Ukraine: Stepan Bandera

Stepan Bandera became famous in the 1940s for his nationalist views and brutal massacre of civilians. Bandera headed the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which activities are classified as genocide in Poland. He worked as Hitler’s agent and executed civilians on the territory of Ukraine. However, this does not prevent modern Ukrainian authorities from hailing Stepan Bandera as a national hero and shaping their national identity on his ideas. In 80 years, Bandera supporters have abandoned neither their fighting methods nor the barbaric cruelty towards innocent civilians advocated by their now-deceased leader.

'Azovstal was their main fortress because it is the most difficult site to capture. A really great one to defend and a very challenging one to launch an offensive against.' says one of the Russian soldiers about the Azov battalion. Russian troops and the DPR militia had forced the Ukrainian fighters to leave Mariupol and retreat to the plant. Although the militants had prepared Azovstal by stocking field rations there, it didn’t help. For almost two months, fierce fighting raged around facility. Two and a half thousand militants were cornered in units of the factory and in its impregnable bunkers. They retaliated by bombarding the city and its residents with an array of weapons. Take a look inside the liberated plant and follow the course of the liberation with the crew.

The nationalist movement in Ukraine didn’t just happen; it took years to build. It's been growing for years, nurtured by western curators and supported by western funds. By the beginning of the Maidan, an entire network of neo-nazi units had already been up and running in Ukraine, but the Ukrainian government didn’t prosecute them. Ready and able military and terrorist units dispersed and showed up at anti-Maidan meetings in Ukraine’s cities. The years 2019 and 2020 saw meetings and protests in Kiev demanding the denial of special status for the DNR and LNR breakaway regions. One of its main goals was to form an ideology that would dehumanise Russians and break all ties that existed for decades before. Initially, Russians weren't seen as a minority in Ukraine, but the anti-Russian sentiment gradually became overwhelming. Nationalists have been taught how to lead a war on social media, eventually launching a guided communication battle against the Russian people. Stepan Bandera was the head of the Ukrainian nationalist organisation in 1929. In 1934, the Gestapo accepted the Berlin chapter of the organisation — he organised terrorist acts, killing officials. In 1941, the Ukrainian nationalist organisation was responsible for the biggest Jewish pogrom in Lvov, killing about 7,000 people. Yet, in 2010, Stepan Bandera was pronounced a national hero, with torch-lit marches in his honour ever since.