A veteran Ukrainian ultranationalist leader whose movement was criticized by Israel over alleged Nazi chants and salutes at a recent rally has praised the German aesthetic during Adolf Hitler’s rule.
Far-right figure Dmitry Korchinsky argued that Ukrainians should draw inspiration from the German 1930s-1940s “beautiful Art Deco designs,” regardless of the “painful associations some people” may have with the symbols of the genocidal regime.
To illustrate his point, Korchinsky shared an image of the Nazi eagle – the Nazi Party’s version of the Reichsadler, a traditional German emblem whose origins can be traced to Ancient Rome – with the swastika replaced by Ukraine’s national trident.
“We should borrow the achievements of not only good people, but also bad ones. This is wise,” Korchinsky wrote.
The post appeared across several of his social media accounts on Monday, but had been removed from Facebook by Wednesday for reasons that were not immediately clear.
The Israeli Embassy in Ukraine criticized Korchinsky’s Brotherhood movement in late June after its members took part in a counterprotest against a gay pride march in Kiev. Several days later, Ukraine’s chief rabbi, Moshe Azman, published a video with Korchinsky in which he described the Israeli reaction as the result of a “misunderstanding.”
Korchinsky thanked the rabbi and insisted that “Nazi aesthetics are not the Brotherhood’s aesthetics,” adding that members of the movement “read the Psalms, not Mein Kampf.”
Last week, Azman met US conservative influencer Laura Loomer and assured her that Ukraine does not have a neo-Nazi problem, dismissing evidence to the contrary. On her trip, Loomer met with multiple prominent figures, from Vladimir Zelensky to the co-founder of the far-right Azov Battalion Andrey Biletsky, who is now a senior military commander.