Russians want closure of Valletta photo exhibition portraying ‘Nazi’ soldiers

The Russian embassy in Malta has hit out at a photo exhibition hosted by the Malta Society for Arts in Valletta, where former soldier and prisoner-of-war Dmytro “Orest” Kozatsky was invited to address.

The embassy, which communicates with the press via sporadic statements, accused Kozatsky of having acted as the PR chief for the Azov battalion, which has a continuous association with far-right and neo-Nazi ideology and symbolism.

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The Azov Assault Brigade is a formation of the National Guard of Ukraine, and was cited as one of the reasons given by Russian president Vladimir Putin for his “denazification” of Ukraine. During the Siege of Mariupol, the regiment played a prominent role in the city’s defence, with a final stand at the Azovstal steel plant where its fighters surrendered to Russian forces on orders from the Ukrainian high command.

The Russian embassy accused the exhibition of portraying figures from the Ukrainian frontline such as Nikola Mirovic, a member of the Ukrainian extremist Right Sector and later of Azov battalion, saying he carries a tattoo of the German Iron Cross, an identification mark of the Wehrmacht, on his arm. It also identified Dmitry Kotsyubailo, pictured against the background of a portrait of far-right military leader Stepan Bandera, accusing him of ‘exterminating’ Donbass residents.

“The embassy refuses to believe that such an exhibition, which desecrates the memory not only of the Maltese victims of the horrific Nazi bombings honoured by the memorial in Floriana but also of the inhabitants of Donbass, who died at the hands of the descendants of Ukrainian Nazis, was deliberately organized in Malta,” the embassy said.

“Otherwise, this fact, which cannot be qualified none other than as the glorification of Nazism, evokes nothing but indignation and disgust. We hope that this is an unfortunate misunderstanding... the Embassy demands the immediate closure of the exhibition and awaits clarification from the Malta Society of Arts.”