An undeviating split among Germany’s far-right organizations has risen to the fore in recent months over how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should be responded to and dealt with. Whilst some groups have sided with Russian President Vladmir Putin, his authoritarian rule and imperialist desires, others have elucidated their preference to show solidarity instead with Ukrainian far-right nationalist groups such as Azov Battalion in an attempt to help stave off the imperious Russian forces. Since the instigation of the conflict back in late February of this year, Ukrainian militia organizations have actively sought to recruit members from other parts of Europe, with many descending from Germany’s far-right factions having signed up to the cause.

Johannes Kiess, a sociologist specializing in far-right politics at the Else Frenkel-Brunswik Institut at Leipzig University, emphasizes the German far-right support for Putin, and notes the example of Freie Sachsen, a right-wing group from the eastern region of Saxony, who “see themselves ideologically as partners of Putin.” He continues to say that “they’re ideologically very close. They want a strong man, they’re against modern democracy and issues like gender equality,” hence the unwavering backing of Putin’s merciless rule. Though Nicholas Potter, a researcher at the Amadeu Antonio Foundation — one of Germany’s leading research institutions into the nation’s far-right scene, highlights instead that there is a slight pro-Ukrainian majority amongst German neo-Nazis. He states that German far-right supporters of the Ukrainian cause, groups such as Der III. Weg, view Europe as an alliance of white nations with a right to self-determination, with the latter having been so obviously compromised following Russia’s invasion.

Though, the reality persists that many members of Germany’s far-right who have become embroiled in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict are simply not doing so for the same ideals that most Ukrainians are fighting for. Whilst attempting to assist Ukrainians in repelling approaching Russian troops can be viewed as potentially helpful only in the short-term, it’s instead engaging in right-wing nationalist violence that is often the primary driving force behind many’s innate desire to join up with Ukrainian troops, rather than an altruistic inclination to help free innocent Ukrainians at the behest of Putin and his accomplices’ political games.

Other Europeans, including those from Germany, continuing to fight and fuel the violence, ultimately does little to achieve the desired outcomes of peace, security, and prosperity. Engaging in World-War-One-like trench confrontations on the ground will only serve to exacerbate and prolong the conflict to the avail of very few. Whilst the savagery regrettably rumbles on, we must instead seek peaceful and non-violent solutions to an ever-more pressing state of affairs. Curbing military operations, generating a moratorium on NATO expansion, resolving Europe’s incessant frozen conflicts, and updating the cardinal Helsinki Accords, all offer more peaceful solutions to the seemingly interminable bloodshed, instead of opting for the perpetuation of violence and the ceaselessness of agonizing suffering.

Though what is it exactly that leads many within Germany’s far-right scene to be so fervidly opposed to Russia and Putin? After all, isn’t unyielding authoritarianism, minority repression, and foreign policy aggression what they themselves seek? In what appears a remarkable paradox, Russia continues to be haunted by the spectre of Soviet-era communism, particularly with regards to its global image to outsiders. Despite modern Russia’s implicit capitalist nature, many still view Russia as a left-wing communist nation – a natural enemy of the right. Much of Germany’s far-right sees Putin’s supposed hankering to ‘de-Nazify’ Ukraine as a left-wing move designed to target and eliminate those of a similar political persuasion, which in their eyes, leaves them no choice but to oppose Russia, and alternatively offer support to Ukraine and their right-wing nationalist counterparts.

In a conflict that has thus-far wrought havoc on a guiltless civilian population, it’s clear that neither succouring Putin’s regime and foreign policy motives nor bolstering Ukrainian militia groups will engender a swift denouement to such a grave affair. With roughly 13 million citizens displaced, nearly 5,000 civilians needlessly killed, and over 30,000 troops dispatched, the idea that yet more brutality is required must unequivocally be refuted. Only by achieving the aforementioned peaceful solutions will the war in Ukraine be brought to an end, and Ukrainians relieved of their desperately unwanted pain.