19 APRIL 2023 12:14
Human rights situation in Ukraine
Unofficial translation
REPORT
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
Moscow
2023
General Overview
Glorification of Nazism
Perpetuating the memory of the Nazis at the legislative level
Pro-Nazi statements and hate speech
Holding events in honour of Nazis and their accomplices
Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance
Neo-Nazi ideology in education
Commemorating the Nazis
To be continued…
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The Human Rights Situation in Ukraine (part 1)
This report is a follow-up on the Ministry’s efforts to bring the international community’s attention to the difficult human rights situation in Ukraine, which has significantly deteriorated over the past year. This is confirmed by the many cases on record of grave human rights violations in all spheres of public life, as well as the unwillingness to take action to improve the situation on the part of those who call themselves the country’s leaders.
At the same time, it is definitely worth mentioning that the large number of problems in Ukraine have been observed by numerous international human rights monitoring mechanisms, as well as international and Ukrainian non-governmental human rights organisations. All of them have noted the systemic nature of human rights violations in Ukraine and noted with concern that the authorities should pay close attention to the identified problems and deploy significant efforts to resolve them.
However, the events confirm the Ukrainian leadership’s inability to even go through the motions and attempt to address serious human rights violations. Such actions of the Kiev regime once again illustrate its lack of independence. In fact, Kiev is a neo-Nazi regime that is acting upon the instructions of external sponsors to create an anti-Russia project from its own country. The sole purpose of this entity is to serve as a source of tension in the immediate vicinity of Russia’s borders despite destroying its own statehood in the process. It is precisely because of the obsequious readiness of the current Ukrainian government to deny everything that bounds it to Russia and, to the detriment of the interests of their people, to destroy the history and memory of the real rather than fictional past of their country, that the overseas sponsors turn a blind eye to its neo-Nazi nature and nudge it to follow the path of self-destruction.
General Overview
The situation with human rights seriously deteriorated in Ukraine in 2022, and the current state of affairs in this area is extremely grave.
The systematic suppression of human rights, the opposition and dissent in Ukraine has become a deliberate policy of the regime that came to power in 2014 and set itself the goal of fighting everything that bounds it to Russia.
Vladimir Zelenskiy was elected president in 2019 under the banner of achieving peace and ending discrimination against the people of southeastern Ukraine. However, to date, on most key issues, including in the humanitarian sphere, the current Ukrainian leadership’s policy has not only remained a carbon copy of President Poroshenko’s aggressive course, but has exacerbated existing issues many times over and contributed to the emergence of new ones.
A number of researchers have rightly noted that the Kiev regime underwent a political mutation in 2022. The environment that it created in the wake of the martial law allowed it to build an authoritarian rule in that country which can be described as an absolute monopoly on power, out-of-court reprisals, tough censorship, liquidation of almost all independent media and the destruction of political opposition, total state propaganda, an active search for traitors and fictional Russian spies and saboteurs. Having adopted the ideology and practices of the Ukrainian national radicals, the current regime has, in fact, degenerated into a neo-Nazi dictatorship.
This kind of a regime needs a state of war and the widespread use of reprisals as the only and, at the same time, the surest way to preserve its domination. It will exist as long as a high degree of escalation in society is maintained, armed confrontation with an external enemy continues, and most importantly, widespread Western assistance, primarily military, is provided. Acting along the lines of this logic, such a regime will exist only as long as it maintains this degree of escalation in society and is at war with an external enemy. The end of the war for such a regime means the end of its existence.
Overall, the situation with promoting and protecting human rights in Ukraine has become critical. The right to freedom and personal inviolability is regularly infringed upon in that country. There are numerous facts of illegal arrests and subsequent detention, torture, intimidation, and inhuman and cruel treatment that are aimed, among other things, at forcing the people in custody to confess their guilt.
The persecution of political opponents, independent journalists and media companies as well as members of public organisations that are objectionable to the authorities, which, as a rule, comes amid claims about the importance of combating “Russian aggression” and “separatism”, has acquired unprecedented proportions. To this end, the Kiev authorities actively engage members of radical nationalist organisations who often break the law, but always go unpunished.
The rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs), the Russian-speaking people and representatives of ethnic minorities, of whom there are many among the IDPs, have been restricted. Kiev’s campaign against the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church has reached a new level in terms of cynicism and hypocrisy. It has now taken the form of a total ban on the UOC, including Zelenskiy regime’s decision to evict its clergy from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
The problem of corruption, which is deeply rooted in the Ukrainian state, remains unresolved. The measures declared by the Kiev authorities to combat it, including the creation of relevant specialised entities, turn out ineffective in practice. Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, an independent expert from the UN Human Rights Council on foreign debt and human rights, pointed out the state of affairs in this sphere at the end of his official visit to Ukraine in May 2018.[1] The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights also noted the scale of corruption in April 2014[2] and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women noted it in February 2017. According to CEDAW experts, corruption, as well as rising unemployment, declining standards of living and the ongoing crisis create favourable conditions for widespread human trafficking.[3]
In Ukraine, the situation with observance of the right to freedom and personal inviolability remains acute. Over the past years, international human rights monitoring organisations have recorded many facts of illegal detention, torture, intimidation, harsh treatment and sexual violence, including for the purpose of forcing people to confess their guilt or to cooperate. Such examples are regularly included in the reports of the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU). In November 2021, the Human Rights Committee expressed concern over information about ongoing torture and harsh treatment by the Ukrainian security forces, while indicating that the number of cases of convictions for such violations is small.[4]
Numerous violations of citizens’ rights to a fair trial continue to occur, especially in criminal cases related to the conflict in Donbass. Court hearings are regularly held in the absence of defendants, and right-wing radicals often openly intimidate and attack lawyers and put pressure on representatives of the judiciary.
The use of torture and violence against detainees by law enforcement and security officers is systematic and, as a rule, goes unpunished.[5]
In November 2021, the Human Rights Committee pointed out the issues with bringing to justice the people who are responsible for crimes committed during Kiev’s attempts to subdue the population of Donbass by force. Having taken into account the Kiev authorities’ statement about their plans to investigate the crimes committed during the armed conflict (among them, arbitrary executions, sexual violence, kidnapping, forcible disappearances, arbitrary and illegal detentions; in this regard, an underground prison in Kharkov was mentioned which remained operational in 2014-2016), the Committee expressed concern about the lack of progress in this area and noted that victims, especially women, are afraid to report crimes due to fear of reprisals, lack of trust in the Ukrainian public authorities and plain ignorance of their rights.
In addition, he pointed out that lawyers defending victims of hostilities often receive threats. In this regard, the HRC recommended that measures be taken to hold the perpetrators accountable and provide protection for complainants and lawyers. It was also recommended to remove individuals who were convicted of serious human rights violations from government offices.[6]
Extorting confessions is a widespread occurrence. The HRMMU has on record people’s complaints that they were forced by the SBU or investigating authorities to confess on camera their participation in or affiliation with armed groups. Several such videos were posted on the official websites of the National Police or the SBU. According to the mission, the detainees testified against themselves as a result of torture, harsh treatment or intimidation by SBU officers.[7]
With the beginning by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation of a special military operation to denazify and demilitarise Ukraine and to protect civilians in Donbass, the neo-Nazi Kiev regime finally abandoned even perfunctory attempts to create the appearance of maintaining law and order or observing human rights in Ukraine.
The authorities are handing out weapons to civilians without any control over the process, which the criminal elements are taking advantage of. Criminals charged with serious crimes are being released from prisons, such as former serviceman Sergey Torbin (convicted for the murder of Kherson activist Yekaterina Gandzyuk), Dmitry Balabukha (convicted for killing a civilian during the conflict in Donbass), deputy of the Verkhovnaya Rada of Ukraine and commander of the Donbass battalion Semyon Semenchenko, former commander of the Tornado battalion Ruslan Onishchenko (convicted of torture, rape and incitement to suicide). As a result, a surge of banditry, looting, armed attacks and murders has been observed in Kiev and other large Ukrainian cities, and self-appointed territorial defence detachments engage in robberies instead of sticking to the purported goal of protecting fellow citizens.
Chaos and lawlessness are rife. People who arouse the slightest suspicion are detained, interrogated and searched by radicals. Civilians face the risk of being killed under far-fetched pretexts such as for being part of numerous “sabotage groups” or “collaborators.” There are many videos posted online showing unlawful reprisals and abuse of civilians by the Nazis.
With the tacit permission of the Kiev authorities, right-wing radical combat units use civilians as a human shield, which was mentioned even in the materials of Amnesty International, an organisation that cannot be described as pro-Russian. The organisation’s paper, “Ukraine: military endangering civilians by locating forces in residential areas – new research,” highlights the fact that Ukraine’s armed forces are violating international humanitarian law by treating civilian sites as military targets. As a rule, Ukrainian military bases and military equipment are deployed in residential blocks or important civilian infrastructure facilities such as schools and hospitals.
