The birthday of leader of the extremist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, known as Nazi collaborator, Stepan Bandera will be officially celebrated in Ukraine, the parliament said in its resolution.
“Stepan Bandera was an outstanding figure and theorist of Ukraine’s national liberation movement,” the Verkhovna Rada’s resolution said, according to 112.Ukraine TV channel.
The 110th birthday anniversary of Bandera will be marked on January 1, 2019. This day has been declared as an official holiday in Ukraine.
Earlier, the Lvov regional council announced that 2019 would be the year of Stepan Bandera.
The extreme right wing Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists was active mostly in Western Ukraine. In order to establish an independent Ukrainian state, which was its chief goal, the OUN relied on the use of extremist methods, including terrorist attacks.
During World War II, the OUN collaborated with Nazi intelligence and waged a war against the Soviet authorities. In 1943, it established the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA).
OUN and UPA mercenaries, called Banderites after Ukrainian Insurgent Army leader Stepan Bandera, were guilty of numerous crimes, namely participating in the Holocaust. According to a number of researchers, they killed at least one million people, including 200,000 Poles during a massacre in the Volyn Region, in addition to slaughtering tens of thousands of Jews, Russians, and multitudes of civilians.
Source: Tass
