The Rai News 24 journalist recently interviewed a Ukrainian serviceman who was wearing SS insignia
The Italian journalist who recently interviewed a Ukrainian soldier wearing Nazi insignia has apologized.
Ilario Piagnerelli, a reporter with the Italian state broadcaster Rai News 24, said he “deeply regrets” the interview but called the uproar on social media a tool of pro-Russian propaganda.
In an extract from a report circulating online, Piagnerelli can be seen talking to a man wearing a khaki cap adorned with the insignia of the ‘Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler’ SS division, a unit that was convicted of war crimes by the Nuremberg Tribunal following World War II. The video is watermarked ‘Rai News 24’. As of Monday morning, however, the footage was no longer visible on Piagnerelli’s X account.
Sono cresciuto con un nonno partigiano, di quelli veri, che oggi non avrebbero dubbi nel distinguere tra invaso e invasore, tra chi resiste e chi occupa. Sono stato educato ai valori della Costituzione.
Mi rammarico profondamente di aver dato voce, anche se per pochi secondi, a… pic.twitter.com/lBhBTtlax6
— Ilario Piagnerelli (@ilario82) August 19, 2024
“I deeply regret having given voice, even if only for a few seconds, to a Ukrainian soldier who I only noticed wearing a patch with a Nazi symbol after the report aired,” Piagnerelli wrote on X on Monday.