Russian servicemen that have been taken hostage are being held in terrible conditions and subjected to torture and other forms of inhuman and cruel treatment. The Ukrainian armed formations and national battalions post online numerous testimonies of the crimes committed by them for everyone to see. The Ukrainian authorities are not even thinking about bringing perpetrators of these grave crimes to justice.
Glorification of Nazism
The Kiev regime’s efforts to aggressively propagate neo-Nazism concurrently with the efforts to rewrite the history of the Great Patriotic War and World War II are notably consistent. Distorted interpretations of historical events are being imposed on the people which belittle the role and contribution of the Soviet Union to the victory over Nazism and are aimed at destroying the Ukrainian people’s historical memory about the events of that war. The nationalist sentiments among the broad public are cultivated in Ukraine through state policy and vigorous efforts of the authorities of all levels to whitewash and glorify Nazism and Nazi collaborators during WWII and to glorify various formations of Ukrainian collaborators who sided with the Nazi invaders during the war under the guise of the “national liberation movement.” Particular attention is paid to adopting a wide range of state support measures for the movements that glorify Nazi henchmen.
Notably, a regulatory framework has been created for this kind of activity.
In April 2015, the Verkhovnaya Rada of Ukraine adopted a “decommunisation package” of legal acts, in particular, the law “On condemning the communist and national socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and the ban on propaganda of their symbols,” “On access to the archives of the repressive bodies of the communist totalitarian regime of 1917-1991,” “On perpetuating victory over Nazism in 1939-1945 World War II” and “On the legal status and honouring the memory of fighters for independence of Ukraine in the 20th century.”
In accordance with these documents, Soviet symbols were outlawed, the communist regime was condemned, the archives of the Soviet security services were opened, the WWII Ukrainian military nationalist formations and their leaders – the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) (Stepan Bandera) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)[8] (Roman Shukhevich) – were recognised as independence fighters. Commander-in-Chief Shukhevich served in the Third Reich’s Nachtigall Battalion, the 201st battalion of the Ukrainian Legion Schutzmannschaft.
In addition, criminal liability was introduced for negative assessment of the activities of the above units, as well as for the production, distribution and public use of symbols of the “totalitarian communist regime.”
The “decommunisation” laws covered issues such as provision of benefits to former members of the nationalist armed formations and a ban on the use of Soviet symbols, as well as Red Army symbols and insignia. In May 2017, the Code of Administrative Offences of Ukraine was amended to prohibit public use, wearing or displaying the St George (Guards) ribbon or its image.
On January 30, 2018, in line with the provisions of the law “On the legal status and honouring the memory of fighters for independence of Ukraine in the 20th century,” the Lvov Regional Council resolved to display the OUN-UPA flag along with the state flag of Ukraine. Similar decisions were adopted by the Volyn Regional Council, city councils in Ternopol, Kiev and a number of other cities.[9]
In December 2018, law No. 2640-VIII was adopted to amend the law “On the Status of War Veterans and Guarantees of their Social Protection,” which essentially equated collaborators as “participants in the fight for independence of Ukraine in the 20th century” and veterans who fought on the side of the Allies.[10]
Perpetuating the memory of the Nazis at the legislative level
Including decisions on celebrating memorable dates and anniversaries of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators in the resolutions that are adopted annually by the Verkhovnaya Rada of Ukraine is among notable manifestations of Kiev’s state policy to “preserve national memory”. In addition, in 2018, the Verkhovnaya Rada approved the slogan of the OUN nationalists “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to heroes!” which is a copy of the infamous Nazi salute, for use as a salute in the army and law enforcement agencies.
In 2019, the anniversaries of the following Nazi collaborators were put on the calendar of memorable dates and anniversaries: Vladimir Kubiyovich (a rabid supporter of cooperation with the Germans and the initiator of the SS Galicia Division), Ivan Poltavets-Ostryanitsa (head of the Ukrainian National Cossack Movement (UNAKOR), which included auxiliary police units that took part in the massacres of Jews in Volyn, Zhitomir, Vinnitsa, and Belaya Tserkov), Vasiliy Levkovich (member of the Ukrainian auxiliary police in Dubno, then commander of the Bug Military District as part of the UPA, who was convicted in 1947 by the Military Tribunal of the Interior Ministry troops, Kiev region), Ulas Samchuk (OUN activist and editor-in-chief of the pro-Nazi Volyn newspaper in Rovno who published anti-Semitic articles calling for killing Jews), Vasiliy Sidor (member of the OUN and UPA, commander of a sotnya within the Nachtigall Battalion, which took part in punitive operations; after the war, until his death in 1949, he actively participated in underground activities and served as deputy chief commander of the UPA), Andrey Melnik (head of the OUN Board who openly collaborated with Nazis, head of the Ukrainian National Rada in Kiev during the war, organiser of the Ukrainian auxiliary police units, and organiser of mass killings of Jews), Kirill Osmak (member of the OUN (Stepan Bandera’s wing), one of the leaders of the Ukrainian National Rada in Kiev led by Andrey Melnik), Alexander Vyshnivskiy (an organiser of the SS Galicia Division), Yaroslav Starukh (member of the OUN Board and an organiser of Jewish pogroms), Vasiliy Galas (one of OUN leaders who was in charge of an underground OUN network in Western Ukraine, organiser of Jewish pogroms in the Ternopol region and mass killings of Poles), as well as nationalists, in particular, Maxim Zheleznyak (head of the Kolivshchyna who was involved in the mass killings of Jews in Uman in the 18th century). At the same time, in a number of cases, these individuals are mentioned simply as public figures as, for example, “historian and geographer” Vladimir Kubiyovich, “political and military figure” Yaroslav Starukh, and “writer, publicist and journalist” Ulas Samchuk, without indicating their association with the nationalists. Public funds are allocated for holding commemorative events in honour of these “public figures.” The Ministry of Education and Science has been instructed to conduct lessons and awareness raising events. Commemorative coins and postage stamps in honour of these individuals will be issued.
The draft resolution “On Memorable Dates in 2021” was submitted to the Verkhovnaya Rada by deputies from the European Solidarity and Servant of the People parties on December 15, 2020, and provided for celebrating at the state level the anniversaries of individuals like Sergey Timoshenko (Minister of the Ukrainian People’s Republic who engaged in the construction of Wehrmacht military facilities in Poland), Leonid Perfetskiy (veteran of the SS Galicia Division), Nikolai Kapustyanskiy (deputy head of the Melnik-led OUN wing, who engaged in forming auxiliary Ukrainian units for the Nazis), Vladimir Shchigelskiy (he was a UPA member for a short time and then was executed by a firing squad in post-war Poland for collusion with the Nazis), Osip Dyakiy (OUN member, liquidated by the Soviet security agencies), and Rostislav Voloshin (OUN and UPA member).[11]
Notably, this decision was taken to court. Lawyer and public figure Andrey Portnov filed a lawsuit in which he demanded a ban on the celebration of memorable dates, associated with the participants in the Holocaust and the mass killings of Jews and Roma by Nazi criminals, which were approved by the Kiev City Council in December 2019. On July 23, 2020, the Kiev Administrative Court of Appeal satisfied this claim.[12]
On December 17, 2021, the Verkhovnaya Rada adopted another resolution on celebrating memorable dates and anniversaries in 2022-2023. According to the document, the holidays include the 80th anniversary of the creation of the UPA and the 110th anniversary of Stepan Bandera’s ally Yaroslav Stetsko, 130th anniversary of SS Galicia Division member Porfiriy Silenko-Kravets and 130th anniversary of Yury Polyanskiy, who was the burgomaster of Lvov under the Nazis and was directly involved in the killings of Jews and Poles, as well as looting, etc.[13]
To follow up on such resolutions by the Verkhovnaya Rada, the Ukrainian regional authorities adopt their own regulations.
On December 24, 2019, the Lvov Regional Council adopted a resolution on allocating state funds in 2020 for holding commemorative events in honour of an OUN leader Andrey Melnik, as well as in honour of an adept of the ideas of Ukrainian nationalism Ivan Lipa and his son Yury Lipa, who was an ideologist of nationalism.
On February 27, 2020, at the suggestion of a deputy from the Svoboda party Yury Sirotyuk, the Kiev City Council adopted a resolution on celebrating memorable dates and anniversaries in Kiev of the above collaborators, including Vladimir Kubiyovich, Ivan Poltavets-Ostryanitsa, Vasiliy Levkovich, Ulas Samchuk, Vasiliy Sidor, Yury Lipa, Vasiliy Galas, and Andrey Melnik.[14]
Other draft laws to glorify Nazism were submitted to the legislative body of Ukraine as well. On September 21, 2020, representatives of the parliamentary parties Voice and Servant of the People, as well as a member of the Freedom party Oksana Savchuk took the initiative to submit to the Verkhovnaya Rada a draft resolution on celebrating the 80th anniversary of the proclamation in Lvov of the Act of restoration of the Ukrainian state adopted on June 30, 1941, during the Nazi occupation of Western Ukraine.
