Viktor Medvedchuk
Since the “collapse” of the USSR and the emergence of an independent Ukraine, Western politicians, and special services in Ukraine began to revive Nazism through the introduction of nationalist ideology in the consciousness of Ukrainians. According to Western plans, a Nazified Ukraine was to become a “weapon” against Russia.
One of the ideologues of Ukrainian nationalism is Dmitry Dontsov. His doctrine of integral nationalism in his book “Nationalism,” became the basic ideology of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and later the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)
The ideas and methods of Nazism, widely spread in Ukraine, were inherited from the OUN-UPA.
In April 1941, at the II Great Gathering of Ukrainian Nationalists in Krakow (in Germany at that time), the “Bandera” branch proclaimed itself as the “only true” OUN. Stepan Bandera was declared its leader. The official greeting of the OUN was “raising the straightened right arm to the right obliquely above the head with the words “Glory to Ukraine” – “Glory to the Heroes”, the greeting was copied from the ideologists of Hitler’s Germany, as well as the colors of the flag: red and black.
During the Great Patriotic War, the OUN-UPA tainted itself with cooperation with Nazi Germany and participation in the mass extermination of civilians.
In August 1941, the Banderites sent the OUN Memorandum to Berlin for cooperation with Hitler. The Memorandum began with the following words: “The Ukrainian Military Organization (UWO) and its successor Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) under the leadership of Eugen Konovalets from the very beginning of its existence set out to cooperate with the German Reich against Poland and Moscow with the aim of patronizing an independent United Ukrainian State by the III Reich.
After the defeat of the Nazis in World War II, many OUN-UPA activists ended up in Western countries, mostly in Canada and the United States, including the ideological inspirers of today’s Kiev Bandera members.
The CIA has been planning how to use Ukraine against Russia since the 1950s. Recently U.S. intelligence declassified some of its archives, and copies of secret documents from 1958-59 have appeared in the media. As it follows from the contents of them, the purpose of U.S. intelligence agencies was to use Ukrainian nationalist tendencies for political and psychological warfare against Russia and the USSR.
The U.S. intelligence services claimed that Ukrainian nationalism was much stronger in the western provinces, but it was not limited to Galicia and as long as a nationalist force existed, they would support a mobilization at any time.
Back in the 50’s the CIA identified the Nazi OUN to provide manpower and operational support for Nazification projects in Ukraine. The target groups were not only the population of Soviet Ukraine, but also the Ukrainian minority in Poland, and Ukrainian emigrants in Western Europe, South America and Australia.
The modern history of Ukraine has shown that these projects of Western intelligence services continue alive through our days.
Thus, the “Orange Revolution” of 2004, initiated by the United States and its European satellites, brought pro-American President Viktor Yushchenko to power in Ukraine. It was during his ruling that open manifestations of nationalism and Nazism revived in post-Soviet Ukraine. Every year on January 1, Stepan Bandera’s birthday, torchlight marches in honor of this Nazi criminal began to be held with the permission of the authorities. Western diplomats ignored these marches, encouraging the revival of Nazism in the center of Europe.
In May 2006, the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory was created at Yushchenko’s initiative. With the creation of this institute, the Nazification of the country began to take place at state level.
The institute pursued a policy of falsifying Ukraine’s history and imposing Russophobic and anti-Russian attitudes on the population. In order to achieve its goals, it developed the first blatantly Russophobic bills: “On condemnation of communist and national-socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and prohibition of propaganda of their symbols”, “On the legal status and memory of fighters for the independence of Ukraine in the XX century”, “On the commemoration of victory over Nazism in World War II 1939-1945” and “On access to archives of repression bodies of the communist totalitarian regime 1917-1991” which were adopted in April 2015.
On the initiative of the Institute, Yushchenko in 2007 awarded posthumously the title “Hero of Ukraine” to Roman Shukhevich, a Nazi criminal, one of the leaders of the OUN and the Nachtigal battalion trained by Hitler’s military intelligence to act in the Ukrainian SSR as part of the subversive unit “Brandenburg 800.”
On January 22, 2010, Yushchenko awarded the title “Hero of Ukraine” to another Nazi: Stepan Bandera.
Under President Yushchenko in 2008 a monument to soldiers of SS Division “Halychyna” was built. Permissions for the installation of the monument were issued by representatives of state power. The state took part in the creation of monuments to war criminals judged by Nuremberg tribunal. The 14th SS Volunteer Infantry Division “Galicia”, a subdivision of SS troops of Nazi Germany, was created personally by the Nazi criminal, head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler.
It is worth noting that, withYushchenko’s support, numerous monuments to Nazis from the SS division “Galicia” and other Nazi accomplices were installed. Memorial marches in honor of Nazis with the use of Nazi symbols and banners of SS division “Galicia” began to be held in Western Ukraine.
