Ukrainian ultra-nationalism emerged long before the events of the Euromaidan. However, it was after the 2014 coup that neo-Nazism became a part of the... 11.04.2022, Sputnik International
The ‘ban’ on Nazi symbols is a formality, with radicals free to organise marches and torchlight processions in honour of fascist war criminals in the streets of their cities.
Ukrainian ultra-nationalism emerged long before the events of the Euromaidan. However, it was after the 2014 coup that neo-Nazism became a part of the country’s political system.
The ‘ban’ on Nazi symbols is a formality, with radicals free to organise marches and torchlight processions in honour of fascist war criminals in the streets of their cities.
2009: Lvov. Young people with portraits of the leaders of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) – a fascist organisation which collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II, stand before a monument to Stepan Bandera, one of OUN’s founders, during a ‘Day of Heroes’ celebration by veterans of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, a wartime fascist paramilitary force.
2014: Lvov. Participants of a march dedicated to the anniversary of the creation of the 14thSS-Volunteer Division Galicia. Nazi Germany began to form this division in April 1943. SS Galicia is one of the most infamous collaborationist nationalist units to fight with the Axis side on the territory of the former USSR.
2014: Lvov. Participants of a march dedicated to the anniversary of the creation of the 14thSS-Volunteer Division Galicia. The fighting force took part in multiple punitive actions against civilians during the war.
2014: Kiev. Hand-to-hand combat training by fighters from the Right Sector, a neo-Nazi political and paramilitary group, in a tent camp on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Kiev’s Independence Square).
* A radical movement of Ukrainian ultranationalists whose activities are banned in Russia.
2017: Kiev. Participants of a march dedicated to the creation of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which coincides with Ukraine Defender Day, a public holiday established in 2014 by then-President Petro Poroshenko and held annually since then each 14 October.
2018: Lvov. Participants of a nationalist march dedicated to the 109th anniversary of the birth of Stephan Bandera, with one participant carrying the standard of the 14th SS-Volunteer Division Galicia, and another the flag of Bandera’s OUN.
2018: Lvov. Participants of a nationalist march. Processions and marches have proven an effective tool for involving teenagers and young people in the ranks of neo-Nazi organisations.
2018: Kiev. Anti-Russian event by nationalists outside the building of Rossotrudnichestvo, the Russian federal agency responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and cultural exchange. Graffiti reads “Death to Russia.”
Simple slogans and sayings, which don’t require self-reflection, quickly captivated young people. The main idea is that “there is an external enemy – Russia, and it must perish.”
2018: Kiev. Monument and grave of General Nikolai Vatutin, the Red Army commander mortally wounded in 1944 in an ambush by the OUN militants. Neo-Nazis from S14, a youth organization of the neo-fascist Svoboda Party, known for its violent attacks on gypsies, Russians, left-wing activists, women’s day marchers, and others, covered the monument with red paint. ‘S14’ is a reference to the Fourteen Words slogan of American white supremacist David Lane. The Vatutin monument was demolished in 2019.
2019: Lvov. ‘March in Embroidered Shirts’. The aesthetics of embroidered shirts, the beautiful classical national clothing of Ukrainians, has also been co-opted by the ideologists of the neo-Nazis.
2019: Kiev. Participant of a march dedicated to Ukraine Defender Day.
‘Ultras’ – notorious football hooligans with ultranationalist tendencies, as well as young people from underprivileged families, often serve as the backbone of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi organizations.
2019: Kiev. Members of the Sokol Organization – another youth group associated with the ultra-right Svoboda Party, during a march dedicated to Ukraine Defender Day.
2020: Kiev. ‘Ukraine Above All Else’ – a slogan used by Ukrainian nationalists on a poster carried during a demonstration. Deutschland Uber Alles (‘Germany Above All Else’) served as the slogan of the Nazis. This line, written by German poet August Heinrich Hoffmann (1798-1874) became the first stanza of the anthem of the Third Reich.
2022: Kiev. Annual torchlight procession in honour of the birth of Stepan Bandera. In Nazi Germany, torchlight processions were held on Adolf Hitler’s birthday. Text on the poster reads “Nothing will stop an idea whose time has come.” The Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower is pictured burning in the background.
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