Nicolas Cinquini

On July 25, 2022, a French independent media releases on Telegram the 8-minute interview of French Nazi militant Karel Cherel-Salzburg, who is fighting as legionnaire in the Ukrainian ranks, against Russia and Donbass people’s republics.

As a reminder, the Ukrainian government has created the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine on February 27, three days after the beginning of the Russian special military operation in Donbass and Ukraine, in order to attract foreign volunteers.

French intelligence, police and justice already knew Cherel-Salzburg, who is publishing on Instagram as frenchbanderiste, a reference to Ukrainian Nazi historical leader Stepan Bandera.

At the request of his Ukrainian military hierarchy, he agreed on June 23 to be interviewed with a mask. French private TV channel LCI described Karel as a defender of Europe, in love with Ukraine and fierce opponent of Russia. Specialists, not all the public, were able to identify his ideology and the legacy of the Légion des volontaires français (LVF), French fascist fighters against Soviet Union during WW2.

We understand that the will of a political coming out and a clear identification, after the first one, has triggered this new interview. He explains that he is now an antitank specialist, has been trained on British made ATGM (antitank guided missile) NLAW. We already knew that he has no military experience before Ukraine. As a defender of Europe, he quotes Léon Degrelle (1906-1994), a Rexist (catholic far-right) leader in Belgium in the 1930s, later Standartenführer (SS colonel) and commander of the 28. SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Wallonien (1941-1945)

Here is the video, in French with English subtitles