California Man Vows to Interrogate ‘Western Scum’ for Russia in Ukraine
Ukraine #Ukraine
An American barber based in Moscow has vowed to go to Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region to assist Russian troops and interrogate U.S. and Western war captives.
Greg Rossell, who says he was previously based in California, said he would travel to the Donbas region in December as a volunteer in several posts shared on his social media accounts.
In an October 14 Instagram post, Rossell—who has also shared antisemitic posts on his social media accounts—appeared to relish in being able to confront American and Western soldiers.
He said: “I want to do anything I can to help our victory, I can also interrogate American and Western scum mercenaries fighting for Ukraine as we capture them and other scum.
“Send many American mercenaries, NATO mercenaries back to their countries in bags, glory to Russia, glory to Putin, and glory to all our Russian soldiers. Victory is coming.”
While the number of foreign volunteers on the Russian side of the war in Ukraine is unknown, the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism said in July that Vladimir Putin had announced that 16,000 volunteers from the Middle East were ready to support Moscow. That included fighters from Chechnya “and mercenaries joining the Wagner Group from Syria and Libya.”
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At the time, Ukraine said about 20,000 people had joined the Ukrainian armed forces. Americans have volunteered in Ukraine on the front lines and in non-combat roles since the outbreak of the war. Alexander Drueke and Andy Tai Huynh, both from Alabama, were freed from Russian captivity as part of a prisoner swap in September. U.S. Army veteran Stephen Zabielski, 52, from New York, and former Marine Willy Cancel, 22, from Tennessee, were killed.
It is unclear if Rossell has officially requested to volunteer, and no information was provided indicating that Russian authorities had called on Rossell to participate in war efforts in Donbas. Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry.
The American said the military uniform and a bulletproof combat vest he posed in for several photos on social media had not been given to him by the Russian state but were instead bought at a store.
Rossell, who opened his Moscow-based barbershop in 2017, became known online after he showed his dedication to the Russian war effort by getting a “Z” tattoo on his chin following the outbreak of the war.
The symbol, which is not in the Cyrillic alphabet, is a pro-war symbol in Russia that is frequently used in propaganda efforts.
Rossell has repeatedly shared antisemitic posts on his social media accounts and has adorned his barber shop with the Confederate battle flag and pictures of the Ku Klux Klan, as pictures can attest.
On October 11, Rossell shared a post about Russian oligarchs with Jewish heritage: “Roman] Abromovich, [Arkady] Rotenberg, [Mikhail] Friedman and the rest of the kosher thieves, you could supply every citizen of Russian and our military with the assets of these scum.”
Russian-Israeli historian Vyacheslav Likhachev told Newsweek he was not familiar with Rossell, but he noted Russian and foreign neo-Nazis had been an “important factor in the Donbas military conflict” since the eastern Ukrainian region’s leaders declared independence in 2014.
He added: “Far-right groups and individuals participated in the Russian aggression. Antisemitism was an important factor of the anti-Ukrainian (and indirectly anti-Western) propaganda and social mobilization in the Russian-occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (so-called DPR and LPR).”
Parts of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine have been held by pro-Russian separatists who declared the Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples’ Republics were independent of Kyiv in 2014 following referendums that were viewed as illegal by most of the international community.
Likhachev added: “Since February 24 this trend has become state-controlled. As for the personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and formally non-state armed groups taking part in the invasion of Ukraine, then, of course, everyone is taken there, anyone.”
The historian said neo-Nazis and antisemites had been able to take root in Russia, despite President Putin’s justification for the war being to rid Ukraine of Nazism.
He told Newsweek: “In short, Russia has indeed been a safe haven for extremists and chauvinists of various kinds […] for years—first simply because of the lack of control, then due to the fact that loyalty to the Kremlin ideology is much more important for the Russian government.
“The ideology of the Kremlin regime, meanwhile, cannot be called truly antisemitic. However, Russian officials, including the foreign minister [Sergei Lavrov] and assistant secretary of the Russian Security Council [Aleksey Pavlov], can indulge in outrageous antisemitic remarks.”
In July, the U.S. Department of State hit out at the Kremlin and said it “falsely claims the worst Nazis were actually Jews and seeks to downplay the role of anti-Semitism in Nazi ideology.”
It added: “Russia’s corrupt former president and the deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council, Dmitri Medvedev, has argued that Zelenskyy has ‘lost’ his Jewish identity.
“One of the Kremlin’s most prominent propagandists, Vladimir Solovyov, even claimed Zelenskyy was not really Jewish, while Solovyov’s associates and state-owned media falsely accused Ukraine’s president of betraying his Jewish family and ancestors.”
While the State Department would not comment on Rossell’s situation, it said Americans should not travel to Russia.
A spokesperson told Newsweek: “U.S. citizens should not travel to Russia and those residing or traveling in Russia should depart Russia immediately.
“We reiterate our message that U.S. citizens should not travel to Ukraine due to the active armed conflict.”
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