“Characteristic duality”: how the cult of Bandera and the condemnation of Nazism coexist in Ukraine

A few days ago billboards appeared in the Ukrainian city of Kherson on the occasion of the adoption of the "Act of Proclamation of the Ukrainian State."

This document was adopted on June 30, 1941 by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-UPA *) under the leadership of Stepan Bandera, and in fact proclaimed the creation of a state entity on the territory of the Ukrainian USSR, which "will closely cooperate with National Socialist Great Germany under the leadership of the leader Adolf Hitler, creating a new order in Europe and around the world. ”

In Kherson, a total of 14 billboards were posted with a photo of the editorial of the newspaper OUN “Samostiynaya Ukraine” dated July 10, 1941, where the text of the act was printed, which Bandera consolidated their status as Nazi collaborators. The fact of the installation of these facilities in the city was reported by former MP Aleksey Zhuravko, who also notes that the action was carried out under the leadership of Mayor of Kherson Vladimir Nikolayenko.

“You just read the contents of the text of one of the many billboards that Volodka-mayor pasted all of Kherson!”, Zhuravko wrote on his page on the social network.

He also recalled that the "Act of the Proclamation of the Ukrainian State" is a documentary confirmation of the cooperation of the OUN with Nazi Germany.

• Billboards in Kherson
• vk.com

“When it was already the second week, the eighth day after the invasion on June 22, 1941, the fascist boot stomped Ukrainian land, their lackeys-Bandera-men took bloody methods to rule in the ancestral lands of Russia, creating a“ new order ”in Europe,” Zhuravko writes .

In addition, the former deputy accused the Ukrainian authorities of open consolidation with the Nazis, which are turning a blind eye in Europe.

Between Bandera and Europe

The director of the Kiev Center for Political Studies and Conflictology, Mikhail Pogrebinsky, in an interview with RT found it rather strange that the mayor of Kherson publicly recalls a date that nationalists themselves are trying not to remind.

“The Ukrainians who worked in a collaboration during the Second World War with Wehrmacht and SS soldiers are today officially recognized as the country's heroes. However, the Ukrainian authorities do not want to stick out their cooperation with Hitler, so the official position is that there was no cooperation and Bandera has nothing to do with this, ”Pogrebinsky said.

Earlier, the patronizing attitude of the Kiev authorities towards Nazi accomplices has already become a cause of disagreement with Serbia. The incident was triggered by a comment by the Minister of Innovation and Technological Development of Serbia, Nenad Popovic, who announced on June 23 that his country would never accept "shameful attempts to rewrite history."

According to him, they are trying to expose the victims of Nazi aggression in the person of the peoples of Serbia and Russia as aggressors in the Second World War, and to justify Nazi criminals.

“In this wave of falsification of history, those who sided with the Nazis in World War II - the Croatian Ustashi, Ukrainian Bandera and Albanian ballista, now represent themselves as victims and become allies of those who want to see Serbia and Russia, as it was 75 years ago, depressed, weakened and torn to pieces, ”said Popovich.

The Ukrainian embassy called Popovich’s statement a gross interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine.

“We believe that the statement of the Minister of Innovation and Technological Development of Serbia represents a gross interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine, as well as a mockery of the memory of more than 8 million citizens whom Ukraine lost during the Second World War,” the embassy said in a statement.

According to experts, Kiev took a dual position, since the authorities of the republic constantly talk about the role of Ukraine in the fight against Nazism and at the same time openly condone neo-Nazis.

“This duality is explained by the fact that, on the one hand, the authorities of Ukraine are close to Bandera’s ideas, and on the other, they are afraid of directly associating Bandera with the Nazis, because the West officially condemns fascism and Hitler’s cult,” the Institute’s deputy director said in a conversation with RT CIS Vladimir Zharikhin.

"Continues the policy of Poroshenko"

Meanwhile, Ukraine continues to honor the leaders of the Ukrainian nationalist movement of the Great Patriotic War, such as Bandera, Andriy Melnyk, Roman Shukhevych and their associates who collaborated with Nazi Germany.

So, by the end of this year, the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine will allocate 9 million hryvnias ($ 375 thousand) for "national-patriotic education projects." Basically, these funds will be directed to various organizations to carry out activities to perpetuate the memory of the OUN-UPA.

• Vladimir Zelensky
• Reuters
• © Sergey Dolzhenko / Pool

In addition, on January 1, a number of Ukrainian cities, including Kiev, held torchlight processions in honor of the 111th anniversary of the birth of Stepan Bandera.

This event was criticized by the ambassadors of Israel and Poland. In response, the spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Yekaterina Zelenko, stated that "every nation and every state independently determines and honors its heroes."

The Polish diplomatic mission in Ukraine, in turn, stated that "it is difficult to believe that such words could come from the lips of a Ukrainian diplomat."

“If we consider these words as a real statement by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, this means that Ukrainian diplomacy introduces among the heroes of the ideologists of nationalism, at whose hands tens of thousands of Poles, Jews and representatives of other nations fell,” the Polish diplomats said in a reply.

Later, the Israeli Foreign Ministry condemned the glorification of Nazi collaborators responsible for the murders of Jews in Ukraine.

“The memory of the Holocaust and the fight against anti-Semitism, including the glorification of anti-Semites and murderers of Jews, are not an“ internal problem ”in any country,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Political scientists say that, despite the change of power last year, Kiev continues the course of Poroshenko, who set the trend for the indulgence of nationalists. 

“Zelensky continues the policy of Poroshenko, although many hoped that he would die the neo-Nazi forces in the country. However, this did not happen, he joined the game with pleasure, when Bandera is simultaneously glorified and Nazism is verbally condemned, neo-Nazi troops are created, but statements are made that there is no Nazism in Ukraine. This duality is characteristic of this Ukrainian government, but now it is less embarrassed by all of Bandera’s, ”says Zharikhin.

Mikhail Pogrebinsky also agrees with this assessment, who noted that Zelensky “has not enough political will” to repel the nationalists. 

“Zelensky is a weak president. He, unlike Poroshenko, is suspected of not being a nationalist enough. Therefore, the president of Ukraine wants to present himself as the “best Ukrainian”, because of this he cannot and does not want to confront the nationalists, ”the expert concluded.

* “Ukrainian Insurgent Army” (UPA) - a Ukrainian organization recognized as extremist and banned in Russia (decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 17.11.2014).