There is a small amount of truth in this hyperbole. The Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi militia, played an important role in fighting Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014; since then, it
has been integrated into the Ukrainian national guard. Ukraine’s government has
pushed to make Ukrainian the country’s dominant language. Many ethnic Russians — though
by no means all — would rather live under Moscow than Kyiv.
But there is an ocean of difference between these real concerns and hyperbolic claims that Ukraine is a neo-Nazi state committing genocide against ethnic Russians.
In Ukraine’s 2019 national election, a far-right political alliance including Azov’s political arm only received
2 percent of the vote. There is no evidence that Zelensky’s government is engaging in large-scale extermination of Russians; no international human rights group nor credible expert has made such a claim.