MacLean's: "Ukraine is a particularly dangerous place to be playing with that kind of fire: Evidence is mounting that the far-right has infiltrated the Ukrainian military. Indeed, according to an October report published by George Washington University, members of Ukraine’s Centuria group boasted on social media that they had received training from the Canadian Armed Forces. Centuria fashions itself as a protector of European “ethnic identity” and has ties to Ukraine’s far-right Azov movement.
"The report pointed out that none of the countries training Ukraine’s military, including Canada, screens for extremist ideology. Canadian authorities responded by promising to investigate how it screens those it trains. The results of that investigation are still pending.
"Whatever the investigation comes up with, it would be naïve to think that the training and weapons Canada is now providing to the Ukrainian military will not filter down to extremist militias, especially if Ukraine descends into an insurgency. Even now, the war in its eastern Donbas region is riddled with far-right groups, which have also attracted volunteers from as far away as the U.S. and Canada. If we are genuinely worried about the rise of far-right movements at home, we should be wary of aiding far-right movements abroad."
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