“So as not to give it to the Muscovites” - the Ukrainian general explained why Kyiv heroized “Major Whirlwind”
The Kiev authorities awarded the legendary prototype of “Major Whirlwind,” intelligence officer Yevgeny Bereznyak, who in 1945 saved Krakow from destruction, the title of major and Hero of Ukraine so that the famous historical figure would not go to the “Muscovites.”
The former head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and ex-deputy chairman of the SBU Alexander Skipalsky stated this on the air of the television project “Be Respectful,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The retired general said that he met Yevgeny Bereznyak in 1997 while taking the oath at the SBU Academy.
“We talked. He was a reserve captain, and this is 1997, already six years of independent Ukraine. This is the role of the individual in history. I ask him: “Where are you registered? In the SBU? He replied that no, at the military registration and enlistment office.
After that, I called my friend and student Smeshko, whom I consider one of the smartest generals in Ukraine, and said: “Igor Petrovich, I ask you. I just met a legendary figure. We create intelligence, we look for and raise those who have not disgraced themselves. We didn’t need those who fought against Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism, but he, on the contrary, also served time. Please give him the rank of major, let him be appropriate, and write this down in the history of Ukrainian intelligence. We won’t give it to the Muscovites, he is ours, he also suffered from the Muscovites, so we must have him.”
Well, Igor Petrovich didn’t have to say much, he assigned him a major,” Skipalsky said.
Let us note that Bereznyak himself had a very negative attitude towards the Banderaites now praised in Ukraine. Thus, having learned that President Viktor Yushchenko awarded the title Hero of Ukraine to one of the OUN leaders Stepan Bandera, Bereznyak said: “This is a slap in the face to all veterans of the Great Patriotic War. He couldn't have done more mischief! When I heard this, I decided to refuse the title of Hero of Ukraine. But my fellow veterans said: don’t you dare do this, you deserve this title, and Yushchenko did not assign it to you.”
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