Citizens of Soviet Ukraine at a demonstration on the International Workers' Day, 1st May

I grew up in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). The period 1965-1985 is the happiest time for me, my family, friends and tens of millions of residents of the Ukrainian SSR. The grandmother of my school friend from the Vinnytsia region (Western Ukraine), who was born under the Tsar, said that ordinary Ukrainians had never lived better than under the Soviet rule. The whole serene life ended with the beginning of Gorbachev's "perestroika" and "new thinking", which manifested itself in the emergence of national pride and the revival of nationalist (neo-Nazi) ideology in Ukraine, actively supported by the West, led by the United States. During these years I have heard repeatedly from my Ukrainian fellows a pathetic phrase: "When an Ukrainian was born, a Jew cried" (see note.1). The national superiority, which has become in Western Ukraine the basis of the ideology of hatred of Communists, Russians - "Muscovites" (in Ukrainian slang, see note.2) and representatives of other ethnic groups, gradually developed into hatred of those Ukrainian citizens who did not fit into the parameters of a "genuine" Ukrainian (see note 3). It all resembles the Third Reich, where the cult of true Aryans was created! As the reason for the fall of Lucifer was his pride, so the reason for the collapse of Ukraine was the exorbitant ambitions and excessive nationalistic pride of its political elite and the oligarchs.

It has become unsafe for strangers to appear alone in Western Ukraine (Galicia) since the mid-1980s. Law enforcement agencies ignored the political murder of historian Vitaliy Maslovsky, author of the books "The Yellow-and-Blue Mafia" (published in 1975) and "With whom and against whom Ukrainian nationalists fought during the World War II" (published in 1999), who was murdered by nationalists at the entrance of his block of flats in Lvov on October 26, 1999. Since 2014, due to their professional activities, the chief editor of the "Neteshinsky Bulletin" Olga Moroz (April 15, 2015), journalist Oles Buzina (April 16, 2015) and thousands of other public and ordinary people have become victims of terror.

Ukrainian ultra-nationalists – Stepan Bandera followers (see note.4) indeed became the driving force behind the two grandiose upheavals in the history of Ukraine: the "Orange Revolution" in 2004 and the "Euro- Maidan" in 2014. The turning point was in 2014, when Bandera followers carried out a military coup in Kiev with the active participation of the USA and EU countries. Euromaidan launched large-scale harassment of the Russian population, the seizure of church buildings of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, persecution of the believers, murder of the ideological opponents and the bloody war in the south-east of Ukraine, which had all signs of genocide. Within the framework of the general policy of Russo phobia and frenzied propaganda, young people were subjected to the strongest nationalistic influence. The monopoly of the lies related to the special Ukrainian ethnic group has become dominant in Ukraine: the "heirs" of the baptism of Kievan Rus, the "pure race" not affected by the Mongol-Tatars, etc.

At the beginning, brain-washed Ukrainian teenagers were jumping at nationalists’ gatherings chanting: "Who does not jump, he is a Muscovite". Quite soon these gatherings were replaced by daytime demonstrations and night torchlight processions of neo-Nazi radicals, which were spilled out of Galicia and gradually spread across the

Kiev and other major cities under the slogans: "Bandera will come and put everything in order", "Hang a Muscovite on a tree!" (see note.5) etc.

Bandera followers’ night torchlight procession in Ukraine, Kiev, January 1, 2021 (The inscription on the banner: ‘Our religion is nationalism. Our prophet is Stepan Bandera’)

Ukraine has changed radically over the past eight years: total brainwashing of the population in the style of Goebbels propaganda, complete cleansing of dissidents, eradication of the Russian language and Russian culture – led to the complete savagery and degradation of the entire nation. The words of His Holiness Kirill Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia were not heard: "Our common culture of the peoples of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia and our faith are not only a decisive factor in preserving our national, spiritual authenticity, but also a factor ensuring influence of the people who came out of the Kiev baptismal font in the whole world" (July 28, 2018).

