Bandera, Melnyk. Pictures: Heinrich Böll Foundation, CC BY-SA 2.0/ Wikipedia
Defense of the fascist Stepan Bandera in an interview caused horror. Now Kyiv is pulling the ripcord. Will Melnyk return to Kyiv later this year?
After downplaying the role of Ukrainian fascist and war criminal Stepan Bandera in World War II and the Holocaust, the Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk to be recalled from his post in Berlin. This was reported at the beginning of the week the tabloid picture and Süddeutsche Zeitung citing Ukrainian sources.
The 46-year-old had recently made a name for himself with insults and verbal attacks on German politicians. The latest scandal followed an interview with journalist Thilo Jung in which he defended Bandera.
“Bandera was not a mass murderer of Jews and Poles,” says Melnyk, adding that there is no evidence for such allegations. Anyone who takes up the criticism of the fascist leader is following a Russian narrative that German, Polish and Israeli historians have also fallen for.
The Foreign Ministry in Kyiv then distanced itself from the diplomat. Melnyk’s statements are his personal opinion, which “does not reflect the position of the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine”.
Previously, neighboring Poland had described the controversial ambassador’s statements as absolutely unacceptable. Criticism also came from Israel. According to the agency, Melnyk himself declined to comment further on his latest misstep.
According to the reports in the two newspapers mentioned, the 46-year-old could vacate his post in the fall. Apparently, that doesn’t mean a career break. Melnyk’s appointment as Deputy Foreign Minister is under discussion.
Anti-Semitism officer speaks out
After Melnyk’s controversial interview, the federal government’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein, described the ambassador’s statements as “problematic”. In fact, Bandera is an “extremely controversial figure,” said Klein, who urged Ukraine to join the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) as soon as possible. So far, Kyiv has refused.
Melnyk had Ukrainian fascist Stepan Bandera (1909-1959) in one Conversation with the journalist Tilo Jung defended and claims: “Bandera was not a mass murderer of Jews and Poles.” There is no evidence for such allegations. Anyone who takes up the allegations against the fascist Bandera is following a Russian narrative that German, Polish and Israeli historians have also fallen for.
When Jung read his interviewee a leaflet from the fascist and anti-Semitic Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which called for the murder of Jews, among other things, Melnyk replied: “I won’t tell you today that I distance myself from that. And that’s it! “
Bandera (1909-1959) was a mastermind of the radical wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). The militias had their stronghold in western Ukraine, were mainly responsible for ethnic cleansing in 1943 and murdered tens of thousands of Polish civilians – a clear war crime for which he was not held responsible for a long time.
After the end of the war, Bandera fled to West Germany. In 1959, he was murdered with hydrocyanic acid by an agent of the Soviet secret service, the KGB, in Munich.
No consequences for defense of fascists
Melnyk has repeatedly attracted attention for his vehement defense of the fascist and mass murderer. His Holocaust denial related to Bandera has not given him any major problems so far. Even now, the Federal Foreign Office merely referred to the statement by the Foreign Ministry in Kyiv, without taking a position itself.
However, the statement from Kyiv does not explain what the official position is, after numerous streets, squares and even sports stadiums in the sphere of influence of Kiev have been named after the fascist and mass murderer Bandera in recent years.
The historical placement of Bandera and its OUN is consensus among historians. The historian Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe assigned Bandera to transnational fascism. Even if the OUN was able to temporarily camouflage its fascism for national reasons, it saw itself as a fascist movement and as belonging to its European counterparts, he wrote in a 2017 Essay for the Federal Agency for Civic Education:
As its leader, Bandera wanted to set up a fascist collaboration state in Nazi-controlled “New Europe”. The “cleansing” of the state from Jews, Poles, Russians and other ethnic and political “enemies” was an integral part of the political program of the OUN, which the movement at least partially realized in western Ukraine. The Ukrainian case – like the Croatian, Slovak or Romanian – shows that radical nationalism was in no way opposed to fascism, but merged with it or was an integral part of it.
Grzegorz Rossoliński love
According to Melnyk’s statements Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz criticized the diplomat’s attitude as “absolutely unacceptable”. However, he is “more interested in the position of the Ukrainian government than that of individuals”. the Distancing of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs be sufficient for him.