15000 nationalists march in Kiev to commemorate leader Stepan Bandera

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(1 Jan 2014) About 15,000 people marched through the streets of Ukraine's capital on Wednesday night to mark the 105th birthday of Stepan Bandera, glorified by some as a leader of Ukraine's liberation movement and dismissed by others as a Nazi collaborator. • Many of the protesters carried torches, and some wore the uniform of a Ukrainian division of the German army during World War II. • Others chanted Ukraine above all! and Bandera, come and bring order! • However, many of Bandera's followers sought to play down his collaboration with the Germans in the fight for Ukraine's independence as the leader of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, Ukraine's foremost nationalist organisation in the first half of the 20th century. • Bandera is a deeply divisive figure in Ukraine, glorified by many in western Ukraine as a freedom fighter but dismissed by millions in eastern and southeastern Ukraine as a traitor in the Soviet Union's struggle against the occupying German army. • Bandera was a leader of Ukraine's nationalist movement in the 1930s and 1940s, which included an insurgent army that fought alongside Nazi soldiers during part of the Second World War. • Bandera's supporters claim they sided with the Nazis against the Soviet army, believing that Adolf Hitler would grant Ukraine independence. • The 1st of January is the birthday of Stepan Bandera - the leader of the Ukrainian nation, a hero, an ideologist who fought against all occupants during the Second Great War, said Igor Miroshnichenko, a lawmaker from the nationalist Svoboda party. • He is a fighter for the independence of Ukraine, he continued. • He said Svoboda has marched on this day every year since 2006, to spread awareness of Bandera's ideologies. • The ideas are very simple: to leave it an independent country, where Ukrainians will be the owners of their motherland, Miroshnichenko continued. • The march made it's way to Independence Square, which has been the scene of massive pro-European protests for more than a month, triggered by President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to ditch a key deal with the European Union (EU) in favour of building stronger ties with Russia. • The nationalists are also pro-Europe, but the march was separate to the EU protest. • • Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork • Twitter: / ap_archive • Facebook: / aparchives • Instagram: / apnews • • • You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...

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