Between 2005 and 2014 Nazi ideology sprang up throughout the country. At first, they began to “softly” turn Ukraine into “Anti-Russia” with nationalist and liberal-democratic slogans.
In 2014, Western politicians and special services, with the help of the Ukrainian elite, carried out an unconstitutional pro-Nazi coup d’etat using liberal slogans about the European choice of people as a cover. Legitimately elected, recognized by the entire international community, President Viktor Yanukovych was removed from power by a group of putschists using Nazi groups with the support of Western diplomats and special services.
One of the most important documents of the XX century, the Verdict of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal of October 1, 1946 describes the Nazis’ coming to power in Germany and the further establishment of the Nazi dictatorship in the 1930s. Their followers in Ukraine used the same methods.
From the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal: “During the eight years that followed the publication of Mein Kampf, the NSDAP spread its activities widely throughout Germany, focusing primarily on educating young people in the ideas of National Socialism. The first Nazi youth organization began its existence in 1922, but it was not until 1925 that the “Hitler Youth” was officially recognized by the NSDAP. In 1931, Baldur von Schirach, who had joined the NSDAP in 1925, became the NSDAP’s imperial youth leader.
The party made every effort to win the political support of the German people. It stood for election to both the Reichstag and the Landtags.
The leaders of the NSDAP made no serious attempt to conceal the fact that their roll in the political life of Germany was to eliminate the democratic system of the Weimar Republic and replace it with a Nazi totalitarian regime which would allow them to openly pursue their policies without meeting the opposition …
On January 30, 1933, Hitler succeeded in getting President von Hindenburg to appoint him as Chancellor of the Empire.”
In 2014, the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism was finally transformed into Nazism and became a state ideology. The people in the power also “made no serious attempt to hide the fact” that they seized power to fight against Russia and Russians, immediately designating pro-Russian, leftist political forces as their enemies. Russians and Russian speakers living in Ukraine received derogatory “labels”.
Right after the state coup, they began to get rid of oppositors. In September 2014, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed the law “On Purification of Power”: the so-called “lustration” was carried out when thousands of people, mostly from southeastern Russian-speaking regions, were dismissed from state authorities without any grounds. People from western Ukrainian regions, often without any experience or education, were massively sent to take their places. Such a “lustration” was widely practiced by Hitler’s regime.
From the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal: “Having thus attained power, the NSDAP began to take over all areas of German life… The law of April 7 provided for the resignation of officials of “non-Aryan origin”; it also stipulated that “officials who, on account of their past political activities, cannot be confidently regarded as people who would give themselves unconditionally to the service of the Nazi state should be dismissed from office. The law of April 11, 1933, provided for the dismissal of “all civil servants belonging to the Communist Party”.
In seizing power, the participants in the 2014 coup d’état relied primarily on the population of western regions as the most nationalist-minded. The symbolism and ideology of the “new” Ukraine was the symbolism and ideology of nationalism in the era of cooperation with German Nazism. The flag of the coup, the so-called “Maidan,” was a black and red Banderist flag, and the salute was a Banderist one.
The leaders after the coup d’état were Alexander Turchinov, as Acting President; Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Prime Minister; Andrey Parubiy, head of the National Security and Defense Council; Arsen Avakov, Minister of Inner Affairs. From the beginning, they started implementing a policy of ethnocide against Russians and the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine. After some time, the genocide began on the territory of Ukraine against people who did not accept the official Bandera ideology.
Article II of the UN Convention “On the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”, adopted by resolution 260 (III) of the UN General Assembly of 09.12.1948, states that “Under genocide are understood the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such
(a) The killing of members of the such group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of such a group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
The residents of southeastern Ukraine did not accept the Banderist, Nazi and anti-Russian ideas, which led to mass protests. In consequence, tanks, artillery, and aviation were used against them, although under international norms they exercised their right to rebellion, enshrined in the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by Resolution 217 A (III) of the UN General Assembly of December 10, 1948, which states: “It is essential that human rights should be protected by the rule of law to ensure that man will not be forced to resort, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression.”
On May 2, 2014, Nazi groups organized the brutal burning of protesters in the Odessa Trade Union House, which resulted in 48 people being burned alive. These events were mockingly presented on the official UN website: “On May 2, 2014, about 300 well-organized supporters of ‘federalism’ attacked a march by about 2,000 protesters ‘for unity,’ including local residents and a large number of soccer fans known for their strong ‘pro-unity’ stance.
This crime can be compared to the burning of civilians in the Belarusian village of Khatyn on March 22, 1943, which was carried out by the punishers of the SS Dirlewanger Battalion, whose symbols are used by Ukrainian Nazis.
On June 2, 2014, two Ukrainian Su-25 attack aircraft shelled the center of Luhansk. The strike targeted the regional state administration building and the square in front of it. As a result of the bombing of civilians by Ukrainian aircraft, 8 civilians were killed in their own country. The perpetrators of the barbaric strike have not been identified.