Pro-Nazi statements and hate speech
Ukrainian officials expressed support for Nazis openly and on numerous occasions. In September 2018, former Verkhovnaya Rada Speaker Andrey Paruby said on air in an ICTV show that “the greatest man who practiced direct democracy was Adolf Hitler.”[15]
The media was shocked by Ukraine’s consul in Hamburg Vasiliy Marushchinets, who actively made xenophobic and racist posts on social media, justifying Nazism and anti-Semitism. He also posted his photographs against a Bandera flag and with a cake shaped like Hitler’s book Mein Kampf, which his colleagues gave him on his 60th birthday. In May 2018, Marushchinets was fired, but in early November 2019 media reported that the Ukrainian court declared his dismissal to be illegal.[16]
On May 3, 2019, Alexander Nakonechniy, the mayor of Karlovka in the Poltava Region, posted his photograph in a Nazi uniform on his Facebook account.[17]
In October 2019, then Prime Minister of Ukraine Alexey Goncharuk attended a concert on the Defender of Ukraine Day by the band Sekira Peruna, against which a criminal case was opened in 2018 for glorifying Adolf Hitler, Rudolf Hess and Waffen SS forces and for using Nazi symbols. The concert was attended by Ukrainian neo-Nazis and organised by Andrey Medvedko, who had been detained for murdering writer and journalist Oles Buzina but was released together with the other potential perpetrator, Denis Polishchuk, under the neo-Nazis’ pressure. Alexey Goncharuk went on stage to welcome the “veterans” of the counter-terrorist operation against Donbass. He later confirmed his participation in the neo-Nazi gathering in a Facebook post and explained it by a desire to “congratulate veterans and to talk about felt needs.”[18]
On March 17, 2022, head of the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service Sergey Deineko called for killing Russian women and children in a Facebook post, which was later deleted.[19]
On March 8, 2022, former Acting President, Verkhovnaya Rada Speaker and Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council Alexander Turchinov published a post on his VKontakte account, in which he called for “exterminating Rusnya wherever possible, not only in Ukraine but also beyond it, in the territory of Russia.”[20]
On July 1, 2022, then Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andrey Melnik said that Stepan Bandera was a “freedom fighter” and had nothing to do with the murder of Jews and Poles. This outraged the public not only in Poland but also in Germany. Melnik was criticised by Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Antisemitism Felix Klein and the Israeli Embassy in Berlin.
On August 22, 2022, Ukrainian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Pyotr Vrublevskiy, who was later recalled to Kiev, told the media: “We are trying to kill as many of them [Russians] as possible. The more we kill now, the fewer our children will have to kill. That’s it.”
Before that, mayor of Dnepr Boris Filatov spoke in the same vein: “This is a time for cold fury. We now have a moral right to kill these non-humans calmly and imperturbably around the world, as long as it takes and in the largest possible number.”
On December 15, 2022, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhniy said in an interview with The Economist: “The most important experience we had and the one which we have practiced almost like a religion is that Russians and any other enemies must be killed, just killed, and most importantly, we should not be afraid to do it.”[21]
In December 2022, Ukraine’s police chief Igor Klimenko said that the Russian-speaking people in Donbass were “poisoned by Russian propaganda” and were “the main problem of that region.”[22]
On January 1, 2023, Ukraine’s Verkhovnaya Rada published a tweet on its official account in which it glorified Stepan Bandera and included some of his quotes. The tweet was deleted after Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki said that Poles would never agree to show any mercy for those who refuse to admit to that horrible genocide, plead forgiveness and fully redeem their guilt.[23]
It is notable that these statements by Ukrainian officials, like the one by Melnik, caught the attention of the international public. Back in 2016, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) expressed concern over racist, hate and discriminatory statements that were increasingly made mostly against minorities during public debates, in the speeches of public figures and politicians, as well as on media resources, including internet.[24]
NGOs and foreign politicians also spoke about the spread of neo-Nazism and the activities of far-right groups in Ukraine. In November 2020, the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) published a report in which Ukraine was named as one of the main promoters of the neo-Nazi ideology.[25]
Following a visit to Kiev in May 2021, a group of French senators stated that the activities of neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine were a cause for concern. The senators said that when attending in a fair in central Kiev during the Kiev Day celebrations they came across members of the Azov Battalion who taught children to assemble guns, a stand where volunteers were enlisted for a war in Donbass and a shooting range where the far-right invited young people to shoot at a paper image of the Kremlin. People were also selling WWII Nazi IDs, swastikas and other symbols. Senator Nathalie Goulet, who witnessed that, sent an inquiry to the French Foreign Ministry. After that, the Security Service of Ukraine launched an investigation against the French senators.[26] However, the French Foreign Ministry did not consider the situation as alarming and replied to Goulet’s inquiry that “there are neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine” but they are no more popular than the average in Europe.[27]
In other words, Ukraine, enjoying the silent encouragement by the collective West, ignores the concern of the international community and continues to promote the neo-Nazi ideology.
Holding events in honour of Nazis and their accomplices
There are frequent cases in Ukraine when officials of different levels organise events and public actions glorifying Germany under Hitler as well as German Nazis and their accomplices.
In July 2018, Verkhovnaya Rada leaders organised a thematic exhibition dedicated to the 77th Anniversary of the Act of restoration of Ukrainian statehood, which was made public on June 30, 1941, and sealed the creation of a German protectorate and dependency in Galicia, determining its course for cooperation with Nazi Germany. The exhibition was devoted to the OUN leaders Stepan Bandera and Yaroslav Stetsko, and to Roman Shukhevich, who commanded the Nachtigall Battalion and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army at an early stage in the Great Patriotic War.[28]
In February 2019, the nationalist forces were outraged by a police operation to disperse a nationalist rally in Kiev’s Kontraktovaya Square, during which an officer shouted: “Lie down, Bandera!” In response, National Police heads launched a flash mob, #IAmABanderovite, in the social media. For example, National Police chief Sergei Knyazev and Patrol Police chief Yevgeniy Zhukov posted the hashtag on their Facebook pages.
In March 2019, Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko approved new brigade chevrons of the Land Forces. A red-and-black chevron with a skull and the inscription “Ukraine or Death” was approved for the 72nd Black Zaporozhian Cossacks Mechanised Brigade. This chevron bears a striking resemblance to those of the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf.[29]
In June 2020, Vladimir Mikolayenko, mayor of then Ukrainian Kherson,[30] congratulated the local residents on an anniversary of the Act of restoration of Ukrainian statehood promulgated by the OUN collaborationists in Lvov in 1941. The Act committed to “work closely with the National-Socialist Greater Germany, under the leadership of its leader Adolf Hitler which is forming a new order in Europe and the world and is helping the Ukrainian People to free itself from Moscovite occupation.” The city was adorned with outdoor advertisements reproducing the front page of the OUN newspaper Samostiynaya Ukraina dated July 10, 1941, with the text of the said Act.[31]
In 2022, it became clear that the Nazi ideas prevailed not only among members of the volunteer units (mostly manned by neo-Nazis) but also among ordinary Ukrainian officers and men. Nazi symbols are commonly found in tattoos covering the bodies of Ukrainian Army personnel, who also openly wear chevrons bearing Nazi symbols and slogans. Quite frequently these are exact copies of chevrons that Germans and their accomplices sported during the Great Patriotic War.
Specifically, there were media reports that militants from Azov, Aidar, and other nationalist battalions were wearing chevrons and swastika symbols of Waffen-SS units, to say nothing of their tattoos and propaganda of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, their favourite read.[32]
There are cases on record of Nazi symbols being used by Ukrainian officials. President Vladimir Zelenskiy, for one, illustrated his Victory Day greetings to the public on May 9, 2022 (posted in his Telegram account), with a photograph showing a Ukrainian soldier with the SS Totenkopf emblem on his chest. This caused an uproar, whereupon the image was promptly removed. But in parallel, the same photograph was used by the Ukrainian Defence Ministry, and the agency decided to stand by it.
On January 1 of each year, Kiev and other Ukrainian cities host torch marches honouring the birthday of the Nazi henchman Stepan Bandera. The pageants are accompanied with shouted nationalist slogans and a show of Nazi symbols. Since 2019, Bandera’s birthday is celebrated as an official holiday.
On January 1, 2021, the nationalists as usual organised torch marches in honour of Bandera in major Ukrainian cities. The Ukrainian media noted, however, that there were fewer radicals involved in the rallies, which was interpreted as a sign of dwindling public support for the nationalists. At the same time, these gatherings are held unopposed during the presidency of Vladimir Zelenskiy, who is not hiding the fact that he follows the policy of his predecessor, Petr Poroshenko.[33]
January 1, 2022, saw another torch march in Kiev led by the activists of Svoboda, a radical nationalist party, and other extreme right-wing organisations, as well as representatives of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine.” The composition on the main poster of the march featured Bandera’s portrait against the background of the Moscow Kremlin in flames. Other posters called for holding a “Nuremberg-2 trial against Moscow Judaic Communism,” with their bearers shouting nationalist and xenophobic slogans.
