China, Hong Kong, Ukraine December 4, 2019
Ukrainian neo-Nazis flock to the Hong Kong protest movement
Ukrainian fascists who previously fought in a US-backed neo-Nazi militia
joined the anti-China protests in Hong Kong, sharing their tactics and
showing off their tattoos.
By Ben Norton
Neo-Nazis from Ukraine have flown to Hong Kong to participate in the
anti-Chinese insurgency, which has been widely praised by Western corporate
media and portrayed as a peaceful pro-democracy movement.
Since March 2019, Hong Kong has been the site of often-violent protests and
riots that have run the city's economy into the ground. The US government
has funded many of the groups leading the pro-Western and anti-Beijing
movement, and opposition leaders have coordinated closely with conservative
political figures in Washington like Marco Rubio and Steve Bannon, lobbying
for sanctions and other punitive measures against China.
Numerous delegations of far-right groups from across the world have traveled
to Hong Kong to join the violent insurgency against Beijing, in which
secessionists have attacked police with bows and arrows, shot gasoline bombs
out of catapults, and burned numerous people alive.
With their flamboyant waving of US and British colonial flags and tendency
to belt out the American national anthem on megaphones, anti-China
separatists in Hong Kong have made themselves a magnet for the US far-right.
Staff of the website InfoWars, right-wing social media personality Paul
Joseph Watson, and the ultra-conservative group Patriot Prayer are among
those who have made pilgrimages to the protests.
The latest collection of extreme-right activists to reinforce the ranks of
the Hong Kong separatists are from Ukraine. They call themselves Gonor and
have tattoos on their upper torsos with undeniable symbols of white
supremacy and neo-Nazism.
These extremists previously fought in a notoriously brutal neo-Nazi militia
called the Azov Battalion, in Ukraine's war against pro-Russian militants.
The Azov Battalion is an explicitly fascist paramilitary group that
organizes around neo-Nazi ideology. After a Western-backed 2014 coup against
Ukraine's democratically elected government, Azov was incorporated into the
Ukrainian national guard. It has received support from the US government,
which has armed and advised the neo-Nazis in their fight against Moscow.
Azov has also helped train American white supremacists, who have plotted
terrorist attacks back at home in the United States.
While Western governments and corporate media outlets portray China as an
authoritarian regime that treats Hong Kong like a colony, these violent
Ukrainian fascists took advantage of the region's autonomy to gain entry
through its borders. It is unlikely they would have been admitted to
mainland China, or to the Western European countries that routinely refuse
visas to political extremists.
The presence of Ukrainian regime-change activists in the Hong Kong protests
is further evidence of the alliances that anti-Chinese activists in Hong
Kong are building with other right-wing, US-backed movements around the
world, sharing tactics to weaken and destabilize countries targeted by NATO.
Ukrainian Nazi in Hong Kong flag
Ukrainian fascists join Hong Kong insurgency
On December 1, the far-right activist Serhii Filimonov posted photos on
Facebook showing himself and three Ukrainian friends upon their arrival in
Hong Kong. The images were accompanied by the anti-Beijing's unofficial
slogan: "Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong!!"
Stand With Hong Kong is also the name of a Western-backed organization that
has been lobbying the governments of the US, Britain, Germany, Canada, and
Australia to impose sanctions and take punitive action against China.
In a video they posted on social media, the Ukrainian white supremacists
revealed that they had obtained a press pass, misleadingly portraying
themselves as journalists.
Ukrainian Nazi in Hong Kong press pass
Joining Filimonov on the trip to Hong Kong was a notorious extreme-right
Ukrainian activist who goes by the name Maliar. Maliar is popular on
Instagram, under the name xgadzillax, where he has more than 23,000
followers. (Maliar has a distinctive scar on the left side of the neck,
which makes him easy to recognize in photos.)
Ukrainian Nazi Maliar swastika tattoo ears
Besides the swastikas inked into his skull, Maliar had the Nazi symbols
tattooed on his right leg, next to an algiz rune, another common white
supremacist emblem.
Ukrainian Nazi Maliar swastika tattoo leg
Several photos show that at least two of the Ukrainian fascists in Hong Kong
have tattoos reading "Victory or Valhalla," the title of a compilation of
writings by the notorious American white supremacist David Lane, whose
neo-fascist terrorist group The Order murdered a liberal Jewish radio host
and planned more assassinations of left-wing Jews.
Lane, who was convicted to 190 years in a US prison for numerous crimes,
created the most famous white supremacist slogan, known as the 14 Words -
which inspired the name of another Ukrainian neo-Nazi group called C14.
Filimonov, who also has a large following on Instagram, where he uses the
name Sunperuna, published a photo showing the phrase "Victory or Valahalla"
emblazoned on his chest.
Serhii Filimonov Instagram victory or Valhalla
The book "Victory or Valhalla" is dedicated to "Aryankind." In its pages,
its author says he is committed to preventing the "imminent extinction
facing the White Race" and the "Judeo-American/Judeo-Christian murder of the
White race." The screed is replete with homages to Nazis, and the back cover
shows a photo of Lane's body in his coffin, wrapped in a Confederate flag.
