Can we have a Ukraine/ Russia/ Crimea thread for dummies?

[chicaguapa]

In other words, could someone explain the situation in really simple terms please. I don't understand it but feel it's important and I should know what's going on.

And because DD(12) asked me this morning and I couldn't answer.

your chosen website does not seem to have a Western perspective, so the stories are not all familiar to me.

Of course, you are quite entitled to put a Russian pov if you want, just as Beagle is entitled to put a Ukrainian pov.

HopefulGoat, I am seeing a good deal of dismay in the western press about the current situation in Ukraine. There is also dismay about the foolishness of western politicians.

Here is an example from the New York Times:

'The Svoboda party, meanwhile, has moderated, and did not openly endorse the tactic of throwing firebombs when street fighting began in January. Svoboda was founded in 1991 under the name the Socialist-Nationalist Party of Ukraine, with a symbol that resembled a swastika. Its leader, Oleg Tyagnibok, met Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday and in December appeared onstage with Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona. Svoboda holds 37 seats in Parliament...'
[This is a criticism of Kerry and McCain in NYT-speak. It is assumed readers would understand the significance of the name 'Socialist-Nationalist' but the party symbol's similarity to the Swastika is thrown in just in case. It is implied that association with such a party should raise an eyebrow.]

'...On Independence Square, which remains symbolically important for the new government, Right Sector is raising its profile, changing the character of the plaza. Black-clad men walk about with pistols. On Tuesday, several dozen such activists pushed into a City Council meeting in small city near Kiev, Borodyanka, to support, they said, their candidate for mayor in a vote...
[Here the NYT gives a to the stated aims of the Borodynanka activists]

..Right Sector, Mr. Yarosh said, “was set up as a platform for revolutionary young people,” and is only now evolving into a political organization. One of its constituent groups, the Ukrainian Nationalist Assembly, is already a political party and could form the kernel of a future party, though its platform would be rewritten, he said.

Mr. Yarosh said Right Sector was not about to disband its paramilitary units. He said they were needed to maintain a deterrent against Russia, while Moscow says they are used to maintain control over the interim government by using street muscle to intimidate lawmakers.'
[The NYT draws the same conclusion that Russia does.]

The Guardian article with profiles of the main players in the current Ukraine government that I linked earlier also provides insight into the dismay.

The video is without a commentary and everyone is will make their own mind about a group of youth in balaclavas vandalising buildings with white supremacy symbols, intimidating people in the street and casually terrorising and vandalising property of a random passer by.

Why do you say it is a pro-Russian point of view and you are missing western perspective? Don't you have your own?

Maybe, if the stories are not familiar to you, they should be reported by our media, so we could see and decide for ourselves?

The NYT has seen 'black-clad men walk about with pistols' in Kiev and reports an intrusion by right-wing-nationalist activists into a city council meeting in another city. I think it's safe to say that the presence of the Right on the streets has been noted in the western press and it has registered its dismayed perspective.

From The Telegraph
Even in the rust-belt south-east of Ukraine, the economic pressures that pull coal- and steel-workers towards Russia are why the region’s oligarchs still cling to Kiev: they fear being swallowed up by the big beasts of Russia’s economy. Although the terms of the EU Association Agreement were demanding enough, the oligarchs could see that integration into a Russian customs union would be curtains for them. Strikingly, Putin referred to his emasculation of Russia’s new rich in his first public comments after the revolution in Kiev. He blamed ousted president Yanukovych for failing to rein in his over-mighty economic subjects, as Putin had done in Russia. In fact, the new regime in Kiev appointed oligarchs as governors in restive regions, hoping they could pay for security forces, which a bankrupt Kiev could not. Since Ukraine’s police forces are still the ones who performed so woefully under Yanukovich, with their divided loyalties and an eye to who can pay most, effective crowd control is virtually impossible...

...If both sides in Ukraine were merely puppets of Great Power sponsors, the situation would be much less dangerous. Naturally, both the West and the Kremlin have their agendas. But neither side has control of radicals on the ground. The tension rattles Western stock markets, especially in Germany, and discourages talk of tougher sanctions – a plus for Putin. Any Russian intervention would put these back on the agenda. But without tangible pressure from Russian power, Kiev is unlikely to concede the demands of the Donetsk separatists for their own status. So agitators there might push the envelope further than the Kremlin would like.

