IS militants trained Ukrainian nationalists on IEDs: Russian expert

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Islamic State militants trained the Ukrainian armed forces on the methods of planting explosives and booby-trapping, a Russian expert in the field told RIA Novosti on Thursday.

“I don't think that it is necessary to look for similarities between ISIS militants and the formations of the Kiev regime. The similarity is obvious. They are similar in many ways. Ideas, goals, tactics," the Russian military expert added.

According to the military expert, "Radical Islamists trained Ukrainian nationalists in mine-explosive business, making improvised explosive devices."

He said that an "equal sign" should be drawn between the terrorists and the Ukrainian armed forces due to their vast similarities.

His experiences, he said, showed that the two parties were too alike, that the school of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and that of ISIS militants "are one and the same."

In the wake of such forces, such as a neo-Nazi battalion and possible Israeli mercenaries fighting Russia in Ukraine, Syrian deputy foreign minister Bashar Al-Jaafari told Sputnik back in March that it was possible that US special services were sending ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra militants to Ukraine. 

Days after the top Syrian diplomat's statements, it was reported that 450 extremist Arab and foreign nationals arrived in Ukraine from Idlib to fight against Russian forces.

About a month later, Kiev published a social media ad calling for violence against Russian soldiers. The promo, made in a peculiar style reminiscent of ISIS propaganda films, depicts a faux execution of a Russian soldier.

The disturbing video went viral on social media, causing fury in Russia. The video depicts a lady, presumably representing Ukraine, making a harsh speech against Russians, with a 'prisoner' dressed in Russian military uniform kneeling at her side. The actress blames Russian "pigs" for ridiculing, oppressing, and killing Ukrainians for a long time, but claims that things have changed.

“Something terrible woke up the peace-loving and grain-growing nation. Something that has been dormant for centuries in the bowels of the Dnieper banks. Primordial and antique Ukrainian god. And now we’re reaping a bloody harvest. Death awaits you all,” she says, while she is depicted as slitting the throat of the Russian prisoner with a sickle.

Apart from incorporating the neo-Nazi 'Azov' battalion into its military, the Ukrainian government has begun attempts to depict its people as genetically separate from Russians, whom Kiev leaders have publicly referred to as "orcs."

Stepan Bandera, an infamous Ukrainian nazi collaborator, is regarded as a hero by Ukrainian nationalists. Fahruddin Sharafmal, a Ukrainian television broadcaster, sparked outrage by approvingly quoting Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in asking for the murder of Russians and their children.