AAccording to well-known specialist Viacheslav Likhachev, Russian far-right and neo-Nazi groups have played the greatest role in the war in Donbas. Neither this, nor the Kremlin-backed militants’ consistent anti-Semitism impede their constant rhetoric about fighting ‘Ukrainian fascism’

In the second arson attack in less than 2 months, an ohel, or small chapel-like structure for prayer at the grave of a tsadik, or righteous person, has been set alight in the Memorial Jewish Cemetery in Kolomyia [Ivano-Frankivsk oblast]

Even the most notorious neo-Nazi in Ukraine’s parliament recently denied having previously made white supremacist and anti-Semitic utterances – among the reasons why Viacheslav Likhachev, head of the National Minority Rights Monitoring Group and leading researcher in the field, expresses ‘cautious optimism’ about the situation with anti-Semitism and xenophobia in Ukraine.

The Euro-Asian Congress has reported another arson attack, this time in the old Jewish cemetery in Kolomyia [Ivano-Frankivsk oblast]

This latest of six vandal attacks on the Menorah, which stands at the site where 33 thousand Jews were murdered by the Nazis in 1941, was carried out on Sunday night, the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year

A foul racially-motivated attack has been reported against a 16-year-old young man in Kyiv with the duty police officer at the metro station nowhere to be seen

The Congress of National Communities of Ukraine’s latest reports on xenophobia in Ukraine have struck another blow to Moscow’s persistent attempts to present the country as a hotbed of anti-Semitism. The reports make no mention of the "pogroms" alleged by the Russian Foreign Ministry, nor do they back Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assertion of a "rampage of reactionary, nationalist and anti-Semitic forces."

It was bad enough for Vladimir Putin’s narrative about ‘anti-Semitic hordes’ seizing power in Kyiv when the Kremlin’s proxies in Donbas dismissed Ukraine’s leaders as “pathetic Jews”. Now foul anti-Semitic attacks are being used as part of an internal struggle for power between various militant leaders.

Instead of accepting failure and laying its “Ukrainian anti-Semitism card” to rest, the Kremlin’s propaganda machine has opted to spin out further brazen lies and distortion. The fakes, including the latest supposed letter from Rabbi Margolin of the European Jewish Association. keep being exposed and yet it comes back for more.

Just over a month after a far-right organization apparently claimed responsibility for two high-profile killings in Kyiv, another group calling itself ‘far-right’ has said that they planted an explosive device in a Kyiv Roshen sweet shop and have threatened more bombs. The group’s ‘admission’ comes in a rather curious video which Vyacheslav Likhachev, researcher on xenophobia and anti-Semitism in Ukraine, has subjected to close scrutiny.

This is unfortunately not the first such attack, with one back in 2012 and a spate of three in 2013.

Distasteful anti-Semitism demonstrated by Kremlin-backed militant leaders in Donbas on Monday received wide but typically inadequate coverage. Frustrating since a leading researcher warns that it is among Russian right-wing radicals, especially those involved in the conflict in eastern Ukraine that anti-Semitic sentiments are getting stronger, not among Ukrainian nationalists

The actions of the Crimean law enforcement bodies in detaining more than 160 people at markets in Simferopol was in breach of Russian law, the Crimean Field Mission on Human Rights reports

The occupation ‘authorities’ in the Crimea have now resorted to armed raids of markets and cafes in Simferopol with people obviously targeted by officers from the ’department for countering extremism’ because of ‘non-Slavonic appearance’

This attack at the site of a terrible Nazi crime comes just days after prominent Ukrainian Jewish organizations warned of the need for vigilance, calm and unity in the face of a dishonest propaganda campaign around anti-Semitism in Ukraine and likely attempts at provocation

Both the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and the Mufti of Muslims of the Crimea have expressed concern over the arson attack late in the evening of Nov 12 on a mosque in the village of Sonetchnaya Dolina

Eli Belotserkovsky was one of the guests at conferences held by Jewish organizations in Kyiv who have agreed to form a Council and call a congress aimed at ensuring that on key issues Jewish organizations speak with a united voice

Why, if Russia claims to be opposing ‘fascists’ in Ukraine, do so many of the militants it supports in eastern Ukraine have links to far-right or neo-Nazi parties? Why is it specifically far-right or Stalinist parties in Europe that support Russia’s annexation of the Crimea and a purported ‘fight against fascism in eastern Ukraine?

Ukraine’s leading Jewish organizations are holding a joint conference this week and hope to create one single coordinating body, representing all organizations. If they succeed, this will be the latest demonstration by Ukrainians from all faiths and ethnic groups of unity in the face of Russian aggression

Kremlin strategists seem to be hoping to gain dividends out of mounting fears in the West of the hard-line Islamic State and ‘Muslim radicals’. The ploy has worked in the past but the manipulation as regards the Crimean Tatars is overt, the ‘extremism’ invented as a weapon of repression and the dangers immense.