headed near a pride event that was happening here at this park and in other parts of downtown here in this town. and they said, you know, they had riot gear with them, including shields and smoke bombs and some weapons, although not firearms. the men were apparently standing outside of the truck when someone spotted them. they all had the same clothes on, so someone said they looked like a little bit of an army, according to a witness. that s how police were alerted that they were in town, and i should mention, this group is familiar to us because they are an offshoot of a group that was at the charlottesville deadly unite the right rally that white supremacist rally in charlottesville that ended in the death of heather heyer who was run over by a man who also subscribed to this group. so this group was a splinter of that after what happened in 2017, the publicity was so high, they changed their name from american vanguard to patriot front. the leader of american vanguard bec
that, you know, we all saw the pictures of ukrainian citizens waving russian flags, celebrating on television. on russian television. those images, it wasn t clear how many of them were involved because the shots were quite tight. you couldn t see the broader area. but of course, these areas where these celebrations took place are filled with russian troops with guns, so it s not clear to what extent these people were under some kind of duress. ukrainian officials say people may have been paid, given food to attend these celebrations and dance for the food as it were. i think there s also a degree of alarm as well, because these kinds of events show the lengths to which russia is going already to russify these areas it has conquered, holding these events, making the russian ruble the currency, doing other things, changing the school syllabus. it s alarming if you re a ukrainian watching your country