Zelenskyy styles Ukrainian army division with title related to Nazi forces

Feb 16, 2023 - 17:30

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Zelenskyy styles Ukrainian army division with title related to Nazi forces

New Delhi: Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has bestowed a brigade of Ukrainian forces with a ‘honoury title’ that was used by a notorious division of the Nazi German army from the second world war.

The 10^th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian army was granted the name ‘Edelwiess’ by Zelenskyy in a presidential decree published on Tuesday.

Reportedly the reason behind the step is the brigade’s “exemplary performance of assigned tanks during the protection of the territorial integrity and independence of Ukriane” in the the ongoing war, according to Russia Today.

The new title bears stark similiarity to a moniker used by the Nazi Germany’s 1^st Mountain Division.

The division, whose uniforms bore a depiction of the edelweiss flower, took part in the invasion of the Soviet Union, which mostly comprised by today’s Russia.

They raised a swastika flag, the Nazi symbol, on Mount Elbrus, during a push into the Caucasus in 1942.

The division is infamous for numerous war crimes, including executing hundreds of partisans in Yugoslavia in July 1943, murdering more than 5,000 Italian soldiers who had surrendered to them on the Greek island of Cefalonia.

The 10^th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian army, which now has the Edelweiss title, was formed in 2014.

It first saw combat against Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Ukraine’s Russian majority regions that rebelled against Kyiv following the 2014 coup, which allegedly was backed by the US.

It has also been actively engaged in action against the Russian army since the beginning of the war in February 2022.

Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, while announcing the invasion, which he called a “special operation” had stated liberating Ukraine of Nazis.

Zelenskyy has often sparked rows over Nazi-related controversies.

Just a few days ago he posted a picture of Ukrainian soldier with a ‘totenkopt’ – a skull and cross bones insignia used by the 3^rd Panzer Division of the Nazi army- on his uniform.