These Ukrainian fascists were such fans of the book that they permanently
tattooed its title on their bodies.
Maliar, the other member of Gonor who joined the Hong Kong protests, has
"Victory or Valhalla" inscribed conspicuously on his neck.
Ukrainian Nazi in Hong Kong Victory or Valhalla neck
Journalist Morgan Artyukhina identified another member of the far-right
Ukrainian contingent in Hong Kong as Serhii Sternenko. Artyukhina noted that
Sternenko is a former leader of the Ukrainian fascist group Right Sector,
which burned down a trade union building in Odessa during the 2014 coup,
killing 42 people.
Neo-Nazis take campus
On December 2, the Ukrainian fascist visitors posted photos of themselves on
the campus of Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), a site of violent
protests.
PolyU has been a crucial base of operation for the separatist uprising. A
total of 3,989 petrol bombs, 1,339 pieces of explosives, and 601 bottles of
corrosive liquid were recovered at the school, as of December 2, according
to reports.
Ukrainian Nazis Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Serhii Filimonov (the first on the left in the photo above) has faced legal
troubles in the past, appearing in court for allegedly brawling with police.
The photos Filimonov posts on social media make two things abundantly clear:
He is a Nazi and wants as many people as possible to see him shirtless while
bearing heavy weapons.
Serhii Filimonov Instagram gun 2
Other members of Gonor have published photos on Instagram holding guns.
Serhii Filimonov Instagram guns
A video posted on Instagram in 2015 shows Maliar and a friend in a "White
Rebel" Confederate flag t-shirt surrounded by guns and tasers.
Gonor's symbol draws on many of the same far-right ultra-nationalist themes,
with three white knives centered on a black flag.
Gonor's Telegram channel offers members a front row seat to an orgy of
violence. It has published dozens of videos of Hong Kong insurgents,
heroizing them for shooting arrows and carrying out brutal attacks on state
security forces.
Both Filimonov and Maliar previously fought in the US-backed neo-Nazi Azov
Battalion. Maliar has posted photos on Instagram showing the two armed and
in military uniform, wearing Azov patches.
Ukrainian Nazi Serhii Filimonov Maliar Azov Battalion
And Filimonov has published several photos showing him and his friends
wearing Azov t-shirts.
Ukrainian Nazi Maliar Azov patch
Ukrainian regime-changers build networks with Hong Kong secessionists
Despite all of this publicly available evidence demonstrating the open
fascism of the Ukrainian hooligans in Hong Kong, the Kiev-based Free Hong
Kong Center published a statement on Facebook defending and whitewashing
Gonor.
The organization confirmed that the extremists did indeed fight with Azov
"during the first period of the war" against pro-Russian separatists, but
claimed that they have been unaffiliated since 2015.
The Free Hong Kong Center described the neo-fascists as "activists of the
Revolution of Dignity and as well as veterans of the defending war with
Russia." Absurdly, the center declared that they "assured us they are really
against nazism and another kind of alt-right ideology."
"A lot of people were disappointed by the tattoos of these guys," the Free
Hong Kong Center conceded. But they insisted "that all symbols are from
Slavic paganism."
The Free Hong Kong Center is a project of an NGO called the Liberal
Democratic League of Ukraine. In addition to building links with
anti-Beijing forces in Hong Kong, the project says its mission is to
"counter Chinese threats to Ukraine."
The Liberal Democratic League of Ukraine is a pro-European Union advocacy
organization which is a member of the European Liberal Youth and the
International Federation of Liberal Youth, both of which are funded by the
EU.
The main coordinator of the Free Hong Kong Center is a Ukrainian activist
named Arthur Kharytonov, who is also the president of the Liberal Democratic
League of Ukraine. Kharytonov was deeply involved in the Euromaidan protests
in Ukraine, which led to the 2014 US-backed coup. He then set up the league
in 2015.
Kharytonov and his organization have been frequently amplified in US
government-funded Ukrainian media outlets such as Hromadske. In these
softball interviews with a highly sympathetic press, Kharytonov likens the
anti-Russia protests in Ukraine to the anti-China protests in Hong Kong, and
calls for closer bonds between them.
Kharytonov and these Western government-backed organizations are part of a
growing network of Ukrainian regime-change activists who are organizing with
secessionists in Hong Kong, holding and sharing insurgency tactics.
As the US and NATO-led unipolar hegemonic order that has dominated the world
since the end of the Cold War begins to crumble, and as a rising China and
Russia seek to restore a multipolar global system, Washington and European
nations are constructing a latticework of movements to undermine their
adversaries on their frontiers.
This global network is marketed as the advance guard of global liberalism,
but as events from Ukraine to Hong Kong have revealed, fascism is festering
at its base.
Ben Norton
Ben Norton is a journalist, writer, and filmmaker. He is the assistant
editor of The Grayzone, and the producer of the