The seven weeks until the presidential election offer extremists on both sides plenty of opportunity to make the running. Pro-Russians have no interest in a successful election; Ukrainian nationalists will stoke up tension as their best chance to rally voters. Such polarisation makes the chances of the Kremlin or Kiev achieving its aims peacefully virtually nil.

This is a deeply pessimistic article.
The highly combustible mix in Ukraine includes private security forces and law and order thrown out like the baby with the bathwater, civil strife ironically held in check only by the presence of Russia, and extremists with nothing to lose and all to gain over the next few weeks.

I imagine that he [Bandera] lost his enthusiasm for Nazism after being deposed and imprisoned by them.

Goring and Himmler were both deposed and disowned by Hitler before he committed suicide, and also that Himmler (before he was thrown out) locked up and ordered the execution of many of his henchmen and associates including Dr Sigmund Rascher and his wife who was formerly a mistress of Himmler's. Rascher had conducted experiments on prisoners in Dachau under orders from Himmler and boasted that he had invented the gas chamber. Being arrested or thrown out of the party by your fellow Nazis doesn't mean you are not a Nazi.

Even more to the point, the concentration camp was a one way journey. For example out of 15000 Soviet prisoners of war sent to Auschwitz for work, only 92 survived. People just didn't just get out of Nazi camps to a comfortable life because a perversion of justice was ruled by the court...

Piglet, I am very much against Nazi revival in Europe. I don't think it should be treated as a quest for democracy and human rights. So I really want to understand where do you stand on Bandera.

Why every time I ask you about Ukrainian Nazis you wriggle out and call me pro-Russian and pro-Putin?

PigletJohn Thu 10-Apr-14 17:29:51
From what I hear, he was for a time linked with the Nazis. However as far as I can see, he was no different before, during or after his Nazi period. Do you think he was?

I imagine that he lost his enthusiasm for Nazism after being deposed and imprisoned by them. Don't you think so?

PigletJohn Thu 10-Apr-14 17:39:04 I think generally agreed that 8Bandera was no friend of the Soviet Union*, which discredited and later murdered him.

Well are you saying he was a Nazi, but a good Nazi because he hated Soviet Union?

Ooh, what larks. PACE has suspended Russias voting rights until next year. Putin has warned that gas supplies to Europe might be interrupted by theft by Ukraine. Gas supply to Ukraine could be cut off, leaving Russia no option but to sell to China. I bet that trade won't be done in US dollars. They're also bartering for oil with Iran, going against US sanctions. US sanctions are, of course, against international law and designed purely to protect corporate interests.

Any sanctions against Russia will only hurt the west, Russia will not feel them. In fact, Russia will dump $50Bn of US bonds and futures and sink the Petrodollar. This will force the IMF to issue untold billions in SDR and will lead to China backing their currency with gold. The US will default, like they did in the 70s just after they left the gold standard, and China will reap the benefit by buying up US property on the cheap, just as they're being encouraged to do here by Boris the twat.

Also, it appears NATO are planning to send troops to Eastern Europe. lol. No sign of hypocrisy there at all, oh no.

A violent takeover in Ukraine is democratic, but a peaceful takeover including a referendum in Crimea is not. Of course, the US are right, they have the most weapons and the need to spend money on defence due to their own paranoia. And corporate expansionism. The MSM is handing us a bunch of unadulterated bullshit. Watch Aleksey Yarozeshskey (sp) and Crosstalk for an objective view. Crosstalk is an American allowing four people to voice whatever view they have, so sometimes I agree, sometimes I don't.

The Eurobond question will come up when Ukrainian debt to GDP ratio hits 60% iirc.

Ukraine has stated it will make the payment it owes for Russian gas already delivered, but it is late at this point. It will not be easy for Ukraine to find another gas supplier willing to supply gas at a steep discount or wait for payment of billions. The option of buying gas from other European states may or may not work out as everyone knows the straits Ukraine is in and how likely suppliers are to be paid at all, never mind on time.

Hopefulgoat Thu 10-Apr-14 20:27:34
Piglet, I am very much against Nazi revival in Europe. I don't think it should be treated as a quest for democracy and human rights.

And I am very much against a revival of the expansion of Greater Russia into its smaller and weaker neighbours. Do you find that difficult to grasp? I see no prospect of a Nazi revival.

