“Neo-Nazis have no influence in Ukraine. It’s all Kremlin propaganda.” So I’m told by the Slava Ukraini crowd, including a remarkable number of Western leftists who have apparently mistaken political denial for antifascism. Now, take a good look at what happened in Lviv today. Ihor Sholtys, a former officer of the Nachtigall Battalion — named after the notorious Nazi-collaborationist formation of 1941 — now part of Azov Corps, turned up with his boys to violently disrupt an event organized by left-wing activists. Among those beaten was historian, war veteran, and Social Movement activist Vladyslav Starodubtsev. And now, dear leftists, here comes the punchline. Take a long, hard look at Vladyslav’s face. That is what your romantic flirtation with Ukrainian neo-Nazis may eventually earn you. The irony is particularly exquisite in Vladyslav’s case: he himself had attacked me for criticizing precisely the same neo-Nazis. Apparently, the antifascist credentials of Ukrainian ultranationalists come with an expiration date — usually the moment you find yourself on the receiving end of their fists. These men exist. They are real. And they exercise power on Ukraine’s streets, while its young, already badly limping democracy struggles to remain upright. And as that democracy slowly bleeds out, the Western chorus keeps chanting its favorite magic spell: Slava Ukraini! Because apparently, if you shout it loudly enough, you can drown out the sound of democracy having its teeth knocked out.