Statement by the State Duma on the Canadian authorities’ encouragement of Ukrainian Nazism and neo-fascism

“Members of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation express their utmost indignation and outrage at the cynical manner in which the memory of those who fought for the anti-Nazi coalition was offended during the September 22, 2023, sitting of the House of Commons of the Canadian Parliament. Canadian legislators considered a standing ovation a proper way to honour in the Canadian Parliament a Nazi veteran, 98-year-old SS veteran Yaroslav Hunka, who served the bloody Third Reich during World War II as member of the Galicia Waffen-SS Division. This outrageous incident coincided with the reception by the Canadian authorities of collaborationist Yaroslav Hunka’s ideological descendant – the leader of the current Ukrainian regime Vladimir Zelensky as part of yet another world tour he undertook to raise funds for the bloodshed he brought on the Ukrainian nation. Members of the Canadian Government headed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as well as Western diplomats accredited in Ottawa, and activists from Canada’s Ukrainian diaspora were also part of the glorification ritual. 

The fact that the Canadian mass media did not hesitate to broadcast and relay this pro-fascist ceremony, while it was only the ensuing wave of criticism and protest around the world that forced those behind this incident to try and save face, betrays the true sympathies of the Canadian authorities, directed as they are from Washington and Brussels. The strained excuses by the lower house’s Speaker and Canada’s Prime Minister who claimed that they did not have enough information on Yaroslav Hunka do not stand up to scrutiny.

Members of the State Duma view this as an outrageous incident that did not happen by accident, but constituted yet another step in the deliberate path Canada, and the West in general, have taken to rewrite history to serve their political agenda. It is now clear why Canada, along with several other Western countries, as well as with Ukraine seeking to join their cause, have been denying their support to UN General Assembly’s resolutions condemning fascism and proscribing the glorification of Nazism, while an overwhelming majority of countries around the world have been voting in favour of these resolutions.

Russia honours the memory of its true heroes – Red Army soldiers and Allied military personnel, including the Canadian heroes who fought fascism even at the cost of their lives. More than 45,000 Canadian nationals died courageously in World War II, and the Canadian Parliament and Government have now desecrated their graves with their shameful actions. They committed a flagrant violation of international law by trying to rehabilitate war criminals, sadists and killers, including Ukrainian military personnel who served the SS, and have the blood of tens of thousands of civilians in the Soviet Union, Poland, Slovakia and other countries on their hands. The Nuremberg Trials were explicit in condemning these crimes which have no statute of limitations. Actions of this kind are designed to glorify Nazism within legislative bodies and must be brought before a court of law.

No one can be allowed to cast into oblivion the sacred memory of the tens of millions of World War II victims who died at the hands of Nazis and their accomplices like Yaroslav Hunka.

Members of the State Duma affirm their readiness to constructively engage with all of fellow parliamentarians who share our anti-fascist views and convictions, and who are ready to stand up against this and similar attempts to glorify Ukrainian Nazis and other Nazis of all kinds along with their accomplices, as well as to counter efforts to promote strife among nations, racism, neo-fascism, Russophobia and other inhuman phobias, while seeking to spread the historical truth and perpetuate the memory of World War II heroes who sacrificed their lives to secure our right to live, love, work, raise children and be happy.”