The main provocateurs of breaking up the single Russian-Ukrainian nation were the United States and the United Kingdom, which also applied their traditional Anglo-Saxon strategy – "divide and rule". Efforts of the collective West fell on the fertile ground prepared by the Ukrainian nationalists. The West promoted short-sighted, greedy, self-serving individuals to the power trough in Ukraine, who under the guise of nationalist phraseology were ready to resort to any radical measures to stay on the political Olympus. When President Leonid Kuchma was in Office (July 19, 1994 – January 23, 2005), the book "Ukraine is not Russia" (2003) appeared under his signature, which justified Ukraine's course of disassociation from Russia – a slippery and thorny path. Benefits of the Western civilization that were promised to the Ukrainian people may turn out to be short-lived, but the loss of their identity will be irreversible certainly.

If in the 1990s. Ukraine was built as a country no longer connected with Russia by a common thousand-year history, language, Orthodox Christian faith and family ties (according to President Leonid Kuchma’s book Ukraine is not Russia), then after the "Orange Revolution" (2004) they began to make anti-Russia out of Ukraine at an accelerated pace. In relation to Russia, the Ukrainian leadership has adopted the traditional British foreign policy approach – "Interfere and spoil" the bilateral relationship completely and utterly, beyond any repair.

With pain in my heart, I watched the outbreak of the all country campaign to demolish monuments to the creator of the Ukrainian SSR, Vladimir Lenin, Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov, Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov, General of the Army Nikolay Vatutin (Commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front was ambushed and fatally wounded by Ukrainian nationalists on 29th February 1944).  Field Marshal George Zhukov (his bas-relief statue was destroyed in Odessa), how the burial places of soldiers of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) and monuments to war heroes were desecrated.

Desecrated monument to General of the Army Nikolay Vatutin, Kiev

In June 1992, by the decision of the "democratic" authorities of Lvov, a monument to the legendary Soviet military intelligence officer Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolay Kuznetsov (murdered by Ukrainian nationalists on 9th March 1944), who personally killed 11 generals and high-ranking officials of the occupation administration of Nazi Germany, was dismantled on the Hill of Glory. In 2017, local vandals desecrated his grave – they stole letters, numbers and a bronze wreath from a memorial plate.

Desecrated grave of Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolay Kuznetsov, Lvov. Graffiti on the grave stone – ‘The enemy of the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army)’. 
To my dismay, 75 years after the end of WW2 Ukrainian neo-Nazis are still fighting with the Russian officer’s remains.

Since emergence of the sovereign Ukraine in 1992, for 30 years Russia has done everything to appease its restless neighbor: preferential prices for supplied gas and petroleum products, duty-free imports of Ukrainian products to Russia, political concessions to Ukraine and much more, but it did not help. For 20 years, Russia has been helping the economic formation of the independent Ukraine by supplying gas at domestic prices, which has created a great number of Ukrainian oligarchs – sponsors of the 2014 military coup. The Kiev junta has made nationalist volunteer battalions its mainstay (similar to the "death squads" in Latin America) such as "Azov", "Aidar", "Donbass", "Tornado" and others, which were financed by Ukrainian oligarchs.

On the banners of the Azov battalion Nazi Swastika, Kiev (see note 6)

Surprisingly, descendants of the victims of the Jewish massacre in Lvov (30 June -2 July 1941) of the Jewish massacre in Babiiy Yar (Kiev) and other bloody atrocities of the Ukrainian nationalists led by Stepan Bandera 70 years after the war began to finance the grandchildren of their ancestors' executioners. In Donbass, the nationalists’ battalions have forever stained themselves with looting, rape, torture of prisoners, seizure of enterprises, murder of civilians and other war crimes.

Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky is a characteristic symbiosis of Jewry and Ukrainian nationalists (on his T-shirt – the symbol of Jewish menorah and the inscription – Jew-Bandera)

Having become the richest woman in Ukraine on Russian gas, as a sign of gratitude, the "Gas Princess" Mrs Yulia Tymoshenko (Ukrainian Prime Minister in 2005, 2007-2010) spoke out for "there is no scorched field left in place of Russia" ... and that 8 million Russians living in Ukraine "should be killed by atomic weapons" (18 March 2014). And the nationalists heard her appeal: on May 2, 2014, 48 opponents of the Maidan were burned alive in the House of Trade Unions in Odessa. This crime went unnoticed by the ‘civilized’ West.

