The Ukrainian offensive against the ethnic Russian rebels also has attracted neo-Nazis from around Europe. "Mr Biletsky says he has men from Ireland, Italy, Greece and Scandinavia," the Telegraph reported.
These foreign recruits include Mikael Skillt, a former sniper with the Swedish Army and National Guard who leads and trains a reconnaissance unit. Skillt identified himself as a National Socialist who has been active in the extreme right-wing Party of the Swedes. "Now I'm fighting for the freedom of Ukraine against Putin's imperialist front," he said.
The Kiev government is aware of the Nazi sympathies among the fighters that it has sent into eastern Ukraine to crush the ethnic Russian resistance. "Ukraine's government is unrepentant about using the neo-Nazis," the Telegraph reported, quoting Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, as saying:
"The most important thing is their spirit and their desire to make Ukraine free and independent. "A person who takes a weapon in his hands and goes to defend his motherland is a hero. And his political views are his own affair."
President Petro Poroshenko even hailed one of the militiamen who died in fighting on Sunday as a hero, the Telegraph reported.
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