The nationalist march was denounced by the embassies of Israel and Belarus in Ukraine as well as the German Foreign Ministry.[34] On January 3, 2022, Dmitry Yarosh, head of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army and former leader of the extremist Right Sector party, called Israeli Ambassador Michael Brodskiy “a Kremlin agent of influence” on his Facebook page and urged the authorities to “drive such ‘diplomats’ out of Ukraine.” Director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee Eduard Dolinskiy said in a comment that Yarosh’s statement was an “anti-Semitic message” and an attempt at a “Judaeophobic division of Jews into bad and good characters: a good Jew must love his murderers. But a Jew who dislikes Bandera and Shukhevich is an enemy, a Kremlin agent, and should be driven away.”
On January 1, 2023, ceremonies commemorating Bandera’s 114th birth anniversary were held in Western Ukraine, whereas the traditional torch march in Kiev was cancelled on account of the curfew and other restrictions on public events.[35]
Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance
The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance (UINR) plays a significant role in the propagation of neo-Nazism. While it was led by former director Vladimir Vyatrovich, who is known for his Russophobic and nationalistic views, the institute was engaged in activities on several tracks. The team promoted legislative initiatives to glorify Nazi accomplices from the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and immortalise the memory of the Ukrainian “liberation movement” participants; published “patriotic” literature and guidelines for secondary and higher education institutions; and held various events involving veterans of the UPA and the so-called antiterrorist operation, and local pro-Bandera historians, including the Banderstadt festival in honour of Nazi accomplices. Simon Petlyura, Yevgeny Konovalets, Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevich, Yaroslav Stetsko, Andrey Melnik, and other champions of Ukrainian nationalism continue to be persistently imposed as moral reference points for Ukrainians.
In early 2017, the institute announced a propaganda project titled UPA: A Response of the Unconquered People, to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of that criminal entity. The UINR leadership described the UPA as an anti-Nazi organisation, although more than 70 percent of UPA officers were former Nazi henchmen – fighters from collaborationist units, and its command was part of the Nazi auxiliary police Schutzmannschaft (Rifle Team) until 1943. According to the 2018 UINR report, the project included a series of events such as photo exhibitions, lectures, and seminars at educational institutions, military units, and state institutions aimed at popularising the activities of the UPA militants. Moreover, the UINR released a board game glorifying members of the Bandera underground[36] for propaganda purposes. In July 2019, the Ministry of Education of Ukraine recommended this game for use in schools.[37]
The UINR has reproduced “insurgent decorations,” which are awarded to “members of the Ukrainian liberation movement” and relatives of deceased “liberators.” The UINR also organised an exhibition The Ukrainian Army: 1917-1921, at the Verkhovnaya Rada, dedicated to a series of events that, in line with the official Ukrainian version of history, are interpreted as the fight of the people for political self-determination and statehood.
While the leadership of the UINR changed in December 2019, its historical revisionism policy was largely continued. In 2020, ahead of Victory Day, the new head of the UINR Anton Drobovich recorded a video address on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation celebrated on May 8[38] and the 75th anniversary of Victory over Nazism. Apart from the usual attempts of current Ukrainian authorities to present Ukrainian collaborators as fighters against Nazism, despite the indisputable evidence of their cooperation, the head of the UINR essentially equated the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation to the Day of Victory over Nazism in World War II.[39]
In May 2021, the UINR published yet another report containing distorted historical facts. Head of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee Eduard Dolinskiy wrote on social media that the institute was distributing a manual with instructions on celebrating Victory Day. In particular, the manual states that the 100,000-strong UPA fought against Nazism on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition, while even during its heyday, the organisation had 35,000 members[40] at best, according to official data.
The Ukrainian courts’ rulings on requests to recognise the SS Galicia Division symbols as Nazi symbols and to ban the UINR from disseminating falsifications to the contrary were revealing.
In 2017, Natalya Myasnikova from Kiev challenged in court UINR Director Vladimir Vyatrovich’s statement (widely promoted by the UINR) that the symbols used by the SS Galicia Division were not Nazi symbols because the division was not one of the general SS units – it was part of SS troops, and was primarily used as a combat unit. The UINR gave one of the Ukrainian online publications its interpretation of Paragraph 5 of Part 1 of Article 1 of the Law “On the condemnation of the communist and national socialist (Nazi) regimes, and prohibition of propaganda of their symbols,” which includes a list of recognised symbols of the national socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regime, regarding SS Galicia Division. The plaintiff asked the court to declare this action by the UINR and its head illegal and to prohibit any propaganda of the symbols of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician), taking into account subsequent changes in its name. She also demanded that the UINR refute is statements about the SS Galicia Division symbols.[41]
On May 27, 2020, the District Administrative Court in Kiev ruled that the UINR exceeded its authority in distributing the statements made by its director and ordered the organisation to “refrain from any action to promote” the symbols in question. However, the court supported Myasnikova’s claim only in part. Ukrainian radical nationalists from the Right Sector, National Corps, Sokol (the youth wing of Svoboda), Traditions and Order staged a pyrotechnic show outside the courthouse during the consideration of the case; the judges and Myasnikova’s lawyer received anonymous threats the day before the verdict.[42]
On September 23, 2020, the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal in Kiev granted the UINR’s appeal overturning the previous decision of the court, which de facto had recognised the SS Galicia Division symbols as Nazi.
On December 6, 2022, the Supreme Court of Ukraine supported the appellate court’s ruling, making SS Galicia Division symbols legal again in Ukraine and no longer condemned as Nazi symbols[43]. That decision ran counter to the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal, which recognised the Waffen SS troops, the SS Galicia Division among them, as a criminal organisation. Its members were involved in punitive operations and murders of Soviet soldiers and civilians during the Great Patriotic War, participated in the suppression of the Warsaw and Slovak uprisings, and fought against Yugoslav partisans.
Neo-Nazi ideology in education
After seizing power as a result of a state coup in February 2014 and starting a war in Donbass, the neo-Nazi forces launched a policy of “patriotic education” based on militant Russophobia, the promotion of a nationalist and xenophobic ideology in the younger generation, and the glorification of Nazi accomplices as members of the “national liberation movement.” These activities relied on the 2020-2025 Strategy for National-Patriotic Education adopted by President Poroshenko in May 2019.
It stipulates that “values and civil responsibility” should be instilled in young people, based on “the examples of heroic struggle for sovereignty, the ideals of freedom and community” inherited from Cossacks, Sich Riflemen, the Ukrainian and West Ukrainian people’s republics, participants in anti-Bolshevik uprisings, Carpathian Sich units, the UPA and the dissident movement.
The interpretation of historical events has been distorted to promote nationalist sentiments among the general public, primarily young people. Information is presented in nearly all textbooks from the viewpoint of the so-called new national idea of Ukraine, which is based on the propaganda of hatred for the Russian people and Russia. Ukraine is depicted as the victim and the Russian state, throughout its history, as the aggressor and bloody butcher. Such books are also published for the youngest children: shortly after the Maidan uprising in 2014, historian Oleg Vitvitskiy published a new “patriotic” alphabet book.
Textbooks were adjusted to the official interpretation of history and cleansed of facts of the Ukrainian nationalists’ collaboration with Nazis. For example, the Ministry of Education and Science retracted textbooks for the 10th and 11th grades that included information about the collaboration of Roman Shukhevich and the Roland and Nachtigall Battalions with the Nazi army during WWII.[44]
According to polls, the policy of glorification of the Nazis and their accomplices had a negative effect on many Ukrainians. The Democratic Initiatives Foundation conducted a poll according to which the majority of Ukrainians (52 percent) continued to celebrate May 9 as Victory Day of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. At the same time, 56 percent of the respondents agreed that both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were responsible for starting the bloodiest conflict in human history. Only 32.2 percent ticked the variant according to which the anti-Hitler coalition won the Second World War (not the Great Patriotic War). Nearly 40 percent supported the status quo according to which the nation celebrates both Victory Day (May 9) and the day of remembrance and reconciliation (May 8).[45]
Moreover, the Ukrainian authorities attracted far-right and ultra-nationalist groups and organisations to “patriotic work” with young people and provided government assistance to some of them.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports (formerly the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports) allocated substantial annual funds for “military-patriotic youth education” projects such as festivals, competitions, conferences, camps, military field games and other events that glorified Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevich and other Nazi collaborators and promoted hatred of Russians and Russia.