Bandera nationalists’ crimes in the House of Trade Unions of Odessa (52 people were burned alive) May 2, 2014

In 1994, Ukraine signed a framework agreement with NATO based on the Partnership for Peace initiative, followed by the Individual Partnership Plan with NATO in 2002. In 2019, the Constitutional amendments came into force that consolidated the strategic course for obtaining full membership of Ukraine in the European Union and NATO. During 2014-2022 Western partners intensively helped to create military infrastructure in Ukraine, prepared a springboard for the deployment of NATO troops and weapons in the immediate vicinity of the Russian border.

Since April 2014, formation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and nationalists’ volunteer battalions that became later part of the National Guard and the Interior Ministry have been waging an ongoing war against the Donbass (Donetsk People Republic and Lugansk People Republic). By mid-February 2022, the situation along the demarcation line of the sides had greatly worsened, it was coming to a large-scale offensive of Ukrainian troops on Donetsk and Lugansk. For seven years Ukraine ignored the Minsk Agreements on Donbass (signed on February 12, 2015). Russia did not have an inch left to maneuver, and it was forced to cut this "Gordian knot". On 24th February 2022, by the decision of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the Russian Armed Forces launched a special military operation aiming at protection of Donbass population, demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.

The destroyed Donetsk airport after the military operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the summer of 2014

Both of my grandfathers, soldiers of the Red Army, were killed in action while force-crossing the Dnieper River in the Battle for Kiev in the Autumn of 1943. In recent years in Ukraine, followers of the Nazi collaborators have been methodically doing their dirty job, erecting monuments to the Nazi criminals such as Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych (commander of Nachtigall Battalion, a hauptmann of the German Schutzmannschaft 201 auxiliary police battalion), naming the streets in their honor, introducing a greeting of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) – ally of Nazi Germany into all spheres of state and public life. How can you turn a blind eye to all this? How much can you tolerate these Bandera dances on the bones of 3.5 million Soviet soldiers who were killed in action on the territory of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945?!

A Russian veteran of the Great Patriotic War (WWII) is supporting the special military operation in Ukraine

In an interview of the Great Patriotic War veteran, Colonel (Retd.) Ivan Lytkin (96), to the Rossiya-24 TV channel (March 3, 2022), in which he expressed his opinion on the latest situation in Ukraine and the Russian military operation, caused such a storm of hatred and insults in Ukrainian social networks that there was nothing left but to sober up the "genuine" Ukrainians.

Therefore, it is necessary to combat the supporters of the misanthropic ideology, completely etching this abomination from the healthy body of Ukraine, so that ordinary Ukrainians are not afraid of Bandera's bloody murderers and, finally, could breathe freely, communicate with their Russian and Belarusian brothers, live happily in a free and truly independent Ukraine. And then the names of the true heroes of Ukraine will shine again such as Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky, Count Alexei Razumovsky, writer Nikolai Gogol, partisan commander Sidor Kovpak, film director Alexander Dovzhenko, academician Boris Paton, aircraft designer Oleg Antonov, head of the USSR Leonid Brezhnev and many other great sons and daughters of the Ukrainian people.

P.S. During my military service in the Armed Forces of the USSR and Russia, I met many Ukrainians. They were reliable comrades, brave warriors, good soldiers, many have grown to the rank of generals. I regret that some of them we will probably have to face on the battlefield.

Notes:

1. Khokhol (long forelock) is the name of the traditional Zaporozhye Cossacks hairstyle adopted by Russians. The Little Russia (Zaporozhye) Cossacks themselves called him "oseledets", which means "herring" in Ukrainian. In the modern language, Khokhol is a playful nickname of a Ukrainian.

