Controversy Over Ukrainian Nationalist Honors

of Jewish origin is kneeling before the grave of the Nazi collaborator, the leader of

Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Andrei Melnyk, whose subordinates collaborated with Nazis,

killed Jews, hunted Jews in hiding, guarded ghettos and camps, led Jews to killing sides,

and participated in killing. They were in auxiliary police under Nazis.

They were in schutzmannschaft battalions. I mean, subordinates of this Andrei Melnyk,

who was reburied in Ukraine with state honors. And I, as a Jewish person, as a person

who studied Holocaust in Ukraine and the history of Ukrainian Nationalists on the ground,

and the Second World War, almost 20 years of my life, I felt deeply ashamed.

I couldn't even imagine that the president who promised us to reverse these nationalistic

politics established by Poroshenko with glorifying of members of Ukrainian Nationalists on the ground

who collaborated with Nazis, who were deeply involved in the Holocaust, who were deeply

involved in ethnic cleansing of Poles, for example. At least 100,000 Polish people were

killed by those national heroes nowadays. I was deeply ashamed. Because if you claim that you

are building a democratic state, you can't make those people national heroes.

So, many people in Ukraine, those who voted for Zelensky basically asked many questions.

Why is this happening?