For example, during the annual national youth game Dzhura (Falcon), children and young people aged 6 to 17 years were divided according to the UPA structure into primary units (“roi,” 10-12 people) and larger units (“kuren,” about 300 people). In keeping with the theory of the “historical struggle for independence,” they were called “insurgents,” “Azovians,” “Aidarians,” and Shukhevich units.
Since 2007, the All-Ukrainian Youth Movement National Alliance has regularly held the Banderstadt Festival of Ukrainian Spirit in Lutsk, Volyn Region, with support from the Kiev regime. According to its organisers, the festival’s mission is to “immortalise Stepan Bandera as a national symbol.”
In 2018, the Svoboda and S14 associations received over 1 million hryvnias in government grants for “patriotic youth education” projects. In 2019, the authorities allocated funds for the military patriotic youth camp Khorunzhy, named after Nazi collaborator Taras Bulba-Borovets, and several other similar projects. In the summer of 2019, a Banderstadt Festival was held in Lutsk, a festival of the Ukrainian nationalist ideologist Dmitry Dontsov in Melitopol, and a Taras Bulba-Borovets Path festival in Olevsk.
In December 2019, the Verkhovnaya Rada adopted a law on state recognition and support of the Plast National Scout Organisation of Ukraine. That law actually provided the basis for broad state support for an organisation that was similar to the notorious Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend) which subjected young people to indoctrination. It is clear what such indoctrination can lead to if we recall that nearly all UPA commanders, including Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevich and Vasiliy Kuk, were members of Plast.[46]
In December 2019, the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports again allocated funds (20 million hryvnias) for “military-patriotic youth education” projects in 2020, including 2 million hryvnias for Plast, which openly declared its connection to Bandera’s organisation. Out of these funds, 770,000 hryvnias went to military-patriotic camps, 450,000 hryvnias to a national game, and 500,000 hryvnias to a Plastun Cultural Identity Day. Out of the 20 million hryvnias, 440,000 hryvnias were allocated to the Banderstadt Festival of Ukrainian Spirit, which was presented as “a dedicated patriotic” event. As much as 350,000 hryvnias went to the Youth Nationalist Congress for promoting the Ukrainian nationalist ideas during Camp Season 2020 and its central event, the Gurby-Antonovtsy military field game dedicated to the UPA battle against the NKVD interior troops in the Ternopol Region. Another 485,000 hryvnias were allocated for the Dzhura miliary-patriotic game; and over 250,000 hryvnias to the Ukrainian Youth Association, which calls for the rehabilitation of Semyon Petlyura, Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevich, for organising a Global Ukraineness (Ukrainity) conference and history events (180,000 hryvnias) and Zagrada children’s camps (95,000 hryvnias), where children visit UPA’s memorable sites. A total of 300,000 hryvnias were allocated for the military history festival Under the Veil of Trizub (Trident) in Boyarka, Kiev Region; 560,000 hryvnias to the Ukrainian reserve army for the Kuznya Unizh (Unizh Smithery) and Povstancheskoye Serdtse (Insurgent Heart) patriotic sport camps for the children of fighters in south-eastern Ukraine; and 250,000 hryvnias were provided to the Ukrainian Association of Military History Organisations for organising contests at a military unit.
In January 2020, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports announced the results of a competition of children’s and youth projects, following which the winners were to receive government allocations of 8 million hryvnias (over 20 million roubles) in 2020.[47] This is approximately half of the funds the ministry allocated to children’s and youth organisations.[48] Plast received 2.7 million hryvnias for summer camps and themed forums. The Youth Nationalist Congress was allocated 400,000 hryvnias for the Free People and Young Banderite training courses. The All-Ukrainian Youth Movement National Alliance was given 200,000 hryvnias for the Pobeda (Victory) national field games (first held in 2006). The Education Assembly affiliated with the S14 far-right group received 120,000 hryvnias for the Proud of Ukrainians campaign, and 200,000 hryvnias were provided to the Freedom Falcon youth wing of the Svoboda organisation for holding Patriot Games in the Ternopol Region. The ministry also planned to finance a True History of Ukraine campaign and a festival of social advertising by the Ukrainian People’s Youth. Many of these organisations or their affiliated agencies received government allocations for national patriotic education and also direct funding from the state and local budgets for their activities.[49]
In March 2021, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, which was reshaped in March 2020, distributed 8 million hryvnias of budgetary funds for “military-patriotic youth education” projects. Of these funds, 350,000 hryvnias went to the Zashkiv (Zashkov) festival in the Lvov Region dedicated to OUN leader Yevgeny Konovalets; 185,000 hryvnias were given to the Khorunzhy camp in the Volyn Region, where children were educated in the OUN-UPA spirit; 1.2 million hryvnias were allocated for the ”commemoration of the heroes of the Ukrainians’ struggle for the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine”; and 3 million hryvnias were provided for educational events, including to nationalist organisations and affiliated agencies.[50]
In January 2022, the Ministry of Youth and Sports allocated 9 million hryvnias for “national patriotic education.” Plast received 1.7 million hryvnias for “military patriotic field camps”; 715,000 hryvnias were provided to the Youth Nationalist Congress for a similar purpose. The Youth Corps, a branch of the far-right National Corps Party, was given 240,000 hryvnias for the Igor Beloshitskiy Games (named after an Azov fighter who died near Mariupol in 2014) and 100,000 hryvnias for the national patriotic school named after Yelena Stepaniv, a fighter of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen of the Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces during the First World War. The Volyn Student Brotherhood was allocated 270,000 hryvnias for the UPA Path events.[51]
Kiev’s efforts to use the state budget to finance radical nationalists did not go unnoticed. In July 2019, the Ukrainian government was accused of secretly funding far-right extremist groups under the guise of educational programmes. According to Bellingcat, the government allocated funds to carry out “national-patriotic education” (NPE) programmes aimed at building up the nationalists’ influence and attracting new supporters.[52]
In March 2020, Acting Minister of Education and Science Lyubomira Mandziy was involved in a high-profile scandal. It turned out that in 2018, when she headed the education department of the Lvov Region administration, she co-organised a drawing contest for schoolchildren about the Waffen SS Galicia Division and its Ukrainian members. Children were invited to draw “an SS soldier or a meeting of Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler with the division staff.” The awards ceremony was scheduled for April 28, 2020. The agenda included a march on the 75th anniversary of the Waffen SS Galicia Division and a weapons exhibition. When this caused a public outcry, Mandziy told journalists that the education department’s involvement was limited to “informing schools about the competition.”[53]
The members of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion (declared a terrorist organisation in the Russian Federation) recruited children into the Ukrainian Armed Forces and nationalist units and trained them in the spirit of hatred of everything Russian. They assumed patronage of the Piligrim Orphanage in then Kiev-held Mariupol. The programme included military training, harsh punishment for any violations and exhausting physical exercises. Boys were trained in hand-to-hand fighting, while girls were mostly given sniper training. Ideological indoctrination focused on Russophobia, anti-Semitism and the glorification of Nazi Germany.
Information about that camp was reported by Western media outlets.[54]
Commemorating the Nazis
The Ukrainian authorities continue to erect monuments and memorial plaques in honour of the OUN-UPA militants and pay tribute to former Nazis who are still alive today. The anniversary of the founding of the UPA and Stepan Bandera’s birthday are marked with the biggest ultranationalist marches. The radical nationalists participating in such gatherings use hate rhetoric, mainly directed against Russians, and carry out a variety of provocations.
On January 29, 2020, former Nazi collaborator and member of SS Galicia Division Mikhail Mulik was buried in a solemn ceremony on the Alley of Glory in Ivano-Frankovsk with regional officials and clergy attending. Many of those present at the event were dressed in Nazi uniforms.[55] According to the Ukrainian media, Mikhail Mulik headed the regional brotherhood of former SS Galicia soldiers and was an honorary citizen of Ivano-Frankovsk.[56]
On March 22, 2020, the Lvov authorities officially honoured SS Galicia Division Unterscharfurher Roman Matsuk on his 95th birthday, presenting him with his own portrait as a young man in a Nazi uniform.[57]
In April 2020, a ceremony to present an award established by the Brotherhood of Soldiers of the SS Galicia Division to its veteran Vasiliy Nakonechniy took place in Kalush (Ivano-Frankovsk Region). The society bestows these awards on all former SS members who are alive. When accepting the award, the 95-year-old member of the SS Division reflexively raised his arm in the Nazi salute. Earlier, in May 2018, he earned honorary citizenship of Kalush following a decision by the Kalush City Council.[58]
On May 23, 2020, on the occasion of the “Day of Heroes,” [59] UPA veterans and their widows living in the Lvov Region were paid a lump sum benefit from the regional budget – a total of 989 recipients.[60]
On June 21, 2020, the Lvov City Council press service reported that Lvov Mayor Andrey Sadovoy wished a happy 100th birthday to Olga Ilkiv, signaller for UPA leader Roman Shukhevich. According to the report, the city and the region bought Olga Ilkiv an apartment in Lvov as a recognition of her services to the state and on the occasion of the 78th anniversary of the creation of the UPA.[61]
On July 18, 2020, a memorial cross was erected in honour of UPA general Ivan Treiko in the woods between Gorodnitsa, Zhitomir Region, and Storozhev, Rovno Region, with the support of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance (UINR). The event was attended by representatives of local authorities, politicians, public activists, and a representative of the UINR.[62]
In August 2020, a Petlyura Subbotnik volunteer community work event was held in Kiev to “honour” the fighters of the 1st Bogdan Khmelnitskiy Ukrainian Regiment buried on the Castle Hill.