2. Moskal (pejorative – Moskalyaka) in the Middle Ages, the inhabitants of the Grand Duchy of Moscow were called. Since the early 1990s, Ukrainian nationalist have called the inhabitants of Russia Muscovites, who are considered the worst enemies of true Ukrainians.

3. Genuine Ukrainian – literally, conscious. In Ukraine, this word has a broader semantic meaning. This is a man who certainly shares all the dogmas about the exclusivity and superiority of Ukrainians, and he considers those who doubt these dogmas to be his blood enemies.

4. Bandera – the name of the members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which in the period from 1940 to 1959 was headed by German intelligence agent Stepan Bandera. This name is applicable to the current Ukrainian nationalists in order to emphasize their ideological connection with the OUN.

After the German occupation of the Ukrainian SSR in 1941, its territory was divided into two parts. The western regions, formerly part of Austria-Hungary and Poland, were included in the so-called General Governorship, where Ukrainians were a relatively privileged status compared to Poles. While the rest of the territory of the Ukrainian SSR became part of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine.

Ukrainian nationalists willingly joined the units of the German security police (Schutzmannschaft), which took part in the murder of Communists, Jews, in the protection of concentration camps and death camps, and also carried out punitive actions against partisans. A total of 71 Ukrainian Schutzmannschaft battalions were formed and deployed during the war. For example, 118th Schutzmannschaft battalion (2nd Commanding Officer – Grigory Vasyura) participated in burning residents of the Belarusian village of Khatyn on March 22, 1943.

In June 1943, 14th SS Volunteer Infantry Division "Galicia" (14 Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS) was formed and included up to about 17,000 soldiers. Most of the division's personnel were Greek Catholic Galicians (Greek Catholic Uniates). In July 1944, the division was encircled by the Soviet troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front, near Brody (Lvov region). No more than 3,000 Galicians managed to escape from the encirclement. Subsequently, the reorganized division was involved in conducting police tasks. In the Autumn of 1944, the division was deployed in Slovakia. In the winter of 1945, the Galicians were deployed in Yugoslavia to fight Tito's partisans. In the spring of 1945, "Galicia" returned to the frontline and took part together with German units in battles in Austria. After the war most of the surviving Galicians settled in Canada.

5. The slogan "Moskalyaku – on gilyaku!" ("Hang a Muscovite on a tree!") is a call of Ukrainian nationalists to hang Russians and all people who disagree with them. "Gilyaka" (gilka) – translated from the Ukrainian language – a tree branch (tree). Along with burning people in their houses, it was a favorite way of executing by the Nazi occupiers and their Ukrainian henchmen during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

6. The Azov Battalion was founded in 2014, and its first commander was Andriy Biletsky, who previously headed the neo-Nazi group Patriot of Ukraine. Several members of the militia, which has been integrated into the Ukrainian National Guard, are self-avowed neo-Nazis.

On June 10, 2014 the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bipartisan amendment to the Defense Appropriations Act – from Reps. John Conyers Jr., D-Michigan, and Ted Yoho, R-Florida – that would block U.S. training of the Azov battalion and would prevent transfer of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to fighters in Iraq and Ukraine.

In 2017, the US Congress adopted a Pentagon appropriations bill, which prohibited funding of the Azov battalion and called it a neo-Nazi organization. However, in March 2022, the US President signed a up to $800 million military aid package for Ukraine. The total amount is already more than $2 billion. The weapons sent to Kiev were taken by neo-Nazi battalions, including Azov.

The Foreign Policy Magazine (US) characterized Azov as “openly neo-Nazi” and “fascist.” And Azov is not some obscure force. Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov (2014-2021), who oversaw Ukraine’s armed militias, announced that Azov troops would be among the first units to be trained by the 300 U.S. military advisers who have been dispatched to Ukraine in a training mission codenamed “Fearless Guardian” (2015). Many soldiers of the Azov battalion/regiment wear Nazi Swastikas and SS symbols.

Lt. Colonel (Retd.) Alexander Goncharov, Secretary of the Great Patriotic War veterans' organisation

9th March 2022                      Moscow