So I really want to understand where do you stand on Bandera

I have already answered that. If you could not comprehend my reply, I will expand. He was a Ukrainian nationalist. When he thought he could take advantage of the Germans to help remove Ukraine from Soviet control (and you are already aware of the millions of deaths in Ukraine resulting from Soviet policies); he tried to take advantage of them. They then deposed and imprisoned him, until, later in the war, when they thought they could take advantage of him, and released him hoping he would harass the Soviet forces.

You will recall that the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany also tried to take advantage of each other until 1941 when they entered into war. I wouldn't call Stalin a Nazi just because he tried to reach a co-operative accommodation with Hitler. Would you?

Here is another western article, this one from the articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/13/opinion/la-oe-english-ukraine-neofascists-20140313 LA Times]], expressing more than mere dismay over the resurrection of the Right and finding its identification with right wing forces of the past alarming.

...scarier than these parties' whitewashing of the past are their plans for the future. They have openly advocated that no Russian language be taught in Ukrainian schools, that citizenship is only for those who pass Ukrainian language and culture exams, that only ethnic Ukrainians may adopt Ukrainian orphans and that new passports must identify their holders' ethnicity — be it Ukrainian, Pole, Russian, Jew or other.

Is it so hard to understand Russians' shock that senior U.S. officials (such as Sen. John McCain, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland) flirt with extremists who have been denounced as anti-Semitic, xenophobic, even neo-Nazi by numerous human rights and anti-defamation groups? That they were snapping pictures and distributing pastries among protest leaders, some of whose minions were at that same moment distributing "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" on Independence Square?

In the few instances where concern over such extremists is acknowledged, it is usually dismissed along the lines of, "Yes, the new government isn't perfect, but moderates will soon prevail." But Russian worry is well-founded. Since the Soviet Union's collapse, millions of ethnic Russians or Russian speakers have endured loss of citizenship in the Baltic republics (where many lived for generations), have been driven out of Central Asian jobs and homes and have suffered particularly virulent discrimination in Georgia (the root cause of the 2008 war with Russia, but also broadly ignored in the West)...

John McCain is getting quite a pasting, from coast to coast. Rightly so, of course.

...The European Parliament in 2012 condemned Svoboda's racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia as "against the EU's fundamental values and principles." The U.S. should not hesitate to do likewise now. It is not only the right thing to do, it would also open a door to compromise with Russia over this dangerous crisis. To remain silent sends exactly the wrong message to extremists on both sides.

goat, your video is from Lviv, the true 'western ukraine' where the RC has more presence, I was saying that in Kiev this doesn't happen now. Occasionally all over the place hooligans posture as RC to steal from people which is the current govt is fighting with the police (which is thankfully back in place'. We don't have any evidence who exactly people in the video are, if they are RC (not very likely as they are constantly told to mind what they are doing if they want any recognition in/by the govt - btw the current RC people can easily be sacked if they don't behave, the govt is goving them some leeway now but they are on probation if you like - so again, we don't know for sure what are these people in video. If they do happen to be RC, I can hear one saying 'it's ok to mark the bag (of the guy in the street) but not to take it', make oif it what you will - they are not seriously intending to harm, though this kind of posturing would still not happen in Kiev now without then being stopped by people and police.

math, I did make the point about T. being euphemistic about these threats, and I did say she must know that she is likely to be tapped - I know my post was very long so you may have missed a few details. But she would have no reason making these comments, it reflected negatively on her from both Russian pov AND Ukrainian majority's. I really don't think she's that idiotic, she usually know what public wants to hear, in her daily speeches that sound all sensible. I'm sure it was edited, it does make sense as this would benefit FSB's purposes to paint all Ukr politicians of note as Right Sector sympathisers.

I didn't say that RS was democratically minded, I said some of them are patriotic but inexperienced and unpolished (the essentially good ones) while others are radicals. As I said, RS is not widely supported by Ukrainians at all, and this thread puts FAR too much influence on them, They aer visible due to posturing and their uncooth behaviour, but they aer seen as troublesome teenagers rather than any serious force. I can assure you, they can be dealt with even by the current unstable govt if they started to push Nazi ideas seriously.
I seriously think that some of them are aggressive because they are not listened to and they will either learn or oust themselves from govt, their represantatives in govt are being constantly questioned on the tv debates and in parliament. As i said ti goat, these people aer there as a TEMP govyt, and may well be sacked later on.

