KIEV, June 3. /TASS/. Polish Ambassador to Ukraine Bartosz Cichocki and Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Joel Lion expressed protest over the unveiling of a monument to Roman Shukhevych, a Ukrainian nationalist chief, in the city of Ivano-Frankovsk. They sent a corresponding letter to this city’s mayor on Monday.
"In this message, we would like to voice our protest in light of your decision and remind to the children of Ivano-Frankovsk, their parents, their grandmothers and grandfathers that Roman Shukhevych was personally responsible for the killing of tens of thousands of people like them," says the letter, which was released on the Facebook page of the Polish Embassy in Kiev. The Israeli and Polish envoys also noted that witnesses of these mass murders still live in Ukraine, Poland and Israel.
Roman Shukhevych was one of the leaders of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its combat wing - the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) (outlawed in Russia). After President Pyotr Poroshenko had signed the so-called law on the glorification of nationalists and recognition of their activity as fight for independence in May 2015, their monuments started appearing in Ukraine, and streets were named after them. The monument to Shukhevych was unveiled in Ivano-Frankovsk on May 23.