In a video that went viral on March 2, Artem Semenikhin, the mayor of Konotop, a tiny city in northeastern Ukraine, stood on a planter outside the City Council and warned a gathering that Russian soldiers had threatened to “raze the city to the ground with their artillery” if the city did not surrender.
This is the moment a Russian soldier went through Ukrainians, holding two grenades in the air, demanding that they surrender.
Footage taken in Konotop shows a Russian serviceman walking through a crowd of angry Ukrainian people shouting’shame’ while holding what appear to be two grenades above his head.
‘Don’t walk about showing your grenade off,’ several urged Moscow’s men, while others jostled with the soldier, clearly unaware of the grenades’ danger.
After encircling the city, the soldier arrived in the city on Ukraine’s south coast to negotiate a Ukrainian surrender with the inhabitants.
Artem Semenikhin Go Karter Russia – Wikipedia
Artem Semenikhin is a member of Svoboda, a far-right Ukrainian political organization that arose from the former Social-National Party of Ukraine in 2004.
Semenikhin “refused to fly the city’s official flag at the first meeting of the city council because he objected to the star of David imprinted on it,” according to the Jerusalem Post in 2015. He is also accused of using white supremacist dog whistles, according to the publication.
On Twitter, Alan MacLeod, a journalist for the far-left website MintPress News, pointed out that a painting of Ukrainian nationalist symbol Stepan Bandera can be seen in the background of Semenikhin’s interview with PBS, which was conducted remotely by video.
Bandera led a branch of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, an explicitly anti-Semitic organization that collaborated with Nazi Germany and murdered Polish and Jewish people during World War II’s early stages.
Following his election in 2015, Semenikhin replaced the portrait of then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in the mayor’s office with one of Bandera.
Artem Semenihkhin Age- How Old Is He?
Artem Semenikhin’s age has not been revealed yet. However, based on his pictures we estimate that he might be in his 40s.
Ukraine, like many other European countries, has far-right nationalist political groups with racist overtones. Semenikhin’s party, Svoboda, has been involved in a number of instances that have drawn considerable censure.
Artem Semeihkhin Nazi Salute Reaction All Over Reddit
In a video that went viral, Artem Semenikhin asked the crowd whether they still wanted to fight, and the answer was a resounding yes.
Western media sites including Newsweek, the Daily Mail, and the New York Times picked up the film, which also included footage of armed Russian forces being jeered by Konotop residents. Semenikhin also appeared on the “PBS NewsHour,” where he referred to Russian forces as “cockroaches.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly attempted to link the whole Ukrainian administration to Nazis as a basis for his invasion, threatening to “de-Nazify” the Kyiv authorities.
But, based on the facts, Putin’s assertion is absurd: Semenikhin’s hometown of Konotop had only approximately 80,000 residents before the conflict, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is one of the few Jewish global leaders and claims to have had many families killed in the Holocaust.