The genocide unleashed against the residents of Donbas is comparable to the genocide of the Nazis against the Jewish population of the Reich.
From the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal: “From the earliest days of the NSDAP, anti-Semitism occupied a prominent place in National Socialist thinking and propaganda. It was believed that Jews should not be entitled to German citizenship and should be held primarily responsible for all the disasters inflicted on the nation due to the war of 1914-1918. Further, the antipathy toward the Jews was reinforced by the assertion of the superiority of the German race and blood. Chapter II 1 of Mein Kampf deals with the theory of the so-called “Race of Masters,” the doctrine of Aryan superiority over other nations and the right of Germans, by virtue of their superiority, to dominate other nations and use them to achieve their own ends. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the persecution of Jews became official state policy.
Those who led the coup committed many crimes during the Maidan. However, as early as February 2014, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, under pressure from the radicals, passed a law exempting them and their supporters from criminal liability for crimes committed during the coup d’etat.
At the same time, Yuri Lutsenko, Prosecutor General of Ukraine, was exempted from criminal liability. In July 2016, Lutsenko personally interceded for the commander of the punitive battalion “Aydar” when a measure of restraint was chosen for him. At the same time, two battalions of Aydar and Donbass punitive battalions blocked the courthouse and completely blocked traffic on Kiev’s central street, Khreshchatyk.
In December 2018, Lutsenko publicly stated that any attacks on “pro-Ukrainian” activists would be considered an attack on the state of Ukraine.
Another head of the Ukrainian law enforcement agency, who openly supports the Nazis, was the Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov, whose neo-Nazi Azov regiment used the Nazi symbol Wolfsangel (wolfhook) as its official symbol.
In April 2018, 50 U.S. congressmen asked the U.S. State Department for diplomatic pressure on Ukraine and Poland for anti-Semitism. The manifestation of anti-Semitism and glorification of Nazi collaborators, in their opinion, was the “2017 campaign praising the UPA” of the Institute of National Memory, renaming streets after OUN-UPA figures Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevich, holding a Shukhevich festival, as well as activities of the neo-Nazi Azov battalion, which should be disbanded, according to the congressmen. At the same time, the congressmen noted the involvement of Minister Avakov in this unit.
Without his permission, the activities of punitive battalions were impossible in the extermination of the population in Donbas. Avakov was later forced to admit that some units were committing crimes and had to disband them. The military prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine judged members of the Ministry’s units for crimes against civilians in Donbas.
According to the testimonies of survivors of their crimes, most of them were openly Nazis.
After the 2014 coup d’état, the Ukrainian Security Service reformed itself according to OUN-UPA security standards of 1930-1950 and turned the security service into a punitive body aimed to eradicate the opposition.
From the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal: “In preparation for the day when he intended to seize power in Germany, Hitler in January 1929 appointed Heinrich Himmler Reichsführer, entrusting him with the special task of transforming the SS into a powerful, select group that could be counted on under any circumstances.
It can be stated that those who headed the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine after the 2014 coup d’état were adherents of the ideology of the Nazis, OUN-UPA, as well as their methods.
In 2014, pro-American politician Arseniy Yatsenyuk became Prime Minister. On January 8, 2015, on the German television channel ARD, he stated, “Russian military aggression against Ukraine is an attack on world order, and it is an attack on European security. We all remember well the Soviet invasion, both in Ukraine and also in Germany. That has to be avoided. And no one is allowed to rewrite the results of World War II, which the Russian president, Mr. Putin, is trying to do.”
However, none of the Western politicians condemned this absurd statement.
On April 9, 2015, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed a bill drafted by the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory and introduced by MP Yuri Shukhevich, son of one of the OUN leaders Roman Shukhevich, “On the legal status and memory of participants in the struggle for Ukrainian independence in the 20th century,” which grants members of the OUN and UPA soldiers the status of “fighters for Ukrainian independence.
The OUN and the UPA worked closely with Nazi Germany before and during the Great Patriotic War. Thus, the state legally recognized the Nazis and their accomplices from the OUN and the UPA, who had formed, among others, the SS division “Galicia” as “fighters for the independence of Ukraine”.
In the verdict of Nuremberg Tribunal: “Considering a question about SS, the Tribunal includes here all persons who have been officially accepted as members of SS, including members of General SS, SS troops, formations of SS “Dead Head” and members of any kind of police services, who were members of SS…”.
It should be noted that hatred of all Soviets and Russian was also manifested in the law “On the condemnation of the communist national-socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and prohibition of propaganda of their symbols”, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on 09.04.2015. With this law, Ukraine equated the Nazis with the Soviet soldiers who liberated the country from them.
