SIMFEROPOL, January 2. /TASS/. Crimea’s head Sergey Aksyonov says it necessary to have the Ukrainian Nazism ideology recognized internationally as criminal.
"The more evidences of their crimes are published, the more the Ukrainian nationalists are going mad," he said in a comment on torch processions on Monday, which the Ukrainian nationalists organized to remember their spiritual leader Stepan Bandera (Nazi collaborator). "And the more efforts the Kiev regime applies to perpetuate the memory of the torturer and murderer, responsible for the genocide of hundreds of thousands innocent people… My position is it is necessary to insist the Ukrainian Nazism ideology is recognized at the international level as criminal."
"There are more than sufficient" grounds for that, he added. Poland’s parliament has recognized the Volhynia massacre of 1943 the genocide, committed by Ukrainian nationalists against the Polish.
Besides, the UN General Assembly has been adopting resolutions against attempts to promote Nazi heroes.
"Most UN member-states support this resolution, only Ukraine and the U.S. are voting contra," Aksyonov said, adding Russia’s Investigative Committee as well as law enforcement authorities at the self-proclaimed Lugansk and Donetsk Republics register materials on military crimes, committed by the Ukrainian armed formations in Donbass.
"Noteworthy, most participants in the Nazi marches hide their faces behind muzzles. They realize than most people in Ukraine hate them. Thus, this coven cannot continue for long. And soon they will have to face responsibility," the Crimean head said.
Torch processions rolled across Ukraine on January 1 - in Kiev, Lvov, Ternopol, Dnepr, Krivoi Rog, Rovno and Melitopol.
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgent Army
During World War II, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, collaborating with the Nazi intelligence agencies, waged war against the Soviet authorities. In 1943, it established the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA). In February 1943, Ukrainian nationalists launched a campaign aimed at exterminating the Polish population of Ukraine’s Volhynia region. Their activities culminated on July 11, 1943 in a bloodbath, when the OUN-UIA units attacked nearly 100 Polish settlements slaughtering around 100,000 people, primarily women, children and the elderly.
After Ukraine was liberated from Nazi occupation, the UIA turned around to fight against the Red Army, Soviet law enforcement, Communist party members and intellectuals coming from the eastern part of the country. The UIA headquarters and units were formally dismissed on September 3, 1949, but its small separate groups remained active until 1956.
The figure of Stepan Bandera, leader of the 20th century Ukrainian nationalist movement, who closely collaborated with the German Nazis during World War II, is still tearing Ukrainian society apart. Feelings towards him range from complete support in some western parts of Ukraine to fiercely antagonistic attitudes towards him in the rest of the country.
In 1941-1959, Bandera headed the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, so its members are called "Banderites". Given the reign of terror and waves of massacres carried out before and during World War II, it is no surprise that Poland considers Bandera to be a criminal and a terrorist.
On July 22, 2016, the Polish parliament passed a document declaring the crimes committed by the OUN and UIA against the Polish population in 1943 and 1944, a genocide. Meanwhile, in 2015, Ukraine’s parliament recognized their activities as the struggle for Ukraine’s independence.