Ukraine Has Better Heroes Than This Friend of Fascism
There are more fitting ways to identify with Ukraine’s noble fight for freedom than to honor a partisan who looked up to Hitler.
Not the best banner to march under.
Photographer: Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin must be delighted that Germans, Poles, Israelis, Ukrainians and others are suddenly in each other’s hair about a historical figure named Stepan Bandera.
Part of Putin’s web of lies is that Ukraine, a democratic country he attacked without provocation, is allegedly run by Nazis and must therefore be “de-Nazified.” This is absurd, as almost everybody understands — at least outside of Russia and the reality distortion field of Putin’s propaganda. The counter-narrative is much closer to the truth: Ukraine has become a nation of heroes and heroines fighting for their freedom.