I never said (sorry but that's a theme) that ALL of maidan was genuine, but it's the main and essential force (thirst for democracy) - I'm surprised that not only young but the older generation (they aer mixed in views but even many of them) joined Maidan because they felt that the truth is in the standing together and fighting. I mean, women in their 60s, genteel jobs, albeit possibly supporting their children there, but people I know personally went to support fighters even with food/clothes if they didn't stand there on guard themselves.
My friend whose russian (ethnically) father I mentoned, said that he related to her how the people's will for change is STUNNING. This time, they will not stop half way and creep back like it was after Orange revolution, the country's dynamic changed as the new generation is growing. Plus, they felt the westren support more than ever. Btw, so what that they get funds from IMF etc, hell of a lot better than being forever under Russia's thumb - who ENDORSED all the theft by presidents (and shared in it), have no doubt - in exchange of political influence. It's now ridiculous to think that Russia is shocjed or surprised by the debt and demanding it - this was what they've created and wanted. But they've understimated the readiness of people for changes, and the support that currently week Europe would still want to give. Poor Putin has dug himself in with Crimea in this regard, as Europe who wasn't too enthusiastic about helping ukraine, now has become scared a bit and esp pushed by east euro members to help Ukraine partly as they are absolutely allergic after the soviet era to any such 'expansions' from russia. Yes, the US played a major role - I don't see it as a bad thing for Ukraine.
The laws will be working for once, and ukr would rather depend on the west than russia, while it's developing, also it SHOULD take guidance.
goat, yes, of course the new govt is somewhat incompetent, asI say give the a chance! they ar very willing to learn, thank God they invite western assistannce groups, they will learn, and surely it's good to help as aspiring democracy. How do you suppose anyone could be very competent after decades of being in soviet system which is completely diofferent fron te west? where would they have learned? Young PM is really as profressive as it gets, and he isn't half bad , at least he has experience of working in the west/for banks/ generally has a positive attitude. He did say that it will be tough, no one could wave a magic wand. I personally think he does care about the country.
I also said that people from outside COULD argue that Maidan was led by the US or purely economic reasons, if they don't know the mood of the people, but my point was, it was NOT LED by the neo-nazis!

Equally, math, I never said that all East is russian led, it's of course encouraged and supported, and some are russians, but I did say there is old soviet geberation that can't see themselves living in europe, sorry but the future is not with them, no big numbers of young people in these protests, are there! The govt is talking to them and obviously wants to make everyone feel relevant, it's not done all in a flash, the russians aer exploting the transitional perio before elections.

goat I agree with PJ that there is no threat of Nazi revival inm ukraine, there really isn't. But whatever others say, you don't take it on board.
Right sector will nOT be elected to run the country and they are unpopular with the VAST MAJORITY of the population, despite the groups of youths featuring on youtube as posted by you - some not even RS but posing as them - despite a couple of brawling MPs, can't you see that they are making themselves unpopular already by these acts, therefore not being taken seriously as political force by anyone.
For a nazi revival you'd NEED support of the masses. Hitler had crowds worshipping him, the dynamics completely different then too, needless to say. I don't see any rapt crowds saluting the right sector on Ukraine big squares! I will repeat again, neo-nazism is NOT the dominant sector in Ukraine, it's tiny and unpopular movement.
Apart from the fact that EU/EEC wouldn't tolerate nazism-dominated (or anywhere near) new member, don't you think. They are obviously NOT feeling threatened.

John McCain beaten up yet again.

I will also repeat (sorry I know no one could read all the long posts), that most families in Ukraine have grandparents who fought Hitler, and died or were occupied in the ww2, it's all raw memories. And OF COURSE 9th of may will be celebrated in kiev, even if any provocations occur (from whom it's a different matter)! Yes it's a day celebrated together with the russians but anyone sane would be glad to share the good things in common.
I should mention that some of my relatives live in moscow - I don't have anything against russians overall, I just always hated soviet system and mentailty as cultivated for decades and the sheep-like population there, and I left as soon as I could in the early 90s, but obviously russia is also the land of very brave and outspoken dissidents, in the past and now too.

