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Bandera birthday celebrations insult fighters against Nazism, says Moscow

Earlier, the Ukrainian parliament declared Stepan Bandera’s birthday, January 1, an official holiday

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. Celebrations timed for the birthday of Stepan Bandera, the leader of the extremist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) during World War II (outlawed in Russia), is an insult to those who liberated the world from the "brown plague," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

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"Celebrations on the occasion of Bandera’s birthday are an insult to the people of Ukraine, because thousands of their ancestors died at the Banderovites’ hands. This outrage is an insult to those who had liberated the world from the ‘brown plague’," she said. "Bandera Year in Lvov is an insult to this beautiful city, which survived one of the most terrible pogroms in its history staged on orders from the Ukrainian nationalists’ leader."

Zakharova recalled that the OUN during World War II collaborated with the Nazis and fought against Soviet government. Zakharova said that "the truth about Bandera is too well-known" and that the Bandera-led Ukrainian Insurgent Army (URA) are to blame for the massacre of hundreds of thousands of people of different nationalities and for participation in Holocaust. In the Volyn Massacre of July 1943 OUN-UIA (outlawed in Russia) attacked about 100 Polish communities and slaughtered about 100,000 civilians, mostly women, children and old people.

The Ukrainian nationalists see Stepan Bandera as their idol and symbol. The authorities in Kiev promote his official cult.

"The Hitlerites’ former henchmen have the same status and enjoy the same benefits as World War II veterans. That’s what Ukraine is today," Zakharova said.

The Ukrainian parliament just recently declared Stepan Bandera’s birthday (January 1) an official holiday. And the city authorities in Lvov declared 2019 as Bandera Year.

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Ukraine Maria Zakharova

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