A broadcast from a “secret Ukrainian military camp for children” featured a child wearing an eagle patch
German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) has broadcast Nazi insignia in what it claimed was a report from a “secret military camp” for children in Ukraine.
A report about Ukrainian children “being trained for war in military-style boot camps” on Thursday featured children as young as ten learning to shoot military-grade weaponry, provide first aid, and train in hand-to-hand combat.
“Ukrainians realize the war may continue for many years – and they want to be prepared. Today’s children may just be tomorrow’s soldiers,” DW narrated the broadcast.
One of the teenagers appears to wear a patch with a stylized Nazi Germany’s Imperial Eagle, briefly seen in the video on his shoulder. Unlike the original Reichsadler, who carried the Nazi swastika in its claws, the eagle in the patch appears to have it replaced with the trident from the Ukrainian coat of arms.
The original Reichsadler with the Nazi swastika falls under the category of “unconstitutional organizations” symbols in Germany, and its display outside the contexts of “art or science, research or teaching” is illegal.
The symbol and its variants has been extremely popular among Ukrainian servicemen, repeatedly making it even to official propaganda materials – and getting quietly removed after critics spot them. Other controversial symbols, ranging from patches of various SS units, assorted neo-Pagan and neo-Nazi symbols to outright Nazi German swastikas, have been repeatedly spotted on uniforms of Ukrainian servicemen as well.
The need to “denazify” Ukraine was among the goals proclaimed by Moscow at the very beginning of its special military operation against Kiev launched back in February 2022. Kiev has long-denied the presence of any neo-Nazi elements in the country’s military, as well as any broader issues with such ideology in the country, dismissing any assertions on the matter as “Russian propaganda.”
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