It's not all black and white, and Putin has the sides to him that I like, he's not a complete cynic/baddie imo, as some think. it's just that Ukrainians now do not want to be with (still quite soviet) russia, and it's their right not to share Putin's vision. Very hard for him to recognise, at times he genuinely has incomprehension on his face, he thought he could offer a good future for Ukraine. If russia did become very different after the USSR, Ukraine may well have want to stay in same economic zone or be a federal state (in theory, if they wanted to), but as it is, they'd rather make their own mistakes if need be, then be in the same old.

Putin has a genuine headache now. He doesn't plan imo further military action - there is after all strong affinity between the two nations, so much shared history, but he is unhappy at the 'divorce'. There is a Slav in him - and atm all his allies are culturally-remote asians . I don't know whether something could still trigger him (or his advisors) to go on attack. Prettu sure he berates himself for being complacent.

Eastern Ukraine wants attention from EU - heard protestors talking there on tv, they want their industries not to collapse, so if there was funding they wouldn't lose the jobs. If that didn't happen, they could still have a referendum, well after the elections though once the facts are established, if there is a genuine discontent. personally I think govt will listen and do what they can.

I didn't say you said she was being euphemistic. I used the word euphemistic in another post, and in an entirely different context (the loss of jobs that will happen in eastern Ukraine when Western European management take over the industries and integrate them into the Western European economy).

All of the taped comments reflected badly on her, not just the one you think she didn't say. This person is running for president. The least she could do is show she is not a complete eejit, shooting her mouth off in extremely hostile fashion. Again, my point is that what is important about her comments is that they are believable.

Nor did I ever say that Right Sector was democratically minded .

I said some of them are patriotic but inexperienced and unpolished (the essentially good ones) while others are radicals. As I said, RS is not widely supported by Ukrainians at all, and this thread puts FAR too much influence on them, They aer visible due to posturing and their uncooth behaviour, but they aer seen as troublesome teenagers rather than any serious force. I can assure you, they can be dealt with even by the current unstable govt if they started to push Nazi ideas seriously.

You are demonstrating here the political naivete I spoke of previously, You are also demonstrating the Ukrainian tendency to accuse 'other people' of being the bad guys. This is a tendency that you can explore if you like this paper. The title is 'The OUN, the UPA and the Holocaust: A Study in the Manufacturing of Historical Myths'

As I said before when you mentioned the popular will for change, the people are now asked to choose among candidates who have already comprehensively fucked up Ukraine when they had the chance, and yet somehow, this time things are going to be completely different -- if this is going to be so easy to accomplish, why not do it before Ukraine had to go begging for foreign loans in order to pay its bills? Again I will remind you that this is the second revolution Kiev has hosted in the last twenty years...

Young PM is really as profressive as it gets, and he isn't half bad , at least he has experience of working in the west/for banks/ generally has a positive attitude. He did say that it will be tough, no one could wave a magic wand. I personally think he does care about the country.
Your starry-eyed naivete shows again. The only thing recommending Yatseniuk to the West is the fact that he is a banker. The west only cares about its money and how to get it back, with interest, from Ukraine. The result of this concern for money will be desperate poverty, the political rise of the neo-Nazis, and massive emigration of the young and especially the educated young because there will be no future for several generations in impoverished Ukraine. Completely contrary to your prophecy, Ukraine will be a country for the old Soviet generation. They are too old to leave and start again elsewhere.

In case you think that will not happen, look at Greece and Ireland and their emigration figures thanks to EU bailout conditions. Look at how former East Germans found the lure of the West overwhelming in the face of poverty and cultural isolation in the former GDR. Look at the age groups who go.

And if you look at the western press, I think you will find you are in a minority of two when it comes to your thoughts on the rise of the Right in Ukraine (and it is on the rise elsewhere too). I have posted several articles here on that subject.

There is a Slav in him - and atm all his allies are culturally-remote asians .

O.M.G.

speechless.

Eastern Ukraine wants attention from EU - heard protestors talking there on tv, they want their industries not to collapse, so if there was funding they wouldn't lose the jobs. If that didn't happen, they could still have a referendum, well after the elections though once the facts are established, if there is a genuine discontent. personally I think govt will listen and do what they can.

Nothing can be done by the government, not this one and not the next one.

