It is often the case that the Western media fails to report on the tendency among members of Zelensky’s regime to elevate the anti-Semitic character of Stephan Bandera, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, or the fascist breakaway state the OUN leader sought to establish against the rights of Poles, Jews, or both in 1941. It is clear that members of the Western press are seeking to advance Zelensky’s failed regime with tacit omissions.
It is an altogether different case, however, when the Middle Eastern media fails to mention anything at all about the revivification of Nazism in the Ukraine war, especially when at least part of the problem is exposed. An article recently republished from Jerusalem Post by Maariv, despite its subject, fails to link the Ukraine war to the processes of fascism dragging Ukraine backwards. (“סערה בקהילה היהודית באוקראינה: רחוב בקייב ייקרא על שמו של בכיר נאצי,” Maariv, April 11th, 2023)
Entitled “Outrage In the Jewish Community: A Street in Kiev is To Be Renamed in Honor of a Nazi,” the author of the article limits the scope of the article to a single street. There are many streets in Kiev, if not the Ukraine over, renamed after fascistic Nazi collaborators. A street in Kiev is to be renamed after Volodymyr Kubijovyč. The article, however, makes no mention of Bandera or the political processes arising form his restoration by revisionists.
It is well established that Kubijovyč is a Ukrainian fascistic, nationalist, Nazi collaborator. In his mortifying work exposing the criminality of Bandera-ites in Ukraine, Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe details how Volodymyr Kubijovyč, one of the major Ukrainian collaborators with the Nazis, asked Hans Frank, head of the General Government in April 1941 “to set up an ethnically pure Ukrainian enclave there, free from Jews and Poles.” (Stepan Bandera: The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist, pg. 226). Rossoliński-Liebe’s work links Kubijovyč’s activities to anti-Semitism.
In an article written in (2012-07-01), entitled “‘They Defended Ukraine’: The 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (Galizische Nr. 1) Revisited,”from The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, the author, Per Anders Rudling, notes how “In organizing Waffen-SS Galizien, [Otto] Wächter, [whom Hitler personally appointed as the Governor of the General Government on January 22nd, 1943], worked closely with Volodymyr Kubijovyč, an enthusiastic proponent of ethnic cleansing.”
Despite the fact that the article mentions the 14 Wafer Grenadier Division of the SS, Galicia, the article does not mention the fact in response to the Ukraine war, even though the symbolism of the 14 Wafer Grenadier Division of the SS, Galicia is a part of the widespread Nazi symbolism of Ukrainian armed forces. The article is completely silent on the Ukraine war, let alone Ukrianian fascistic symbology.
The Ukrainians have been renaming streets after fascists for a long time now. It is quiet a common practice that Ukrainian government officials rename streets after anti-Semitic Nazi collaborators like Kubijovyč or Bandera. It would therefore be appropriate for the author to raise the question: What is happening here?
Although the article traces the emergence of Kubijovyč to earlier instances, these earlier instances are, nonetheless, left without any mention of the political processes in Ukraine. The author of the article writes: “If the street is renamed after Kubijovyč, it won’t be the first time that Ukraine elects to honor Kubijovyč. In 2000 the Ukrainian post issued an envelope honoring the centenary of Kubijovyč’s birth. In the city of Lvov there stands a monument to the Nazi official to this day.”
The authors, who are able to trace the history of Kubijovyč’s honors in Ukraine, do not explain how or why it is that a monument to the Nazi official stands to this day in Lvov. On the continued presence of Nazism throughout Ukraine the authors are silent, especially about Nazis in the Ukraine war.
On nearly the same day that of the article’s publication, which Maariv republished in Hebrew from the Jerusalem Post, Russian forces, who were engaged in fighting outside of the confines of the battle of Bakhmut, captured a Ukrainian fighter above whose heart stood the symbol of none other than the 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (Galizische Nr. 1), a symbology of Nazism.
In a battle concluded on the outskirts of Kremenna, Russian forces captured a marine from Ukraine’s 76th Guardia Marine-Storm division. The captured Ukraine soldier, whose hands are raised above his head in capitulation, shows a patch on the left side of his chest. The chevron on the patch is the image of the 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (Galizische Nr. 1).
The video, numbered 32084, posted on April 11th, 2023 on the Telegram channel (rusvesna.ru) of the captured Ukrainian soldier is just one among many examples of Nazi symbology cherished, worn, or celebrated among Ukrainian nationalists troops. It is not a rare occurrence that Ukrainian soldiers are witnessed wearing the Totenkorp. It is more common than not.
The relevant news, however, regarding the captured Ukrainian fascistic soldier whose chevron is stamped with the Galicia division went unreported. It is reflective of a much wider failure throughout the nationalist presses of West to report on the Nazi symbology of Ukrainian armed forces.
The failure to shed on light on the wider presence of Nazi symbology in the Israeli press is bound up with the Israeli press’ effort to conceal the criminal act of aggression, Israel’s main ally, the United States, is perpetuating through its continued funding, support, or training of Ukrainian nationalists troops. The vast majority of the reporting on the Ukraine war, which tends to center almost exclusively on Vladimir Putin, his mistress, or his inner circle, rather than the plight of workers in the country, tends to display the Ukrainian war almost entirely through the false narrative of Russia’s invasion with hardly any criticism of NATO, the United States, or its allies.
It is unacceptable, however, to refrain from mentioning the Ukraine war, the revivification of Stephan Bandera, or the widespread adoption of Nazism among Ukrainian troops in articles denouncing the renaming of street names in honor of Nazi collaborators like the anti-Semite Kubijovyč.
The World Socialist Website, whose expanding reach is touching the ground of Ukraine, recently published multiple articles detailing not only the renaming of streets but the replacement of monuments in honor of fascistic, Nazi, OUN collaborators like Bandera. Maariv could have easily made reference, for instance, to the article published on March 8th, 2023, where the authors detail how more 237 streets, squares, avenues and boulevards were renamed just in Kiev.
It is not the first street to be renamed. It is certainly not the last. The struggle against fascist anti-Semitism cannot take place outside the struggle against imperialist war. The Ukraine war, as Lenin would say, is an “annexationist, predatory, plunderous war,” the likes of which is scheduled to expand, the more the world’s nationalist presses turn a blind eye to the political processes funding, supporting, or training Ukrainian nationalists troops.