Melnyk called the Ukrainian nationalist leader a “freedom fighter”. The Israeli embassy in Germany announced an insult to the memory of the victims of Bandera and a distortion of historical facts jpg” alt=”The words of Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Melnyk about Bandera were criticized in Israel” />
Andriy Melnyk
Statements of Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk about nationalist Stepan Bandera “distort historical facts, diminish the significance of the Holocaust and insult memory of those killed by Bandera and his people,” the Israeli embassy in Germany said in a statement posted on Twitter.
Melnyk, in an interview published in late June with German journalist Til Jung, said that he visited Bandera's grave in Munich “because he is important to so many Ukrainians as the personification of the struggle for freedom.” “A freedom fighter is not subject to any laws. Robin Hood is revered by all of us, but he also did not act according to the laws,— Melnik said.
Stepan Bandera— one of the leaders of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN, recognized as extremist in Russia and banned), as well as one of the initiators of the creation of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA, also recognized as extremist and banned). Bandera, after the German invasion of Poland, collaborated for some time with German military intelligence, and after disagreements with the Nazis, he was arrested by the image. He was imprisoned in Berlin, and after his release he moved to Munich, where he was killed by a KGB agent in 1959.
In Ukraine, torchlight processions in honor of Bandera are regularly held. Former President Viktor Yushchenko conferred on him the title of Hero of Ukraine in 2010, which the nationalist was subsequently stripped of by Yushchenko's successor Viktor Yanukovych.
The Israeli embassy believes that the diplomat's words “undermine the efforts of the Ukrainian people to live in accordance with democratic values in the world.
A representative of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Oleg Nikolenko, after the words of Melnyk, said that this is the personal opinion of the ambassador, which does not reflect the position of the department.
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