When the Ukrainian economy is tied to the EU all industries that are in competition with existing EU industries will be wiped out or taken over and harnessed into production at the lowest possible cost, because that is how western business works profit is the only goal. The harnessing will only take place if those industries are complementary to existing EU industry and their products can slot into the existing EU market factories that sell machine parts to Russia for instance might as well shut their gates today.

Western business does not revolve around the needs of the workers.

Piglet,
Was Bandera a Nazi or a good Nazi?

Presumably we can assume that no Russian politician, not even one who is a notorious foul-mouthed and foul-tempered bully, has ever shouted angrily down a telephone.

Luckily, unless his phone is bugged by the agents of a foreign espionage service, and disseminated as propaganda, we will never know.

Piglet,
Was Bandera a Nazi or a good Nazi because he hated Russia ?

This is the unavoidable conclusion from your posts.
Every time I confront your ambivalence on the Nazi origin of Ukrainian nationalism you deviate into Soviet Union as if it somehow justifies Nazi attrocities.

At what point a hater of Soviet Union becomes Nazi apologist?

Hello, goat.

Bandera and Stalin both co-operated with Nazi Germany hoping to gain advantages for themselves. They were both responsible for many deaths. If you want to say they were both bad Nazis, or good Nazis, and it makes you happy, then no doubt you will.

However its my view that they were not members of the Nazi party, and were co-operating with Nazi Germany to try to gain advantage for their own ends, so in my view they were not. However, if you want to define a Nazi as someone who co-operated with Nazis, then I will agree with you that, by your definition, they both were.

What were Bandera's ends, Piglet?

The equivalence with Stalin is irrelevant. Stalin is very much the thing of the past. Stalin is not made hero of Ukraine after independence, Bandera is.

The revival of the Bandera Nazism in Ukraine is very much the present and permeate the very identity of Ukrainian nationalism which is riding so high now, carried on the banners of the Nazi Right Sector, Neo Nazi Svoboda party and other nationalists like Timoshenko, who feels she has to be seen to want to "nuke" Russian speaking Ukrainians to win votes.

As the BBC reports that
"Svoboda has gone from a fringe party - receiving less than 2% in presidential elections - to a major player in Ukrainian politics. Its members control six positions in the new government, including deputy prime minister, general prosecutor and defence."

Who Was Stepan Bandera?
This is the article written by Norman J.W. Goda is Braman Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Florida, who published a a number of books on Ukrainian nationalism.

He quotes several well known western researchers who proved that Bandera was a true fascist who pursued the goal of building ethnically clean Ukrainian state by cleansing it through violence from Jews, Poles, ethnic Russians and all other "foreigners"
He belived in a fascist authoritarian state with a cult of a dictator, i.e. himself.

Bandewra shared Nazi's obsessive belief that Jews are the upholders of communism and all evils

Bandera, his deputies, and the Nazis shared a key obsession, namely the notion that the Jews in Ukraine were behind Communism and Stalinist imperialism and must be destroyed. “The Jews of the Soviet Union,” read a Banderist statement, “are the most loyal supporters of the Bolshevik Regime and the vanguard of Muscovite imperialism in the Ukraine.”

They further promised to work closely with Hitler, then helped to launch a pogrom that killed four thousand Lvov Jews in a few days, using weapons ranging from guns to metal poles. “We will lay your heads at Hitler’s feet,” a Banderist pamphlet proclaimed to Ukrainian Jews.

the Banderists never disagreed with their Jewish policy in Ukraine, which eventually killed over 1.5 million Ukrainian Jews.

This is a truth that many in Ukraine, particularly in its western parts, deny. In his book Erased (2007), Omer Bartov discusses the large bronze statue of Bandera that stands in a park in the east Galician town of Drohobych, most of whose 15,000 Jews were murdered.

The CIA used some of Bandera’s former cronies for similar reasons, but never used Bandera himself, owing to Bandera’s infatuation with his own legend. “Bandera,” said one CIA report from 1948, “is by nature a political intransigent of great personal ambition [who] has…opposed all political organizations in the emigration which favor a representative form of government in the Ukraine, as opposed to a mono-party, OUN/Bandera regime.”

It is a sad comment on Ukrainian memory that the man declared a Hero of Ukraine in January headed a movement that was deeply involved in the Holocaust... Those who label him a hero today, in other words, are as foolish as they are offensive.