Maksym Kagal has to give his life in defence of the Ukrainian homeland – he was apparently part of an extreme right-wing regiment.
The former kickboxing world champion Maksym Kagal from Ukraine has been killed in the war for his homeland.
His coach Oleg Skrita announced via Facebook that the 30-year-old was killed on 25 March while defending the Russian-besieged city of Mariupol.
Kagal became champion of the ISKA organisation in kickboxing in 2014, and in the defence of his besieged homeland he fought – as his coach also confirmed – with the Azov regiment.
Kagal fought in right-wing nationalist regiment
The paramilitary unit is a much-discussed topic of the war, as it is characterised by openly nationalist and far-right forces.
Kagal openly posed in pictures with the former logo of Azov, which still featured the “Black Sun”. Because of its visual similarity to the swastika, it is a common identifying feature in neo-Nazi circles. In the meantime, the Azov logo has been replaced by the “Wolfsangel”, which is also incriminated.
Canadian extremism expert Michael Colborne recently classified Azov as the “most important far-right movement in Ukraine” in a interview with Belltower News : “It is a heterogeneous far-right movement that likes to have a minority of neo-Nazis and supporters:of political violence, however large, in its ranks. ‘Azov’ as a whole is explicitly against liberal democracy. “
Mariupol at the centre of the Ukraine war
The Azov Regiment was founded in 2014 in the already warring conflict with Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. It is an internationally observed political issue, especially also in the context of Russian propaganda that the war of aggression should “denazify” Ukraine.
Despite the explosive context, the democratically elected Ukraine government obviously does not like to do without the Azov forces. Experts describe the regiment’s role as essential in defending Mariupol against the Russian besiegers – where notorious figures are also at work, most recently Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov showed up with the Russian troops.
According to Ukrainian figures, at least 5000 people have died in the siege of Mariupol, which has been cut off from all supplies for weeks. Atrocities of war documented by the UN and condemned internationally included a Russian bombing that hit a maternity clinic.
On 25 March, a rocket attack on a theatre reportedly killed around 300 people – the day Kagal also died.
