US officials are concerned that white supremacists in the United States have been traveling to Ukraine to join the neo-Nazi Azov battalion and similar units and may eventually become a domestic threat when they return to the United States, according to a US intelligence report obtained and reported on by Politico on Friday.
US Customs and Border Protection (CPB) posted the intelligence bulletin on March 7, which indicates its concerns began about two weeks after Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine, the report said. The document projected that US citizens, including some former service members, would depart to Ukraine to volunteer to fight alongside the International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine, the report said.
CBP officers questioned five Americans at John F. Kennedy International Airport and searched the luggage of a sixth American who were heading to Ukraine, the report said citing the document. One American was a US Marine veteran whose phone showed he wanted to join the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, and another American admitted to being previously involved with the anti-government Boogaloo movement in the United States, the report said.
CBP said in the report that the Azov movement is actively recruiting racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist-white supremacists to join various neo-Nazi volunteer battalions in Ukraine fighting in the conflict against Russia.
The US Neutrality Act, which dates back to George Washington's presidency, bans Americans located in the United States from joining foreign armies. The report said, however, that no Americans are known to be facing criminal charges for going to Ukraine to fight Russia and law enforcement officials have had many opportunities to bring charges.
Arie Kruglanksi, the co-founder of the US National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, said this development is troubling because of the consequences it could have in the US mainland.
"This is a troubling development for two reasons: one is that far-right volunteers returning from the Ukraine war would have the aura of war heros, in addition to military experience, and could augment the radicalization of others for whom they would serve as role models," Kruglanksi said. "We know from the Mujahadeen war against the Soviets in Afghanistan that those returning fighters were a major factor in galvanizing others to join Al Qaeda, for instance, in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, among others, as well as contributing to the formation of ISIS [Islamic State terror group, outlawed in Russia] in Iraq."
Kruglanski said the US intelligence bulletin also legitimises Russian President Vladimir Putin's claim that he is fighting neo-Nazis in Ukraine, which might undermine the collective West's public support for Ukraine in the conflict.
"The neo-Nazis have been a big issue in the US and in Europe to an increasing degree," Kruglanski said. "You see [them] in countries like Germany, like France, like Poland, like Hungary. These far-right movements have been gaining ascendance. In this country [United States] as well."
