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The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany faced backlash last week after defending Stepan Bandera, a Ukrainian nationalist leader who Wikipedia notes lead “the militant wing (OUN-B), served as head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, organization responsible for massacres and ethnic cleansings, also implicated in collaboration with Nazi Germany.”
Notes from Poland reported that Melnyk made the remarks while interviewed by two German journalists. He was asked about Bandera, who was the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The group was accused of massacres and ethnic cleansing of Poles and Jews.
The Israeli embassy told the paper that Malnyk’s comments were a “distortion of the historical facts,” and the Polish deputy foreign minister posted online: “Such an opinion and such words are absolutely unacceptable.”
He was asked how such a person can be embraced as a hero in Ukraine. Melnyk denied the claim that he was a killer. One of the journalists cited a propaganda leaflet signed by Bandera that called for Russians, Poles, Hungarian, and Jews to be “wiped out” and Melnyk stuck by his earlier comment.
Putin’s critics say the Kremlin is loose with the Nazi designation and uses it to win support from the public against adversaries. In fact, in his 9 May Victory Day speech, Putin said that the purpose of the military action was to purge Ukraine of its “Nazi” nationalist leadership.
Bandera was killed six decades ago by Soviet intelligence agents and is viewed as a father figure by some Ukrainians.
The report said “Russia’s military regards the use of his name as a kind of clue to literally hunt down Ukrainians in the occupied territories. Ukrainian media are full of eyewitness accounts of how the Russians chased down Bandera supporters among Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians alike.”
Viktor Yushchenko, who was Ukraine president in 2005, awarded Bandera the title “Hero of Ukraine.” It was later revoked by Viktor Yanukovych, whose government, as we have greatly detailed in Trends Journals, was overthrown with the backing of the United States.
Forget About It
The western media no longer reports on the U.S.-backed overthrow of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. Elected in 2010 to succeed Viktor Yushchenko, who was championed by the U.S. when it ostensibly launched the Orange Revolution in 2004 that put him in power, Ukraine’s Central Election Commission and international observers declared that the 2010 presidential election was legitimate and fairly conducted.
Also completely absent in the Western media reports is the role Washington and Victoria Nuland, the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs at the time, played in the overthrow of its government in 2014.
A report from 2014 in the Trends Journal laid out the political maneuvers at the time in Ukraine: “Washington’s coup in Ukraine brought not only a threat to the Russian population in Ukraine but also a direct strategic threat to Russia itself.”
Nuland, who speaks Russian and French, boasted that Washington had invested $5 billion in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Ukraine.
Allegedly, the purpose of NGOs is to “teach democracy.” Ukraine, however, already had a democracy. In reality, the NGO organizations are U.S. fifth columns that can be used to organize protests and to provide support for Washington’s candidates for the Ukraine government.
Indeed, in early February 2014, a recording was leaked of Nuland, telling Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, that the UN was on board to “help glue” the plan to replace Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych with Arxeniy Yatsenyuk.
“Yats is the guy,” Nuland informed Pyatt, urging her to move quickly because “the Russians will be working behind the scenes to torpedo” the deal. “Fuck the EU!” Nuland told Pyatt.
“Exactly,” he responded. Shortly thereafter, Yanukovych was overthrown and “Yats” became president.
TRENDPOST: The Trends Journal has pointed out that Russian President Vladimir Putin said on 9 May that part of the reason why he invaded Ukraine was over the “neo-Nazis, Banderites.”
“The purpose of this operation is to protect people who for eight years now have been facing humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kyiv regime,” Putin said. “To this end, we will seek to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation.” (See “UKRAINE’S AZOV BATTALION: ‘NAZI’S OR FAR-RIGHT? DON’T CALL A SPADE A SPADE.”)
TRENDPOST: Don’t expect to see much of this interview in the Western media because anything less than presenting Ukrainian forces as heroic freedom fighters does not fit the corporate media narrative and will not be discussed.
Glenn Greenwald, the journalist, shared a part of the interview with Melnyk, and posted, “When you watch Ukrainian officials lovingly interviewed by CNN or BBC, they often have photos of national hero Stepan Bandera on their wall. He’s a Nazi collaborator who mass-murdered Jews and Poles.”
Also absent in the coverage, according to an April 2022 poll, 74 percent of Ukrainians are now viewing him favorably according to the Rating group. Highly loved, in celebration of his birthday, each year his supporters march through the streets of the capital, Kyiv, in a torchlight procession.