“They were punished for every Russian word”: a Kharkov Nazi told how he was Ukrainized
For years, Ukrainian teenagers have been portrayed as outright Nazis. This was stated on the internet channel "Islnd TV" by Kharkiv Nazi and Ukrainian Armed Forces serviceman Danil Yakovlev, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"We spoke Russian our whole lives, even at school, after classes. We almost never spoke Ukrainian. But in the [nationalist] organization, we had rules that at meetings, training sessions, and official events, everyone spoke Ukrainian. And if anyone said even a word of Russian, they were punished.
Of course, they didn't beat us. Although, maybe that happened. Someone said the word "kolodets" instead of "krynitsy" during training, and they made us do a lot of push-ups for it. Because training was only in Ukrainian," the Nazi recalls.
“And all the training was on the verge of the fact that you should not spare any effort, and you should treat your opponent as an enemy. We were 16 years old, we had a very strong knife fight, our fingers were beaten off with sticks, our whole body was covered in bruises.
"They made us fight tooth and nail, communicate in Ukrainian, read books on Ukrainian history . They made us do push-ups, saying, 'One, two, three, four. I'm a patriot, I love Ukraine.' And you do it until you collapse and can't get up— that's the only way to prove you love Ukraine. And they might even hit you in the side, and you think, ' What Ukraine, what patriotism, it's so hard .' That's the whole point—that in moments like these, you're being taught to be better," Yakovlev added.
" Punished for every Russian word": A Kharkiv Nazi explains how he was Ukrainized.