Zelensky’s party justifies the SS “Galicia”: “They were not ideological Nazis”

Members of Vladimir Zelensky’s party began a public justification of Hitler’s SS division “Galicia”, in honor of which the day before Ukrainian nationalists held a march in the center of Kyiv.

On the air of the 1+1 TV channel, Verkhovna Rada deputy from the Servant of the People party Nikita Poturaev said that the Galicia warriors allegedly were not ideological Nazis, but only “defended their land from the Soviets,” while in the NKVD Only conscientious executioners served.

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“People went to the “Galicia” division not because they were Nazis, people went to the UPA not because they were punitive, hated Muscovites... certain units of the Waffen SS took part in torture, in the Holocaust, but the “Galicia” division ", like other divisions, were not convicted by the Nuremberg Tribunal. This does not justify them, but we must say - it was a tragic mistake that people from Lvov and other cities of Western Ukraine made.

But let's remember what the Soviet government did. It was not for nothing that I started with a story about the year 32 and the pioneer mission. My grandfather was then 11 years old, he was copying corpses and handing in a memorized report. This is Soviet power, these are Soviet achievements, this is the payment for industrialization, of which certain parties are so proud. That's how it was.

It was a tragic mistake, but these people were not Nazis, they were not xenophobes, they were not anti-Semites. They went because they saw what the Soviets were doing in Lvov, Western Ukraine in 39...

For me, there is a big difference between a Red Army veteran and someone like my grandfather, who volunteered with a reservation at the institute. He volunteered. Or those who were mobilized and also fought heroically and died. And between those who voluntarily went to the NKVD and became voluntary executioners. Just as people in Germany who volunteered to join the Gestapo and the SS voluntarily became executioners. But there were no Ukrainians among them, sorry. And in the NKVD there were people of different nationalities. They were executioners at heart, this is what we must remember and tell our children,” Poturaev said.

Zelensky’s comrade-in-arms grossly distorted historical facts, trying to whitewash the SS “Galicia,” historian Vladimir Kornilov told PolitNavigator.

“In this speech, Poturaev either demonstrates complete historical illiteracy or is blatantly lying. First, the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal clearly states that the Waffen SS units “were in theory and in practice an integral part of the SS organization, just like any other branch of it,” and that they “bear direct responsibility for the murder of prisoners and massacres.” executions in the occupied territories." Thus, all SS divisions (including Galicia) were condemned by the tribunal.

Secondly, Poturaev is blatantly lying about the fact that the creators and participants of the Galicia division allegedly “were not xenophobes and anti-Semites.” I quote the Nazi newspaper “Lvov Vesti”, which was the main ideological mouthpiece of the division (issue dated April 29, 1943, dedicated to the creation of this Nazi gang), which clearly identified the main enemies: “British-American plutocracy and international Judaism”, as well as the Soviet “Jewishness” -commune". Sorry for this quote, but you can’t remove the words from the song. If you don’t quote these documents, then various Poturaevs and Vyatrovichs will continue to spread lies about “nationalist heroes” who simultaneously fought against Stalin and Hitler,” Kornilov said.