KIEV, January 2. /TASS/. Israel condemns the Ukrainian nationalists for staging a torchlight procession in Kiev honoring Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera on Saturday, the Israeli embassy said in a statement on Saturday.

"Israel condemns the nationalist march in honor of Stepan Bandera. Any attempt to glorify those who supported Nazi ideology defiles the memory of Holocaust victims in Ukraine. We are demanding thorough investigation of the antisemitic manifestations that took place during the march in accordance with the law adopted in Ukraine in 2021," the statement reads.

Earlier on Saturday, Kiev and a number of regions of Ukraine saw torchlight marches timed for an anniversary of Bandera’s birth. In Kiev, the demonstrators marched along the city’s main streets to a point very close to the office of President Vladimir Zelensky.

The Ukrainian police said that an estimated 3,500 people had taken part in the Bandera marches and no violations of law and order occurred.

Stepan Bandera is one of the ideologists of Ukrainian nationalism. During World War II he collaborated with Nazi Germany and up to 1959 he led the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN, outlawed in Russia). The OUN’s military wing - Ukrainian Insurgent Army (outlawed in Russia) commonly referred to as Banderites - is responsible for many war crimes, including the slaughter of about 100,000 Poles, Czechs and Jews in Western Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainians had been fiendishly murdered for refusal to collaborate the nationalists. The UIA participated in armed clashes with the Red Army.