Neo-Nazis train for urban combat in Kiev (PHOTOS)

The Ukrainian Blood Unity shared a picture of its members giving a Nazi salute during a drill

A Ukrainian neo-Nazi organization has bragged about conducting urban combat drills in Kiev Region to prepare to “defend the Ukrainian nation,” according to its posts on Telegram.

In two posts over 2 weeks, the Kiev branch of the so-called Ukrainian Blood Unity published a series of photos of masked men – brandishing either live weapons or their replicas – practicing tactical maneuvers in urban and forest areas. One image shows four militants with censored faces giving a Nazi salute.

The group – which describes itself as “the only Ukrainian right-wing organization based on the principles of ethnic, racial and social nationalism” – said that the drill’s participants “learned the correct placement of weapons and stance, distribution of sectors, movement in groups, exiting from corners and other combat techniques.”

It also touted the exercise by saying that the “development in military affairs is one of the foundations of nationalistic education of youth and a counterbalance to the weakness cultivated by the liberal system.” In a post in early February, the group said it is “preparing to defend the Ukrainian nation.”

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The group’s insignia is a stylization of an Odal (or Othala) rune, notoriously used by a Waffen SS department tasked with maintaining “racial purity”. It was also an emblem of the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division “Prinz Eugen,” which was involved in ruthless anti-partisan crackdown and mass executions in the Balkans during World War II.

In an earlier message, the Ukrainian Blood Unity railed at Kiev’s attempt to pass a law “On strengthening the prevention of and counteraction to anti-Semitism.” The group shared an anti-Semitic picture, stressing that it supports the creation of a state in which Ukrainians will be given preference over other nations, and white Europeans over other races.

It is unclear whether the Ukrainian Blood Union is affiliated with Kiev’s armed forces, and how deeply its members are involved in the fight against Russia. However, one of the group’s Instagram posts claims to show one of its members standing over the corpse of what is described as a “personally annihilated Muscovite occupier.”

Moscow has repeatedly raised the alarm over resurgent neo-Nazi ideology in Ukraine – something it claims the West prefers to turn a blind eye to. Russian officials have stated that one of Russia’s main goals in the conflict is Ukraine’s “denazification.”