A special role in unleashing genocide against the people of Donbas was played by one of the leaders of the state coup, Oleksandr Turchynov, better known as the “bloody pastor”. On April 14, 2014, as acting president of Ukraine, Turchynov signed a decree on the so-called anti-terrorist operation in Donbas, which led to a civil war. The head of state officially declared civilians of the two regions protesting against Russophobia as terrorists. Turchinov gave orders for the use of combat aircraft and artillery against people, for the uncontrolled distribution of weapons, and for the formation of nationalist battalions.
In order to falsify history and contrast the Ukrainian people with the Russian people state-level holidays were changed. On October 14, 2014, “Maidan” President Poroshenko canceled the celebration of Motherland Defender’s Day in Ukraine on February 23, stating that “Ukraine will never again celebrate this holiday according to the military-historical calendar of a neighboring country. We will honor the defenders of our own Motherland, not someone else’s.” Since then, Defender of Ukraine Day has been celebrated on October 14. On the same day, nationalists celebrate the anniversary of the establishment of the nationalist Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
Since 2015, Soviet symbols, including the Victory flag, have been banned in Ukraine.
Poroshenko’s government initiated the renaming of avenues, streets, and localities after Bandera, Shukhevich, Petlyura, Konovalets, etc. Monuments to fascist henchmen were openly erected, and monuments to heroes who destroyed fascists were destroyed and desecrated. At the same time, the Ukrainian authorities either tacitly supported this or directly approved it.
In “post-Maidan” Ukraine, a media resource called “Peacemaker” was created. In violation of the law, the addresses of citizens trying to defend the rights of the Russian-speaking population are published. By “coincidence”, people listed on “Peacemaker” begin to be killed. And the murders, for the most part, are not investigated: the killers go unpunished.
So, on April 14, 2015, the well-known politician Oleg Kalashnikov, the leader of the Kiev anti-Maidan was killed. The crime was not solved. Two days later, Oles Buzina, a writer and publicist who fought for the Russian language in Ukraine and an ideological opponent of the ruling regime, was murdered. A few days earlier, his personal data had been added to “Peacemaker”. Two months after the murder, suspects of the crime were caught. Two suspects were initially detained: Denis Polishchuk and Andrey Medvedko, members of the radical nationalist group S14, and participants of the ATO. However, before the end of 2015, both suspects were released from custody.
Thus, between 2014 and 2019, nationalism and Russophobia became fully entrenched in Ukraine. The authorities are cracking down with Nazi methods on the rebellious population of Donbas and other Ukrainians who do not agree with the regime’s actions. Alternative ideologies have been banned, and politicians who disagree with the views of the authorities have been physically eliminated or expelled from the country. At the same time, the “civilized” West openly promotes the revival of Nazism in the center of Europe in the 21st century.
On May 20, 2019, Vladimir Zelensky became President of Ukraine. Under him, Ukraine has gone from a nationalist state to a Nazi dictatorship.
Today, the main thesis of his election program sounds blasphemous. It began with the words: “I will tell you my dream: Ukraine, where fireworks are only at weddings and birthdays“. Today, the whole world sees the Ukraine of Zelensky’s dream with ruined cities and cemeteries.
Before his election, Zelensky was known as a showman-comedian. He was characterized by his associate Alexey Arestovich in an interview with Island.tv: “Zelensky is a weak man. He has two keys: petty ego and fear.
On April 28, 2021, in Kiev, the march in honor of the creation of SS division “Galicia” was held. The participants were demonstratively wearing Nazi symbols and exchanging traditional Nazi salute, however, none of the representatives of the city administration who issued the permit were punished, nor were the participants of the march.
Since September 1, 2020, the law “On Complete General Secondary Education” eliminated all Russian-language schools in Ukraine. The subject “Defense of the Motherland” was renamed “Defense of Ukraine” in schools. The old name was allegedly one of the manifestations of the Soviet paradigm. The history textbooks were completely rewritten. References to common history with Russia, such as the invasion of Napoleon and the Russo-Turkish wars, were excluded from them. The history of the First and Second World Wars was rewritten with a Russophobia, nationalistic perception. Ukraine’s participation in the Great Patriotic War was presented as a struggle of the Ukrainian people against both Germany and the USSR.
Since January 16, 2021, according to the discriminatory law “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language”, everyone has been obliged to serve consumers and provide information exclusively in the Ukrainian language.
Viktor Medvedchuk is a Ukrainian lawyer, businessman, and politician. Before the war, Medvedchuk was the leading Ukrainian anti-NATO politician and supporter of normalizing relations with Russia. He is chairman of the Opposition Bloc for Life party, banned in Ukraine. He was arrested by Ukrainian intelligence services on April 12, 2022, was imprisoned, and since September 2022 has been living outside his country, after being handed over to Russia in a prisoner-of-war exchange.
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