On August 19, 2020 a memorial plaque in honour of Yury Lipa was installed on the wall of the district library in Yavorov, Lvov Region.[63]
On August 30, 2020, in the village of Karpilovka, Chernigov Region, a monument was unveiled to a Nazi collaborator, member of the Polissian Sich and the UPA Kuzma Brichka, who participated in the massacres of the Polish and Jewish population.[64]
On October 5, 2020, UPA veteran Alexander Derkach, a participant in the killing of the Jewish and Polish population in the Rovno Region, was buried with military honours and an honorary military guard in Dubrovka, Zhitomir Region.[65]
On October 13, 2020, in Lutsk, local authorities organised the third All-Ukrainian festival and competition of insurgent songs, For Ukraine, for its Freedom. The remote-participation event included songs glorifying members of the UPA. On the same day, an exhibition dedicated to Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevich opened in Vinnitsa.
On October 14, 2020, in Kiev, radicals from Svoboda, Right Sector and National Corps held a traditional march to mark the 78th anniversary of the UPA. The procession participants carried glass jars with photographs of Anatoly Shariy, Viktor Medvedchuk and a number of other public figures and opposition politicians doctored to look like severed heads. They chanted slogans demanding “legal” persecution of Ukrainian citizens for “pro-Russia” activities, the removal of 112-Ukraine, NewsOne, ZIK, NASH, Inter and Kiev Live channels from air, and lifting the ban on firing in Donbass for the Ukrainian military.
On the same day, flower-laying ceremonies were held in Lvov at the tombs of UPA militants; Deputy Head of the Lvov Regional Administration Maxim Kozitskiy took part in them. Funeral requiems and processions were held using Ukrainian nationalist paraphernalia.[66] A historical exhibition, Fighting Goliath, opened in Vinnitsa. The event, organised by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, commemorated the UPA leaders including Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevich.
On November 12, 2020, a ceremony took place in the Lvov Historical Museum, supported by the city government, to award relatives of the OUN-UPA militants their organisation’s medals For Military Merit and For Special Contribution to the Development of the OUN Armed Underground.
On January 20, 2021, an all-Ukrainian competition for best monument to Simon Petlyura was announced in Poltava.[67]
On January 29, 2021, the Kiev City Council initiated another Bandera Readings event.
In February 2021, Ivan Fialka, formerly of the SS Galicia Division, was buried with honours in Stryi (Lvov Region), with the city mayor and members of nationalist groups attending.
On February 16, 2021, the Lvov Regional Council appealed to President Zelenskiy to reinstate Stepan Bandera’s title as Hero of Ukraine. The deputies also decided to proclaim 2021 the Year of Yevgeny Konovalets (an OUN leader).[68] In addition, members of the Ivano-Frankovsk City Council decided to award the title of Hero of Ukraine to former SS Galicia Division fighter Mikhail Mulik.
On March 5, 2021, deputies of the City Council of Ternopol supported Mayor Sergey Nadal’s initiative to assign the name of Roman Shukhevich to the city stadium, which was going to host the Ukrainian Football Cup final. The then Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine, Joel Lion, called on the council to reverse the decision. In turn, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson defended the local authorities, saying that “the preservation of national memory is one of the priorities of the country’s state policy,” and that such topics should be discussed by historians, not diplomats.[69]
The Lvov Regional Council decided to follow suit and submitted a proposal to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on March 16, 2021 to rename the Arena Lvov stadium as Stepan Bandera Arena Lvov. That stadium was to host the first rounds of qualifying matches for the 2022 World Cup. The initiative came from Petr Poroshenko’s European Solidarity Party.[70]
On April 28, 2021, radical nationalists marched in Kiev for the first time in honour of the creation of the Nazi SS Galicia Division. The procession included public use of Nazi symbols. Police officers accompanied the procession, blocking traffic on a number of central streets in Kiev. According to Director of the Ukrainian Institute for Policy Analysis and Management Ruslan Bortnik, the city government partially financed the march, but later claimed that it had happened by mistake. Prior to this, similar marches in support of SS Galicia Division took place mainly in Lvov and other cities in western Ukraine. According to experts, this march in Kiev could be viewed as a provocation in the run-up to May 9, and Kiev’s failure to act could be explained by the threat of pressure from the right-wing forces, which were gaining influence.[71]
On May 2, 2021, members of the National Corps held rallies in Lvov and Ternopol to glorify the militants of the SS Galicia Division. Nazi symbols were also used during those events.
On May 22, 2021, the remains of UPA militants were buried in a solemn funeral ceremony in Strelki, Lvov Region. The event was attended by head of the European Solidarity Party group in the Lvov Regional Council Oleg Duda.
In mid-June 2021, Orest Vaskul, head of the Kiev Regional Brotherhood of OUN-UPA Veterans, a former member of the SS Galicia Division and former OUN leader, was buried in Kiev. The funeral included a service at St Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” and an official solemn ceremony of the Defence Ministry of Ukraine with a guard of honour by the Separate Presidential Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitskiy Regiment. Former Minister of Education Sergey Kvit, former head of the UINR Vladimir Vyatrovich and others attended the event.[72]
On July 25, 2021, the remains of SS Galicia Division members killed by the Soviet troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front in the battle for Brody in 1944 were reburied with honours in Chervonoye, Lvov Region.
In July 2021, according to reports, a children’s team called “Hitlerites” participated in a street basketball tournament on City Day in Novomirgorod, Kirovograd Region.[73]
On August 10, 2021, a ceremony was held in Lvov to mark the centenary of the birth of Vladimir Shchigelskiy, UPA Lieutenant and Commandant of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police who took an active part in the persecution and killing of the Jewish and Polish population during World War II. Shchigelskiy was executed in Poland in 1949 for aiding the Nazis, committing war crimes and mass murder of civilians.
On August 18, 2021, ceremonies were held in Litin, Vinnitsa Region, in honour of the 110th anniversary of Yemelyan Grabets, an OUN and UPA member who served as Commandant of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police of Rovno and was directly involved in the murder of about 30,000 Jews in that city. In addition to the memorial procession along Grabets Street and the laying of flowers at his commemorative plaque, a roundtable was held in the local history museum that issued a recommendation to the local authorities to name Litin sport complex after him.[74]
In September 2021, a plan was reported to install a memorial stone in the centre of Kiev in honour of Vladimir Bagaziy, a high-ranking OUN member who set up the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police of Kiev and was later appointed Mayor of Kiev by the Nazis, as part of the One Stone, One Life project.[75] Head of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee Eduard Dolinskiy underscored that Bagaziy was directly involved in the murders of Jews in Kiev. According to media reports, the name and photo of the collaborator appeared on the interactive map on the official website of the project, which showed the planned locations of the memorial stones and the names of the people they would commemorate. The website included Bagaziy’s biography without any mention of his involvement in the execution of Jews during the Nazi occupation of Kiev.[76] Asked for comment by the RT newspaper, the German Foreign Ministry noted that the “disputes concerning Vladimir Bagaziy” were taken into account, and the plan to install the memorial stone was suspended. The ministry said they were planning to further research Bagaziy[77] with the Ukrainian Centre for the Study of the History of the Holocaust and other experts because they were taking the reports of his involvement in the Holocaust “very seriously.” As of October 12, 2021, Bagaziy’s biography was removed from the project website.
On October 7, 2021, more UPA militants were ceremonially re-buried near Sokolovka, Lvov Region.
On October 19, 2021, the Commemorative Cross for the 100th birth anniversary of Stepan Bandera was unveiled in Kiev. The city authorities refused permission for the installation of the memorial when it was created in 2009. This time, they did not raise any objections against the nationalists’ initiative.
On January 11, 2022, one of the libraries in Nikolayev, Lvov Region, hosted a presentation of the book Ukrainian Junkershaft about the SS Galicia Division. One of the people attending the event was a man wearing a Nazi uniform, a cap with a Roman eagle and a skull and cross bones, and a shoulder cross strap.[78]
On February 4, 2022, during the Russia vs Ukraine match in the European Futsal Championship semifinals, Ukrainian fans chanted nationalist and Russophobic slogans, including “Ukraine above all,” “Anyone who does not jump is a Moskal,” etc. They also sang the song Smash the Moskal, which calls for the annihilation of Russians.
