US govt-linked Ukraine activists hold pro-Nazi Veterans Day rally outside White House

A recent rally in front of the White House featuring Nazi iconography has been wholly ignored by the same mainstream media outlets pushing the narrative of rising antisemitism. The two DC-based organizations behind the events collaborated with the Biden administration on a similar event last February.

This Veterans Day, on November 11, passersby outside the White House gates were met with the sight of protest signs bearing Nazi-inspired Wolfsangels and protesters performing fascist salutes.

While the rally may have fallen under the radar of the mainstream press – or was deliberately ignored – the US-government owned Voice of America (VOA) provided extensive coverage through their Ukraine branch. One photograph embedded in the story features Ukraine war veteran Roman Kashpur flanked by the White House and performing a fascist salute. Astonishingly, the second shot of the outlet’s video report features a Wolfsangel. Rally goers chanted “bring our heroes home!” and “Make Russia pay!”

VOA interviewed the rally’s organizer, Nadiya Shaporynska, whose talking points sounded as though they could have come from the Ukrainian embassy itself: “Our main message today is a call for the release of prisoners-defenders of Azovstal. We are now asking the United States for help to free them as soon as possible.”

Shaporynska has collaborated directly with the Biden Administration during past initiatives. As revealed in The Grayzone, she and a coterie of activists with longstanding ties to neo-Nazi militias managed to arrange for high-level Biden Administration officials to speak at a rally this past February.

The two DC-based groups which organized the efforts, United Help Ukraine and US Ukrainian Activists, enjoy close ties to the Ukrainian embassy. US Ukrainian Activists is led by Nadiya Shaporynska, who also co-founded United Help Ukraine. The latter is led by Tanya Aldave. In February, The Grayzone reported that Aldave listed her employer as the US Securities and Exchange Commission on LinkedIn — an account which she has since deleted.

This August, Shaporynska was awarded the Ukrainian Order of Merit by President Vlodomyr Zelensky. When the president visited the United States the following month, he personally presented her with the award.

This past February, US Ukrainian Activists and another group co-founded by Shaporynska called United Help Ukraine held a rally commemorating the start of the war in Ukraine which featured United States Agency for International Development (USAID) director Samantha Power as its keynote speaker. The Biden Administration’s Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried and other local and federal officials also joined the rally.

Top Biden officials address pro-war rally led by Ukrainian Nazi supporters

USAID’s Samantha Power appeared alongside a clique of Ukrainian activists describing themselves as “true Banderites” and “Right Sektor’s Washington DC branch”

By @RealAlexRubi https://t.co/kHHhQL82ew

— The Grayzone (@TheGrayzoneNews) March 4, 2023

Since the Maidan coup in 2014, Aldave and Shaporynska have fundraised and advocated for Ukrainian fascist groups ranging from the Azov Battalion, the Aidar Battalion, Right Sektor, and the Georgian National Legion, as The Grayzone has reported. Aldave, who appears to work for the US government, has been described by her organization United Help Ukraine as a “true Banderite” – or a follower of the World War Two-era Nazi collaborator and mass murderer of Jews and Poles, Stepan Bandera.

In a 2015 Facebook post featuring a photo of herself, Shaporynska, and a representative of the fascist Right Sektor organization, Aldave wrote “we support Dmytro Yarosh,” referring to the group’s ultranationalist leader who once vowed to “de-Russify” Ukraine. Aldave described herself and the other local activists in the group as “Right Sektor’s DC Branch.”

For her part, Shaporynska once hosted a charity concert featuring Georgian warlord Mamuka Mamulashvili as its guest of honor. The Grayzone has documented numerous allegations of war crimes committed by Mamulashvili’s mercenary group, the Georgian National Legion; the warlord has personally implied that executing Russian prisoners of war is Georgian Legion policy.

Just months prior to the Georgian Legion event, Shaporynska and company held another charity concert for the Azov Battalion. At the time, Azov was led by Andriy Biletsky, an overtly fascist militant who was recently filmed receiving a medal of commendation from Zelensky. Biletsky has vowed to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade…against Semite-led Untermenschen,” and described the enemy of his movement as Jews, and the political forces led by the “real masters,” who also happen to be Jews.

As the global focus shifts from Ukraine to Israel-Palestine, the Biden Administration has taken what it describes as a “landmark step to counter antisemitism,” framing criticism of the genocide in Gaza as anti-Jewish hatred. Meanwhile, the administration continues to ignore the flamboyant fascism of the Ukrainian operatives in its orbit, even as it sends top foreign policy officials to appear at their rallies.