Kiev integrates German neo-Nazi corps into the regular Ukrainian army

Image via Telegram video screenshot (see below)

Susann Witt-Stahl, junge Welt, 14 May 2025. Translated by Helmut-Harry Loewen.*

The new “German-Ukrainian brotherhood” against the “Bolshevik enemy” that the pro-Western Fascist International has longed for is taking shape. German neo-Nazis have been directly engaged since June 2023 in a war which German politicians and the media have promoted and ideologically prepared for years. What has been given the grandiose moniker of German Volunteer Corps (DFK: Deutsches Freiwilligenkorps) is likely to be just the size of a squad, but this has not prevented Kiev's military leadership from integrating it into the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Since April 2025, the DFK has been part of the 49th Carpathian-Sich Assault Battalion of the Ukrainian ground forces.

Founded in 2014 after the Maidan coup by members of the Svoboda party and the military sports group Sokil, the Carpathia-Sich Battalion, which was later disbanded but then reactivated in 2022, is a volunteer unit. It follows in the tradition of the National Defence Organization of ‘Karpats'ka Sič,’ which was formed in 1938 on the initiative of the fascist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and wiped out in the fight for independence against Hungary. Many of its members joined the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) of the Bandera wing of the OUN in the 1940s. Among them was Roman Shukhevych, later commander of the UPA, who is still revered today by the Carpathian-Sich army battalion. The SS runes and Death Head (Totenkopf) symbols used by some of the battalion's companies in their insignia are a reminder of their predecessors' collaboration with Hitler's Germany.

The DFK still recruits from members and associates of the Der III. Weg (The Third Way). This neo-Nazi groupuscule has maintained contact with Svoboda, Sokil and the Azov movement for years. It collects donations for Ukrainian fascists and participated in a conference of the Fascist International in Lviv in August 2024 together with the DFK, the Russian Volunteer Corps and other neo-Nazi units fighting for Kiev. The fact that the DFK conveyed birthday greetings to Adolf Hitler on April 20 via its official social media channel seems to have been of no concern for the Ukrainian army leadership, and neither was the revanchist manifesto published by the DFK on the 80th anniversary of the liberation. It declared: “In Germany, 8 May 1945 has not been forgotten, and it is certainly not celebrated!” It demanded that the German people show “the same courage, the same loyalty, the same willingness to sacrifice” as Hitler's soldiers once did, “for a bright future in the glory of past glories.”

The Carpathian-Sich army battalion, which is currently fighting in the Ukraine war in the Toretsk region, has a high proportion of foreigners from Spain, Colombia, Great Britain and the United States, including former army soldiers who were deployed by NATO in Yugoslavia. With the integration of the DFK into the Ukrainian Armed Forces, these ideological grandchildren of Hitler's race warriors [Hitlers Rassekriegern] are likely to gain access to weapons supplied by the USA and the EU as well as training to NATO standards. DFK founder Stephan K. promises in a recruitment video. “You will receive a full complement of equipment, technical training, medical care and preparation for house-to-house combat.” Claiming that Germany is being defended in Ukraine, something which German politicians never tire of repeating, the DFK demanded weapons and ammunition from German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius months ago. At the end of 2024, the DFK had already called for what the government of Chancellor Merz could now soon deliver: “When will the ‘Taurus’ arrive? Moscow must burn.”

Screenshot: Telegram channel of German Volunteer Corps / Deutsches Freiwilligen Korps (DFK) / Німецький добровольчий корпус. “Support German Volunteer Corps” stickers and “Defend Europe” poster by Der III. Weg. Ruhr region, western Germany.

*Original German article: »Moskau muss brennen«. Kiew gliedert deutsches Neonazikorps in die reguläre ukrainische Armee ein. Von Susann Witt-Stahl, junge Welt, 14.05.2025, Seite 7.