Another frequent honoree is
Roman Shukhevych, revered as a Ukrainian freedom fighter but also the leader of a feared Nazi auxiliary police unit that the Forward notes was “responsible for butchering thousands of Jews and … Poles.” Statues have also been raised for
Yaroslav Stetsko, a one-time chair of the OUN, who wrote “I insist on the extermination of the Jews in Ukraine.”
Far-right groups have also gained political currency in the past decade, none more chilling than
Svoboda (formerly the Social National Party of Ukraine), whose leader claimed the country was controlled by a “
Muscovite-Jewish mafia” and whose deputy used an antisemitic slur to describe Ukrainian-born Jewish actor Mila Kunis. Svoboda has sent several members to Ukraine’s Parliament, including one who called the Holocaust a “
bright period” in human history, according to Foreign Policy.
Just as disturbing,
neo-Nazis are part of some of Ukraine’s growing ranks of volunteer battalions. They are battle-hardened after waging some of the toughest street fighting against Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine following Putin’s Crimean invasion in 2014. One is the
Azov Battalion, founded by an avowed white supremacist who claimed Ukraine’s
national purpose was to rid the country of Jews and other inferior races. In 2018, the U.S. Congress stipulated that its
aid to Ukraine couldn’t be used “to provide arms, training or other assistance to the Azov Battalion.” Even so, Azov is now an
official member of the Ukraine National Guard.
