Why’d A Ukrainian Neo-Nazi Just Kill Their Country’s Top “Linguistic Nationalist”?

Irina Farion gave voice to what her fellow fascists believe, who look down upon ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking Ukrainians, even those who consider themselves Ukrainian.

A Neo-Nazi with the nom de guerre “Ukrainian Autonomous Revolutionary Racist” (UARR) claimed credit for assassinating fellow fascist Irina Farion on 19 July. This ex-MP was an infamous “linguistic nationalist” who was investigated by the SBU for defaming the armed forces after claiming late last year that Russian-speaking members of the Azov Battalion aren’t real Ukrainians. Their video manifesto, which was reported on by Ukrainian media here and summarized here, sheds some light onto the motive.  

The author condemned her as a “wrecker and racial traitor”, the first presumably in connection to her abovementioned scandal that inadvertently served to divide the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the second in response to her teaching Ukrainian to Africans, which they showed a clip of in their video. They also promised to “punish everyone who sold the country after the Maidan”, thus implying that she was one of those who they deemed guilty of this crime.

The UARR is allegedly connected to the “National Socialism/White Power” group, which the previously cited Ukrainian media report conspiratorially speculated is run by Russian intelligence. That’s a kooky theory though which is only being circulated to deflect from the fact that Ukrainian fascists just killed one of their own icons. It also builds upon GUR chief Kirill Budanov’s narrative that the culprits, which he strongly implied are linked in some way or another to Russia, “try to use any tools to divide our nation.”

The reality is that the Western-backed spree of urban terrorism and associated coup in early 2014, which are collectively known as “EuroMaidan”, were what irreparably divided Ukraine. The rise to power of fascist forces provoked the Crimeans into breaking away from Ukraine and reuniting with Russia, which was then followed by their ethnic Russian kin in Donbass. Ukraine’s substantial Russian minority that remained under Kiev’s control then lost a lot of their rights and began to live as second-class citizens.

Even though leading Ukrainian officials claimed in late November that no Russian minority exists in Ukraine anymore, and those that still do supposedly deserve to have their rights infringed upon, they’re still objectively present in the country in large numbers. The top state language official lamented in early July that many schoolchildren still speak Russian, while Le Monde reported in late February that front line soldiers do too, which the armed forces are now trying to change by giving them Ukrainian lessons.

While the majority of these troops were forcibly conscripted against their will, a few are volunteers, and it’s fitting to remember that the zeal of a convert is stronger than a born believer’s. What’s meant by this is that those Russians who decided to identify as Ukrainians instead of continuing to identify as Russians in Ukraine are predisposed to radicalism. Accordingly, it’s not surprising that some might have felt deeply offended by Farion’s attack against them, thus explaining why they wanted her dead.

An 18-year-old from Dnipropetrovsk named Vyacheslav Zinchenko was arrested Thursday afternoon, but it’s presently unclear whether he was the author of the UARR’s manifesto and if he acted entirely alone, not to mention whether he’s a native Russian speaker like his home region would suggest. The working theory as suggested thus far in this piece is that those behind Farion’s killing are Russian-speaking Ukrainians and/or ethnic Russians who consider themselves Ukrainians, which will now be elaborated.

The SBU understands the strategic importance of entertaining this radical minority’s delusions since they’re spun to allege that: Russians aren’t oppressed; they don’t even exist anymore after deciding to become Ukrainian; and some of those who made this choice now want to kill Russians. That’s why they decided to investigate Farion for what she said last November about how Russian-speaking members of the Azov Battalion supposedly aren’t real Ukrainians because that risked letting the cat out of the bag.

An average Ukrainian fascist would agree with what she said because they have an exclusive view of their ethno-national and linguistic identity, but a Russian that’s converted to it would disagree since they have a comparatively more inclusive view thereof. The first is the conventional understanding while the second is relatively new and has been weaponized since 2014 for recruiting Russians in Ukraine as cannon fodder for their cause by convincing them that Ukrainians are the so-called “real Russians”.

It's beyond the scope of this analysis to elaborate on their hateful ideology, but it basically claims that the inhabitants of modern-day Ukraine are the real heirs of the former Kievan Rus, not their fellow East Slavs who successfully regathered that lost polity’s lands over the centuries under Moscow’s leadership. Additionally, Ukrainian ultra-nationalists allege that they’re “pure Slavs”, while Russians (who they smear as “Muscovites”) are allegedly too mixed with Finns, Tatars, and other groups to still be considered Slavs.

Farion gave voice to what her fellow fascists believe, who look down upon ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking Ukrainians, even those who consider themselves Ukrainian. It’s therefore unlikely that one of her own ethno-linguistic kin killed her, with it being much more probable that those who fit the aforesaid criteria were responsible and 18-year-old Zinchenko is just their patsy. Such fascists are trying to be “more Ukrainian than the Ukrainians”, but they’ll only ever just be their cannon fodder against Russia.