Does Ukraine Have a Neo-Nazi Problem?

Not acknowledging a serious problem is the first step towards just accepting it by denying its nefarious nature. After that, you just live with the lie.

Vladimir Putin has asserted on multiple occasions that Russia’s “Special Military Operation” begun 3 years ago in Ukraine was taken (amongst other reasons) to “denazify” the country. Irrespective of how one feels about the war in Ukraine, the Russian president’s rationale for the war or one’s personal views of Vladimir Putin, Ukraine’s Nazi problem is real. And there is evidence which not only documents its existence historically but at the present time.

It would be a dangerous oversight to deny Ukraine’s antisemitic history and collaboration with Hitler’s Nazis, as well as the latter-day embrace of neo-Nazi factions in some quarters.

Unfortunately, for political reasons that have to do with the “niceties” of diplomatic decorum and loyalty to the prevailing narrative of a superpower such occurrences often go unacknowledged.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has claimed ignorance of the well-documented fact that Ukrainian nationalists responsible for atrocities against Jewish people are venerated as heroes by Kiev.

On Monday, Sa’ar held a press briefing to mark Israel’s presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).

The minister seemed taken aback, however, when a reporter asked for his thoughts on the modern-day glorification in Ukraine of Nazi-allied historical nationalist figures such as Stepan Bandera.

“First of all, I didn’t know about it. I will check it,” the official responded, pledging to issue a statement of condemnation “if there is a necessity.”

Bandera and other nationalists, including those directly implicated in wartime atrocities, have been celebrated in modern Ukraine for years – something the reporter described as “common knowledge.”

How is such ignorance by the Israeli foreign minister possible? What is the Israeli embassy in Kiev doing such that their boss (Gideon Sa’ar) doesn’t know of such things?

The Israeli Foreign Ministry and its embassy in Kiev have in fact issued multiple statements denouncing the veneration of such figures. In January 2022, the diplomatic mission described that year’s annual “Torch March” commemorating Bandera’s birthday as “desecrating the memory of the victims of the Holocaust in Ukraine.”

No condemnation was issued the following year, however. The embassy explained to Haarez that “we’ve made our position clear many times, but apparently there is nothing we can do, at least at the moment.”

Just prior to World War II, Ukraine contained one of the largest Jewish populations in Europe. Some estimates place the number roughly between 2.0-2.7 million which is extraordinary given the region’s record of antisemitism. At the conclusion of the conflict, more than 50% would have died. As German troops took control of Kiev in 1941, they were welcomed with shouts and banners of “Heil Hitler.” Soon after, roughly 34,000 Jews — along with Roma and other “undesirables” — were rounded up and marched to fields outside the city. The pretext was one of resettlement only to be massacred in what became known as the “Holocaust by Bullets.”

The site for the initial extermination was the Babyn Yar ravine, but it continued to fill as a mass grave for the next two years. It is estimated that more than 100,000 were murdered there; it would grow to become one of the largest single killing sites of the Holocaust outside of Auschwitz and other death camps. Scholars have noted the collaborative role Ukrainian locals played in facilitating Nazi kill orders at the site.

Fast forward to today. There were just over 40,000 self-identifying Jews in Ukraine on the eve of the conflict with Russia; the population has declined 91% over the past thirty years – and it will only decline from here.

Just recently, a law was passed which criminalizes antisemitic acts. Unfortunately, passage of the law was intended to address a pronounced increase in public displays of racism against the Jewish population, including swastika-laden vandalism of synagogues and Jewish memorials, as well as government sanctioned marches in Kiev and other cities that celebrated the Waffen SS and its Ukrainian staffed Galician Division.

To make matters worse, Ukraine has in recent years erected a considerable number of memorial statues honoring Ukrainian nationalists whose legacies are tainted by their indisputable record as Nazi proxies. The Forward newspaper cataloged some of these individuals, including Stepan Bandera, leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), whose followers acted as local militia members for the SS and German army. “Ukraine has several dozen monuments and scores of street names glorifying this Nazi collaborator, enough to require two separate Wikipedia pages,” the Forward wrote.

Another frequent honoree is Roman Shukhevych, revered as a Ukrainian freedom fighter but also the leader of a feared Nazi auxiliary police unit that the Forward notes was “responsible for butchering thousands of Jews and … Poles.” Statues have also been raised for Yaroslav Stetsko, a one-time chair of the OUN, who wrote “I insist on the extermination of the Jews in Ukraine.”

Far-right extremist groups in Ukraine have also gained political currency in the past decade, none more chilling than Svoboda (formerly the Social National Party of Ukraine), whose leader claimed the country was controlled by a “Muscovite-Jewish mafia.” Svoboda has sent several members to Ukraine’s Parliament, including one who called the Holocaust a “bright period” in human history, according to Foreign Policy.

Just as egregious and frankly dangerous, neo-Nazis are part of some of Ukraine’s growing ranks of volunteer battalions. One is the Azov Battalion, founded by an avowed white supremacist who claimed Ukraine’s national purpose was to rid the country of Jews and other inferior races. In 2018, the U.S. Congress stipulated that its aid to Ukraine couldn’t be used “to provide arms, training or other assistance to the Azov Battalion.”

But while intent can become clouded and often obscured, political agendas typically prevail – the Congressional ban was later lifted – Azov is currently an official member of the Ukraine National Guard.

Global aid to Ukraine since 2022 has reached a staggering €400 billion committed as of December 2024, or about $430 billion, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

Shouldn’t we have asked better questions of Ukraine before the financial largess began? Or did we already know the answers and as is typical – allowed politics rather than principle to dictate?