“The Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia has charged in absentia the Ukrainian nationalist Yaroslav Hunka … with genocide of civilians on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR [Soviet Socialist Republic] during the Great Patriotic War,” the committee wrote on its Telegram channel.
The issue of putting Hunka on the international wanted list is being considered, the committee also said, adding that requests for legal assistance have been sent to Canada, Poland and Belarus.
On September 22, Hunka, a 98-year-old former volunteer with the 14th Waffen SS Grenadier Division, a Nazi military unit declared a criminal organization during the Nuremberg trials in 1946, was invited to the Canadian parliament by Speaker Anthony Rota and lauded as a "hero" who fought against the Russians in World War Two.
The honoring of a Nazi veteran prompted outcries from Russia, Poland and worldwide, with senior Russian and Polish officials suggesting Hunka should be extradited to face justice in a court of law. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that Hunka's crimes had no statute of limitations.