[Außenpolitik] Nationalismus in der Ukraine
Enno Schmidt, via Thomas Mayer
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy had himself photographed in front of the Nazi symbol of the Waffen-SS Galicia Division during a visit by the nationalist "Rubizh" Brigade to the Donetsk front on November 4, 2025. Unlike in Germany where individuals who participated in the persecution of Jews and committed mass murder are considered criminals in Ukraine they are revered as freedom fighters. "Slava Ukraine" Hail Ukraine is the greeting of Ukrainian fascists. Now heads of state from other countries have also been using it. Are we cheering on fascism when we cheer on the current state of Ukraine?
Or is this just Russian propaganda when people talk about the denazification of Ukraine? In his book "Searching for Truth in the Ukraine War," Thomas Mayer provides historical data and evidence of current events that shed light on the matter. Judge for yourself. The chapter on Ukrainian nationalism from the audiobook version narrated by Enno Schmidt is available online for free.
Founded in 1929, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) aimed to achieve an ethnically pure and independent Ukraine through armed struggle. The OUN's most famous leader was Stepan Bandera (1909–1959). He is commemorated in Ukraine today with monuments, marches, commemorative stamps, street names and museums.
Fascism and nationalism were indistinguishable to Ukrainian freedom fighters during the second world war. And they are indistinguishable today. They call themselves nationalists. They cooperated with the Nazis and the German SS because they expected this to lead to the ethnic cleansing of Ukraine of Jews, Poles and Russians. The OUN played a crucial role in implementing the Holocaust, the systematic killing of Jewish people in the territory of present-day Ukraine. The OUN initiated the Holocaust in July 1941 with the first mass shooting of Jews in Lviv. In the following years the OUN massacred not only Jews but also Polish peasants in western Ukraine and fought against the Russians. After the second world war the OUN's struggle against Soviet domination continued now supported by the CIA.
Fanatical Russophobia has remained with Ukrainian nationalists to this day. They exert a profound influence on Ukrainian society. In summer camps eight-year-old children are trained to use Kalashnikovs to kill Russians. One instructor who has already fought against the Russian-speaking population in eastern Ukraine explains: "We never shoot at people. But we don't consider separatists and occupiers coming from Moscow to be human beings." He literally referred to Russians as "subhumans." In the Kherson region alone members of the Russian National Guard found over 200 books and pamphlets in schools and libraries propagating neo-Nazism and fascism, including writings by Bandera and Shukhevych. These leaders of the liberation struggle were complicit in the murder of 100,000 Poles - simply because they are Polish - in western Ukraine. These materials were supplied by the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Culture.
The 1996 Constitution of Ukraine states: “…the preservation of the heritage of the Ukrainian people is a duty of the state.” In other words this is “racial hygiene.” A term from the Nazi era. Ethnic purity. However it is not at all clear what constitutes a “Ukrainian people.” Approximately 30 percent of Ukrainians are ethnic Russians and others belong to different ethnicities.
By supporting western Ukrainian nationalists and their fanatical Russophobia the West was able to divide the country. The demonstrations on Maidan Square and the subsequent coup in Kyiv in 2014 brought leaders of the "Right Bloc" and other successor organizations of militant freedom fighters from the Nazi era into government positions. One of their first actions was to restrict the use of the Russian language in public. The population in eastern Ukraine protested. Kyiv launched a war against its own people sending tanks and bombs. Crimea and the two Donbas regions which were under fire from the Ukrainian army seceded from Ukraine by referendum. The Donbas war continued and in 2022 drew Russia into a war that served the American goal of weakening Russia with the Ukrainian population as the scapegoat.
The greeting "Slava Ukraini" (Hail Ukraine) has been the formula of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalisms (OUN) since 1939 an organization that embraced the fanaticism of the German SS. "Slava Ukraini" became the battle cry at the EuroMaidan demonstrations in early 2014. In 2018 "Slava Ukraini, Slawa Herojam" (Hail Ukraine, Glory to the Heroes) was introduced as a mandatory greeting in the Ukrainian army and police. Ukrainian fascism became state policy.
Thomas Mayer describes many further examples and evidence of nationalism primarily in western Ukraine and within the Kyiv government in this chapter and in other chapters of his book "The Search for Truth in the Ukraine War." It becomes undeniably clear that our mainstream media downplay and cover up the fascist nationalism of what has become a totalitarian state in Ukraine and that we have glorified a racist regime as the defender of "our values."
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