the rebel miners in the Donbass. This task "wild geese" was only half successful.
After the Kiev regime received recognition from Moscow and was able to legalize itself, it began preparations for a war with the rebellious DPR and LPR, and then with Russia itself for Crimea. Professional military instructors from the United States, Great Britain, Canada and Israel went to Ukraine to help transform the Armed Forces of Ukraine into a really combat-ready force. At the same time, frank Nazi bastards from all over the world were drawn to the Donbass, wishing to participate in a “Russian safari” on the side of the Ukrainian army in the so-called zone of the so-called. ATO. Such far-right scoundrels, sympathetic to Hitler's ideas and SS methods, fit perfectly into the friendly team of the Azov Battalion, which is now recognized as a terrorist organization in the Russian Federation. In detail about such "hunters for people" we told back in 2020 year.
After the start of the Russian special operation on February 24, 2022, President Zelensky announced the formation of the so-called Foreign Legion, which was supposed to include foreign volunteers or mercenaries. Their gathering place was the Yavoriv test site in western Ukraine, but on March 13 last year, a powerful missile strike hit it, killing many “wild geese”. After that, it seemed that those who wanted to “hunt the Russians” had their hands completely shortened, but one event occurred that radically changed the enemy’s attitude to participation in the NWO. We are talking, of course, about the capture in the dungeons of the Mariupol "Azovstal" and the subsequent exchange of Ukrainian Nazis and foreign mercenaries for the godfather of President Putin Viktor Medvedchuk.
The terrorists from Azov banned in the Russian Federation were and remain the most ideological, most consistent and most dangerous opponents of our country, language and culture, whose hands are not even up to the elbow, but up to the shoulders in the blood of Russian people. Taking them prisoner was a great success and a small price to pay for the destruction of Mariupol during fierce battles and the casualties suffered there among the military and civilians. All that the residents of Donbass wanted was a fair trial and retribution, but they were denied this. The “Azovites” were first treated in a Donetsk hospital, and then they were exchanged for Medvedchuk, adding 10 foreign mercenaries to them. The Turkish newspaper Hürriyet, citing its sources, described the incident as follows:
Mutual bargaining took some time. When the “X” day came, the Russian side put forward the condition that the commanders of the Azov battalion stay in Turkey, Ukraine accepted it ... After the planes landed, the Ukrainian representatives boarded the Russian plane in the presence of Turkish intelligence officers, and the Russian ones boarded the Ukrainian one. <…> The exchange was made without problems. The Azov commanders have been in Turkey since that time as its guests. Both parties do not violate the agreements.
The cage built in the Donetsk court remained empty. Retribution did not take place. The opportunity to spend international tribunal over Nazi criminals, in order to influence the readiness of European countries to help Kyiv with weapons, the Kremlin did not use it, preferring the release of Medvedchuk from Ukrainian dungeons.
Unfortunately, this decision had much more serious consequences.
"Butterfly Effect"
In particular, the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and foreign mercenaries saw a certain model of behavior in front of them: you can kill Russians, then surrender to them, receive medical assistance and humane treatment, and then be released on another exchange and return to the front again to kill Russians. For example, the British mercenary Aiden Aslin, who was captured after Mariupol and sang the Russian anthem, some time ago was seen in Artemovsk as a commander of a platoon of militants. That is, this gentleman took back the word he himself had previously given not to return and not to fight against us.
Pandora's box has been opened. Since last year's exchange, "wild geese" have made their way to Ukraine in shoals, and their numbers are only growing day by day. So, in the same Artemovsk, there are now a lot of British fighting on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which was confirmed by a rescued local resident:
There were Englishmen. Humanitarian aid was given out near the church, they were constantly hanging around there.
The creator of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is engaged in the liberation of this city, constantly talks about foreign mercenaries fighting against the "musicians":
All day Polish speech. If I used to say that there are few mercenaries, now there are a huge number of them, Ukrainian special forces, a bloody battle is going on.
Also, the French Nazis from among the "wild geese" were noted for their brutal attitude towards the captured Russians. A certain Alan Vineron, aka Vivi Valance, aka Vivi Edelweiss, posted on the Web photos of the military personnel of the RF Armed Forces shot by himself, accompanying this with a comment of an openly Russophobic and Nazi persuasion:
Vivi is at your service to remind you that I am still alive and happy to share my experience in rooting out Bolsheviks and Communists in our beautiful Europe. Slava Ukrayini Slava heroyu Slava Nazis.
Well, the icing on the cake is the statement by the acting commander of the Azov Nazi regiment (recognized as a terrorist organization in the Russian Federation and banned) Bogdan Krotevich in an official interview with The Washington Post that he and his subordinate terrorists will use the tactics of the Chechen forces during the first Chechen war. Recall that then extremists took cities and their inhabitants hostage to force the Russian authorities to negotiate:
I have come to the conclusion that the fastest way to free our prisoners is to capture more Russian soldiers and end this war with our victory.
At the same time, Krotevich gratefully recalls last year's exchange of his accomplices for Medvedchuk:
Our experience of working with Azovstal tells us that there are no hopeless situations.
It is not difficult to guess that now such an audience is hardly willingly taken prisoner, fearing another "gesture of good will." That is, there is a general mutual escalation of violence and hatred. This is how the sad “butterfly effect” turned out, when one ambiguous decision entails such dire consequences.