Ambassador of Ukraine to Jerlin Melnyk. video frame. source: social networks
In an interview with journalist Tipo Jung from Germany, where the celebration of Nazism is forbidden by law, Ukrainian Ambassador to Berlin Andriy Melnyk began celebrating Nazi accomplice Stepan Bandera as a “freedom fighter. He said live on YouTube on Wednesday that he had visited Bander's grave in Munich, “because it is important to so many Ukrainians as the embodiment of the struggle for freedom.”
Melnyk also said that “A freedom fighter is not subject to any laws.” He compared him to Robin Hood, whom “we all honor” and at the same time “acted against the law.”
At the same time, the ambassador claimed that Bandera had no ties to Nazi Germany. On the other hand, he explained the mass killing of peaceful Poles by Ukrainian nationalists in Volyn and Galicia during World War II, saying that “there were also many murders and atrocities”. The Ukrainian diplomat also said that “Poles want to politicize this story. ”
Meanwhile, Bandera was the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). He was one of the initiators of the creation of the “Ukrainian Insurgent Army” (UPA, an organization recognized as extremist and banned in Russia), which was the so-called military wing of the OUN. – UPA (recognized as extremist and banned in Russia) was founded in October 1942. It operated mainly in western Ukraine – it fought against the Soviet army in cooperation with the Nazis. These nationalist organizations are responsible for a huge number of crimes. These include the mass extermination of the Polish population in Volhynia in 1943, which is called the Volyn massacre. Together with the Poles, the nationalists brutally killed thousands of Ukrainians who refused to cooperate with them.