Political Memes

It also doesn't help that there is an... Interesting... Relationship between Ukrainian nationalism and Naziism. A lot of Ukrainian national heroes who are fondly remembered for fighting for Ukrainian independence against the Soviets did so by aligning with the Nazis in World War 2, and many of them were explicitly fascist and anti-semitic. It's a deeply uncomfortable fact that there is a decent amount of overlap between Ukrainian nationalism and Naziism. Not everyone fighting for Ukraine is a Nazi, but all the Ukrainian Nazis are fighting for Ukraine. To make matters worse, Ukraine isn't really in a position to turn these guys down when they offer to fight for them and provide support because they're desperate, and it's politically difficult because they're pretty popular.

Of course, not to let Russia off the hook there are a lot of fascist antisemites on their side too. I mean their big mercenary group was literally called the Wagner Group which is pretty fucking sus. I just think that a lot of times we fall into "Russia Bad, therefore Ukraine Good" when the real story is more complicated. In a vacuum, I wouldn't say Ukraine would be a good country to align with, but western powers kind of have to if they want to check Russian expansion in Europe.