Tensions flare between Ukrainians and Russians in Thailand

Alex was walking back home along Phuket’s Bang Tao Beach in December after watching the World Cup finals when a friend waved him over to the Little Paris restaurant.

He was confused when, after a few minutes of conversation, a female customer at the restaurant that Alex identified as Russian – and visibly drunk – started calling him a Nazi, until she pointed out that his shirt was printed with the emblem of a controversial Ukrainian military unit – a gift he said came from a friend at the Ukrainian Embassy.

“She was telling me that I was wearing a Nazi shirt, that I cannot wear it, that I was killing people,” Alex told Coconuts.

Alex said he associated his shirt’s Azov Regiment badge with Ukraine’s National Guard and did not believe it promoted Nazi ideology. Created in 2014 to fight Russian forces, the group was founded by far-right figures with…