Ukraine's army has a big Nazi problem, ex-US soldier tells RT

Nazi influence in the Ukrainian military is omnipresent, John McIntyre, a former US soldier who served as a mercenary in various Ukrainian military units for almost a year, has claimed in an interview with RT. He said that he defected to Russia after witnessing the actions of Ukrainian troops amid the ongoing conflict between Kiev and Moscow.

McIntyre described how he escaped after crossing into Moldova, from Odessa. "I had to leave," he told Murad Gazdiev. "I thought I was going to be killed, my family got me $300 to get to Chisinău, then I went to Istanbul and then to Moscow." He didn't reveal at which exact point he made himself known to the Russian side.

The former American soldier recounted his experience in Ukraine, and explained why he grew disillusioned with Kiev's cause. "When I came, I was really surprised. Everybody had tattoos and Nazi symbolism," he told Gazdiev. McIntyre also admitted he did not believe ultra-right ideology was "that big of a problem" for Ukraine until he saw things on the ground himself.

He added that he had to conceal his own anti-fascist and communist views to fit in with the Ukrainian troops. Some other Western mercenaries also directly told him: "The Russians aren't the Nazis, we are the Nazis," according to McIntyre.

The ex-US soldier served with the Ukrainian forces for a year, although now he claims he had always planned to defect to Russia once he gathered enough intelligence. At a certain point, he was "compromised" after talking to someone about the war crimes committed by the Ukrainian forces. According to McIntyre, whistleblowers are treated in Ukraine even more harshly than spies.

"Anybody who confesses or is known to be about to confess is shot in the back of the head," he claimed, adding that "a lot of people go missing ... including foreigners."

McIntyre, who previously served in Fort Bliss, Texas, for two years, claims the Ukrainian forces actively use civilians as human shields as they station their troops in basements next to residential buildings and then blame Russia if the area gets targeted in a strike. When such attacks happened, news crews covering the incidents "would not show you the houses to the left and right full of soldiers," he said.

The former mercenary, who served with the Carpathian Sech, said he personally knew people who executed POWs, including foreigners from Portugal, France, and Argentina.

"It's funny to them. It's hatred. They hate the Russian people, they want to kill them, they want to genocide them," he claimed.

"And we're [the West] supporting these guys? And these are supposed to be our allies? And we're supposed to put them in NATO with us? And they can't even follow Geneva conventions?" the former soldier asked, adding that "this would never fly in America" if it were made known to the public.

The US, however, is directly involved in providing the Ukrainian forces not only with weapons but also intelligence, McIntyre said. The former mercenary revealed he personally knew about a US Navy intelligence officer working with the Ukrainian foreign legion, where McIntyre himself was serving for some time. "Every day he would call his contacts and he would get information about the positions, troops movements and so on," he alleged.

The weapons and equipment the US sends to Ukraine also often end up on the black market or in the hands of extremists around the world because of rampant corruption there, according to the former mercenary.