During the visit of Ukrainian President Zelensky to the Canadian Parliament, Canadian Liberals under Justin Trudeau honored World War II Ukrainian veteran Yaroslav Hunka. The problem is that Hunka served Hitler’s Third Reich.
Canada has a large Ukrainian diaspora, which included many Nazi collaborationists. The 14th SS Division, composed mainly of Ukrainian nationalists, even had a memorial in Canada. Politico explains the Parliament disaster:
A ranking Canadian parliamentarian is apologizing to Jewish communities around the world for a blunder during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit that led to lawmakers honoring a veteran accused of belonging to a Nazi division in WWII.
It followed demands by Canadian Jewish organizations Sunday for an apology after it was revealed members of Parliament across party lines awarded a 98-year-old veteran on Friday with a standing ovation shortly after Zelenskyy addressed Canada’s House of Commons.
Many more Ukrainians served in the Soviet Red Army, most as ideologically neutral in a bid to defend their homes against the Nazi onslaught. Zelensky, who is Jewish, has also done much to move Ukrainian patriotism past its anti-Semitic roots. Fox News continues:
Local Canadian outlets said the Associated Press identified the 98-year-old in a photo caption as a veteran of the “First Ukrainian Division in World War II,” and noted other outlets described the man as a Ukrainian immigrant to Canada who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians.
The Soviet Union played a pivotal role in defeating Nazi Germany, including during the Battle of Stalingrad, which marked a turning point in the war. The U.S. Department of State outlines on its website that “without the remarkable efforts of the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, the United States and Great Britain would have been hard pressed to score a decisive military victory over Nazi Germany.”
The relationship between Ukrainian nationalism and Nazism is a complicated one. Many Ukrainian soldiers sport Nazi-inspired insignia, such as runes and sun-wheels. A US Colonel was spotted wearing one of these back in 2021.
https://x.com/USEmbassyKyiv/status/1380566208987152384?s=20
Many Ukrainian Nationalists were motivated by anti-Semitism and anti-Polish sentiments. Even before Germany’s conscription in the country, Ukrainian nationalists had ethnically cleansed Poles and Jews from Western regions.
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