On February 5, 2022, the 9th Bandera Readings were held in Kiev, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the creation of the UPA. Yury Syrotyuk, one of the leaders of Svoboda and former Verkhovnaya Rada member, presided at the conference. According to the organisers, Bandera Readings are an “intellectual forum” building on Stepan Bandera’s ideas. The event was timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the creation of the UPA. One of the speakers was Yevgeniy Karas, head of the ultra-right group S14 (later renamed Foundation for the Future). Among other things, Karas mentioned that nationalists “were having fun fighting and killing.” He also warned that Ukraine could strike at European countries, in particular, Hungary, if radical nationalists came to power.
On the same day, a Unity March was held in Kharkov, organised by the National Corps and other nationalist parties and movements. The participants brought OUN-UPA flags, and chanted nationalist slogans during the march.
On October 14, 2022, the President of Ukraine awarded the Hero of Ukraine title and the Order of the Golden Star to Miroslav Simchich,[79] a 99-year-old war criminal, organiser and participant in the mass killings of Poles during World War II, and unit commander at the UPA. After the war, he was convicted by a Polish court for murdering the predominantly Polish population of Pisten, Ivano-Frankovsk Region. On October 22, 2021, deputies of the Lvov Regional Council appealed to the President to award the honorary title to the former Nazi.[80]
On November 8, 2022, a monument to Mikhail ‘Spartan’ Moskalyuk was unveiled after renovation in Ivanovets, Ivano-Frankovsk Region. Moskalyuk was a unit commander at the UPA, participated in the punitive operations of the Nachtigall Battalion and fought against Soviet partisans with the 201st Ukrainian Legion Schutzmannschaft Battalion.
On November 30, 2022, the remains of ten UPA members were reburied with honours in Ledykhov, Ternopol Region. They were killed in 1944 in battles with the Red Army and NKVD troops liberating the western regions of the Ukrainian SSR from the nationalist underground and Nazi henchmen.
In December 2022, a Christmas nativity scene, featuring OUN leader Stepan Bandera’s statue alongside traditional biblical characters, was installed in the Naguevichi State Historical and Cultural Reserve in the Lvov Region[81]
On December 10, 2022, the son of Roman Shukhevich, Yury Shukhevich, who from 1990 to 1994 headed the radical right-wing party Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian National Self Defence[82], was buried with military honours in Lvov.
On December 21, 2022, to mark the 80th anniversary of the UPA, the Ternopol Regional Council decided to erect a monument to Roman Shukhevich who was involved in the massacres of Poles and Jews in western Ukraine.[83]
On February 14, 2023, Vladimir Zelenskiy issued an executive order awarding the title Edelweiss to the 10th separate mountain assault brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Nazi Germany’s 1st Mountain Infantry Division had a similar title.[84]
To be continued…
[1] Report of UN Independent Expert J.P.Bohoslavsky on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, made following a visit to Ukraine in May 2018. December 2018. https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G18/448/76/PDF/G1844876.pdf?OpenElement
[2] Concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the 6th periodic report of Ukraine. April 2014. https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=E%2fC.12%2fUKR%2fCO%2f6&Lang=ru
[3] Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on the 8th periodic report of Ukraine. February 2017. https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW%2fC%2fUKR%2fCO%2f8&Lang=ru
[4] Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee on the 8th periodic report of Ukraine. November 2021 (Observations posted in February 2022) https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CCPR%2FC%2FUKR%2FCO%2F8&Lang=ru
[5] Report of the Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council N. Meltzer on the issue of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment following a visit to Ukraine on May 28 – June 8, 2018 January 2019 https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G19/010/58/PDF/G1901058.pdf?OpenElement
[6] Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee on the 8th periodic report of Ukraine. November 2021 (Observations posted in February 2022) https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CCPR%2FC%2FUKR%2FCO%2F8&Lang=ru
[7] Report of the OHCHR “Human Rights in the Administration of Justice in Conflict-Related Criminal Cases in Ukraine from April 2014-April 2020”. August 2020
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/UA/Ukraine-admin-justice-conflict-related-cases-en.pdf
[8] Both organisations are recognised as extremist in the Russian Federation.
[9]Infringement of rights and freedoms in Ukraine. Manifestation of discrimination, incitement of ethnic hatred, hate crimes and extremism. Report for the OSCE human dimension implementation meeting 2019. The Institute of Legal Policy and Social Protection, the Antifascist Human Rights Legal League. 2019.
[10] https://strana.today/news/175167-bojtsy-upa-oun-i-unra-poluchili-v-ukraine-status-uchastnikov-boevykh-dejstvij.html (previously https://strana.ua/news/175244-vekhovnaya-rada-predostavila-status-uchastnikov-boevykh-dejstvij-bojtsam-upa-oun-uvo-polesskaja-sech-i-unra-sut-zakona.html)
[11] https://strana.today/news/306764-pamjatnye-daty-2021-hoda-koho-vnesli-v-postanovlenie-verkhovnoj-rady.html (previously https://strana.ua/news/306764-pamjatnye-daty-2021-hoda-koho-vnesli-v-postanovlenie-verkhovnoj-rady.html)
[12] https://strana.today/news/254461-portnov-osporil-reshenie-kievskoho-horsoveta-o-prazdnovanii-natsistskikh-dat.html (previously https://strana.ua/news/280541-sud-priostanovil-reshenie-kievsoveta-otmechat-daty-svjazannykh-s-natsizmom-portnov.html)
[13] https://vp.donetsk.ua/ukraina-mir/100938-vr-prinyala-postanovlenie-o-prazdnovanii-pamyatnykh-dat-v-2022
[14] https://strana.today/news/252473-kollaboranty-v-ukraine-khha-podderzhal-postanovlenie-o-pamjatnykh-datakh-i-jubilejakh.html (previously https://strana.ua/news/252473-kollaboranty-v-ukraine-khha-podderzhal-postanovlenie-o-pamjatnykh-datakh-i-jubilejakh.html)
[15] https://korresondent.net/ukraine/4007639-parubyi-vspomnil-o-priamoi-demokratyy-hytlera
[16] https://lenta.ru/news/2019/11/12/zvilen/, https://aif.ru/politics/world/fashistom_byt_pochetno_ukrainskiy-konsul-antisemit_vosstanovlen_na-rabote
[17] Online Environment as an Instrument of Human Right and Freedom Violations in Ukraine. Irina Berezhnaya Institute for Legal Policy and Social Protection, 2022.
[18] https://rg.ru/2019/10/14/premer-ukrainy-otdohnul-v-kompanii-neonacistov.html
[19] https://politnavigator.news/ukrainskijj-general-poobeshhal-ubivat-russkikh-zhenshhin-i-detejj.html
[20] https://vk.com/video-202555139_456240594
[21] https://www.economist.com/zaluzhny-profile
[22] https://www.rbc.ua/rus/news/igor-klimenko-zaraz-ukrayini-bilshe-temryavi-1670509562.html
[23] https://strana.today/news/420555-v-polshe-osudili-publikatsiju-rady-ko-dnju-rozhdenija-bandery.html
[24] Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the periodic 22nd and 23rd periodic reports of Ukraine, August 2016. https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CERD%2fC%2fUKR%2fCO%2f22-23&Lang=ru
[25] Hatebook. Facebook’s neo-Nazi shopfronts funding far-right extremism. Report by Center for Countering Digital Hate. https://252f2edd-1c8b-49f5-9bb2-cb57bb47e4ba.filesusr.com/ugd/f4d9b9_55b47be4de914daf866cfa1810cc56c5.pdf
[26] https://remembrance.ru/2021/06/30/kiev-vozmushhen-tem-chto-evropejcy-na-ukraine-nashli-nacistov/
[27] https://i-sng.ru/publikacii/zabyli-shkolnyy-urok-istorii-pochem/
[28] https://rada.gov.ua/ru/news/Novosty/Soobshchenyya/160401/html; https://eadaily.com/ru/news/2018/07/05/v-rade-ukrainy-otkryta-vystavka-vo-slavu-nahtigalya-i-evreyskih-pogromov
[29] https://regnum.ru/news/polit/2587743.html
[30] On September 30, 2022, the Russian Federation and the Kherson Region signed a treaty on the accession of the Kherson Region to the Russian Federation.
