Glorification of Nazism and the war on monuments in Ukraine

Glorification of Nazism

Since 1991, regular torchlight marches and Nazi “parades” have been held in Ukraine. Such events have been authorised and supported by the Ukrainian authorities, especially in recent years.

Every year on January 1, on the anniversary of birth of Stepan Bandera radicals stage torchlight processions in some Ukrainian cities, and in the past years also in Kiev, as well as commemorative events involving local authorities.

On October 14, the radical nationalist groups Svoboda, C14, the Right Sector, the OUN and others hold torchlight marches on the anniversary of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

Similar events are regularly held in western Ukraine on April 28 to honour the formation of the Waffen-SS Division Galicia. On April 28, 2021, for the first time such a march was held in Kiev where Nazi insignia was used.

On May 9, 2020, Ukrainian nationalists disrupted an auto rally in Odessa marking the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The radicals also held a march carrying portraits of Nazi proxies from the OUN-UPA and other similar organisations as well as insignia of Waffen-SS Division Galicia.

The March of the Unconquered was held in Lvov on August 24, 2021. The participants of military operations in the east of the country marched across the city showcasing UPA flags and symbols. Mayor of Lvov Andrey Sadovy and local deputies took part in the march.

On October 23, 2021, all members of the 80th assault brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine took part in a flash mob and performed the song Our Father is Bandera dedicated to the OUN-B leader.

War on monuments

The Kiev regime is actively pursuing and supports the demolition of numerous Soviet monuments including those commemorating the events and heroes of the Great Patriotic War, as well as Holocaust memorials.

On April 15, 2019, members of the Sokol nationalist organisation dismantled the bust of celebrated commander Nikolai Vatutin on the 75th anniversary of his death outside Chernigov.

On June 2, 2019, members of the National Corps and the Right Sector dismantled a monument to Marshall Georgy Zhukov.

On October 17, 2019, a memorial to Holocaust victims was damaged and desecrated in the town of Yavorov, Lvov Region.

On March 15, 2021, in the village of Fontanka near Odessa, perpetrators destroyed a monument to Soviet soldiers who defended the city against Nazi invaders in 1941.

On July 23, 2021, the sculptures Motherland Calls and Liberator Warrior were removed from the Monument to Military Glory in Lvov.

On April 11, 2022, a monument to the Soviet T-34 tank was removed in the town of Mukachevo. On the same day, special equipment was used to demolish an obelisk to the Soviet soldier in the city of Stryi, Lvov Region.

On April 16, 2022, a monument to Soviet partisan fighter Nikolai Prikhodko was brought down using a tractor.

On April 17, 2022, militants from the Kraken armed group’s local branch in Kharkov destroyed the monument to Soviet military commander Georgy Zhukov.

On May 4, 2022, a monument to legendary Soviet intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov, Hero of the Soviet Union, who personally eliminated 11 Nazi Germany’s generals and high-ranking occupation administration officials, was demolished in Rovno.

On May 18, 2022, a monument to Red Army soldiers who liberated the city from the Nazis in Pustomyty, Lvov Region, was demolished.

On May 19, 2022, Verkhovina town council in Lvov Region ruled to demolish monuments to Red Army soldiers in the towns of Verkhovina, Iltsy, Verkhneye Yasenevo and Krasnik.

On May 20, 2022, Lvov Region administration launched the demolition of all monuments to Red Army soldiers, who liberated the region from Nazi invaders.

In June 2022, a monument to the Soviet soldier was demolished in Buzhsk, Lvov Region. Soviet symbols were removed from the memorial to the Red Army soldiers in the city of Glukhov, Sumy Region. Monuments to Red Army soldiers who died during the liberation of Ukraine from the Nazis were also demolished in June in the town of Rava-Russkaya, Lvov Region, the town of Berezhany, Ternopol Region, the village of Torgovitsa, Transcarpathian Region, in Zhdeneyevo community, Transcarpathian Region, in the town of Shumsk, Ternopol Region, the city of Borislav, Lvov Region, the village of Urezh, Lvov Region, the village of Gukalevtsy, Ternopol Region, and the village of Rozhnyatov, Ivano-Frankovsk Region.

On June 23, a monument to Soviet liberator warrior was demolished in the town of Verkhovina, the Ivano-Frankovsk Region.  

Erecting monuments and memorial plaques in honour OUN-UPA militants

At the same time, Ukrainian authorities are erecting monuments and unveiling memorial plaques to OUN-UPA militants.

In June 2018, radicals from the National Corps organisation unveiled a memorial plaque to UPA soldiers on the territory of the Monument to Military Glory in Lvov.

In 2018, a monument to Andrey Melnik was unveiled in Ivano-Frankovsk in the street bearing the name of this anti-Semite, a Nazi proxy and the leader of the OUN-M and UPA.

On March 18, 2019, in Bogorodchany, Ivano-Frankovsk Region, local authorities unveiled a monument to Olex Khymenets and Ivan Shimansky, members of the Nachtigall Battalion, who took part in killing Jews during WWII.

On April 2, 2019, the local authorities in Truskavets, Lvov Region, erected a monument in honour of OUN member Roman Riznyak, who headed auxiliary police in Truskavets and personally took part in killing the Jewish population of the city in 1941.

On May 5, 2019, the municipality of Nizhny Berezov, Ivano-Frankovsk Region, unveiled a monument to Nikolai Arsenich, who was head of the OUN’s security service. He organised and took part in Jewish pogroms in the summer of 1941 in western Ukraine and also participated in the Volhynia massacre.

On August 21, 2019, in the presence of Canada’s ambassador to Ukraine, a monument to the OUN-UPA was unveiled in the Jewish cemetery in the town of Sambor, Lvov Region, to replace a demolished monument to Holocaust victims.

On January 29, 2020, in Ivano-Frankovsk, former death squad member of the Waffen-SS Division Galicia Mikhail Mulik was buried in the Alley of Glory, with regional officials and clergy taking part in the ceremony. Many of those attending it were wearing Nazi uniforms.