[31] https://eadaily.com/ru/news/2020/06/26/mer-hersona-pozdravil-gorozhan-s-banderovskim-aktom-i-prisyagoy-gitleru
[32] https://russian.rt.com/ussr/news/997883-lavrov-nacifikaciya-ukraina
[33] https://strana.today/news/309866-marsh-bandery-v-kieve-1-janvarja-2021-onlajn-transljatsija-video.html (previously https://strana.ua/news/309866-marsh-bandery-v-kieve-1-janvarja-2021-onlajn-transljatsija-video.html)
[34] https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/13358107
[35] https://nv.ua/ukr/ukraine/events/stepan-bandera-yak-v-ukrajini-vidznachatimut-den-narodzhennya-providnika-oun-v-umovah-viyni-50294650.html
[36]https://ukrinform.ru/rubric-culture/2548034-v-ukraine-razrabotali-nastolnuu-igru-o-borbe-upa.html
[37] https://golospravdy.eu/eduard-dolinskij-ministerstvo-obrazovaniya-rekomendovalo-lozh-falsifikacii/, https://strana.ua/opinions/212015-sredi-detej-prodvihajut-nastolnuju-ihru-s-heroicheskimi-banderoj-i-shukhevichem.html
[38] The Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation (May 8) in Ukraine became a public holiday in 2015. Former President Petr Poroshenko established it to honour the feat of the Ukrainian people, their outstanding contribution to the anti-Hitler coalition’s victory in World War II and express respect to all fighters against Nazism, thus trying to equate the Red Army fighters and Bandera associates, many of whom served in the SS and other volunteer auxiliary Nazi units.
[39] https://www.rubaltic.ru/article/politika-i-obshchestvo/08052020-ukraina-vstrechaet-den-pobedy-istoricheskoy-shizofreniey/
[40] https://strana.today/news/332149-ukrainskij-institut-natspamjati-sozdal-metodichku-o-pravilnom-otmechanii-dnja-pobedy.html (previously https://strana.ua/news/332149-ukrainskij-institut-natspamjati-sozdal-metodichku-o-pravilnom-otmechanii-dnja-pobedu.html)
[41] https://www.unn.com.ua/ru/news/1893299-sud-skasuvav-rishennya-oask-yakim-simvoliku-diviziyi-ss-galichina-viznavali-natsistskoyu; https://strana.today/news/291280-sud-priznal-nezakonnym-reshenie-o-priznanii-simvoliki-ss-halichina-natsistskoj.html (ранее https://strana.ua/news/291280-sud-priznal-nezakonnym-reshenie-o-priznanii-simvoliki-ss-halichina-natsistskoj.html)
[42] https://strana.today/news/291414-kak-natsionalisty-zastavili-sud-otmenit-zapret-na-simvoliku-ss-halichiny.html (previously https://strana.ua/news/291414-kak-natsionalisty-zastavili-sud-otmenit-zapret-na-simvoliku-ss-halichiny.html)
[43] https://rg.ru/2022/12/06/verhovnyj-sud-ukrainy-ne-priznal-nacistskoj-simvoliku-divizii-ss-galichina.html
[44] https://yavoriv-info.com.ua/novini/novini-lvivshhini/zi-shkilnogo-pidruchnika-priberut-naklep-na-ukrainskix-nacionalistiv
[45] https://dif.org.ua/article/den-peremogi-i-yogo-mistse-v-istorichniy-pamyati-ukraintsiv
[46] https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/385-IX; https://news-front.info/2019/12/24/detyam-ukrainy-slugi-naroda-pod-yolochku-podlozhili-plast/
[47] http://www.dsmsu.gov.ua/media/2019/12/27/1/Rishennya_26.PDF
[48] https://russian.rt.com/ussr/article/713423-ukraina-nacionalisty-deti-vospitanie-granty
[49] https://strana.today/news/247099-natsionalisty-poluchili-ot-minkulta-pochti-polovinu-bjudzheta-na-molodezhnye-orhanizatsii.html (previously https://strana.ua/news/247099-natsionalisty-poluchili-ot-minkulta-pochti-polovinu-bjudzheta-na-molodezhnye-orhanizatsii.html)
[50] Online Environment as an Instrument of Human Right and Freedom Violations in Ukraine. Irina Berezhnaya Institute for Legal Policy and Social Protection, 2022.
[51] https://mms.gov.ua/storage/app/sites/16/Patriotychne_vyhovannia/Konkursy/richenia/2022%20%D1%80%D1%96%D0%BA/rishennya-no-1-vid-17012022.pdf
[52] https://ukraina.ru/news/20200130/1026509598.html
[53] https://strana.today/news/257560-io-ministra-obrazovanija-mandzij-orhanizovyvala-vo-lvove-konkurs-v-chest-divizii-ss-halichina.html (previously https://strana.ua/news/257560-io-ministra-obrazovanija-mandzij-orhanizovyvala-vo-lvove-konkurs-v-chest-divizii-ss-halichina.html)
[54] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3195711/Now-CHILDREN-taking-arms-Shocking-pictures-inside-Ukraine-s-neo-Nazi-military-camp-recruits-young-six-learn-fire-weapons-s-ceasefire.html
https://apimagesblog.com/blog/2018/11/12/training-kids-to-kill-at-ukrainian-nationalist-camp
[55] https://galychyna.if.ua/2020/01/28/martsinkiv-poobitsyav-nazvati-vulitsyu-imenem-mihayla-mulika/
[56] https://strana.today/news/246875-foto-kak-v-ivano-frankovske-proshchalas-s-umershim-natsistom-iz-divizii-ss.html (previously https://strana.ua/news/246875-foto-kak-v-ivano-frankovske-proshchalas-s-umershim-natsistom-iz-divizii-ss.html)
[57] Online Environment as a Tool for Violation of Rights & Freedoms in Ukraine by the Irina Berezhnaya Institute for Legal Policy & Social Protection, 2022.
[58] https://strana.today/news/262422-v-kalushe-nahradili-veterana-divizii-ss-poluchaja-nahradu-tot-zihanul.html (previously https://strana.ua/news/262422-v-kalushe-nahradili-veterana-divizii-ss-poluchaja-nahradu-tot-zihanul.html)
[59] The Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) established the Day of Heroes in 1941. After 2014, Ukrainian nationalist organisations began to celebrate it and persuaded certain representatives of state and municipal authorities in Ukraine to join those events.
[60] The Manifestations of Nazism, Neo-Nazism and Xenophobia in Ukraine. Analytical Review, 2020.
[61] https://city-adm.lviv.ua/news/society/public-sector/279791-mer-lvova-pryvitav-zviazkovu-romana-shukhevycha-zi-100-littiam
[62] https://uinp.gov.ua/pres-centr/novyny/na-polissi-vstanovyly-pamyatnyy-hrest-general-horunzhomu-upa-ivanu-treyku
[63] https://golossokal.com.ua/ru/novyny-kultury/y-misti-iavorovi-vidbylos-vidkrittia-memorialnoi-tablici-na-fasadi-raionnoi-centralnoi-biblioteki-imeni-uriia-lipi.html, https://eadaily.com/ru/news/2020/08/22/v-lvovskoy-oblasti-chestvuyut-vracha-evtanaziologa-iz-oun-upa
[64] Online Environment as a Tool for Violation of Rights & Freedoms in Ukraine by the Irina Berezhnaya Institute for Legal Policy & Social Protection, 2022.
[65] Online Environment as a Tool for Violation of Rights & Freedoms in Ukraine by the Irina Berezhnaya Institute for Legal Policy & Social Protection, 2022.
[66] https://lviv.depo.ua/rus/lviv/yak-u-lvovi-svyatkuyut-den-zakhisnika-ukraini-fotoreportazh-202010141229260
[67] https://zn.ua/UKRAINE/v-poltave-prokhodit-vseukrainskij-konkurs-na-luchshij-pamjatnik-simonu-petljure.html
[68] https://m.day.kyiv.ua/ru/news/160221-lvovskiy-oblsovet-trebuet-vernut-bandere-zvanie-geroya-ukrainy-i-obyavil-2021-y-godom
[69] https://strana.today/news/321233-ternopolskij-stadion-poluchil-imja-romana-shukhevicha.html (previously https://strana.ua/news/321233-ternopolskij-stadion-poluchil-imja-romana-shukhevicha.html)
[70] https://strana.today/news/323062-arena-lvov-imeni-bandery-chto-hovorjat-o-pereimenovanii-stadiona-v-chest-vozhdja-oun.html (previously https://strana.ua/news/323062-arena-lvov-imeni-bandery-chto-hovorjat-o-pereimenovanii-stadiona-v-chest-vozhdja-oun.html)
[71] https://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2021/04/28_a_13576064.shtml
[72] https://aif.ru/politics/world/budni_ukrainy_veterana_ss_provodil_v_posledniy_put_prezidentskiy_polk
[73] https://www.gazeta.ru/social/news/2021/07/22/n_16278944.shtml
[74] https://vesti.ua/strana/v-vinnitse-otprazdnovali-110-letie-komandira-ukrainskogo-gestapo
[75] The One Stone, One Life project was launched by the Ukrainian Centre for Holocaust Studies and supported by the Kiev City Administration and the Ukrainian branch of the Goethe-Institut, and co-sponsored by the German Embassy in Ukraine. It was part of Stolpersteine (Stumbling Blocks), a larger decentralised commemorative initiative by the Cologne artist Gunter Demnig aimed to commemorate individuals persecuted by the Nazis.
