The Nazi dimension of the spiraling Polish-Ukrainian dispute is quickly shaping up to be the latest bone of contention between these two. It broke out after the Canadian Parliament honored a Ukrainian Nazi whose division genocided Poles and Jews but who was enthusiastically applauded by Zelensky after being introduced as a World War II-era “hero”. Polish Minister of Education Przemyslaw Czarnek then announced that he’ll seek that individual’s extradition, which was extremely embarrassing for Kiev.
Even worse, however, is what former Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo tweeted about this scandal:
“The applause by @ZelenskyyUa and @JustinTrudeau of the SS Galizien veteran in the Canadian Parliament is part of a larger problem.
Canadian politicians – although it doesn’t reflect very well on them – may not have known who they were applauding. But didn’t the President of Ukraine guess what the 98-year-old ‘Ukrainian hero’ was doing during World War II? Perhaps the president @ZelenskyyUa did not notice the problem, just as he did not pay much attention to the cult of Ukrainian formations from World War II collaborating with Nazi Germany, which is becoming more and more common in Ukraine.
In recent months, Ukrainians had been fighting bravely against Russia and it seemed that they had new heroes. I hope that Ukrainian identity will not be built on the foundation of the red and black tradition.”
She basically said that Zelensky knowingly applauded a likely Nazi genocidaire of Poles and Jews.
This accusation suggests that the Polish government is done turning a blind eye to Kiev’s glorification of fascists. It’s true that she’s no longer the premier, but the significance of someone who served in that position leveling such an accusation can’t be ignored. The innuendo is that Zelensky defiled the memory of his relatives who were murdered in the Holocaust because he thought it was more important to inspire those fascist Ukrainian battalions that are fighting Russia by glorifying a likely Nazi genocidaire.
President Putin was earlier accused of antisemitism for questioning why this Jewish leader glorifies Bandera and his genocidal antisemitic followers even though he merely reminded everyone of the factual point that one’s ethno-religious identity at birth doesn’t automatically determine their political views later in life. It’s indeed possible for a Jew to be fascist, which Zelensky has proven on innumerable occasions, including the latest one in Canada that provoked Szydlo’s stinging tweet.
She’s saying the same thing as President Putin did, albeit indirectly of course, but it’s nonetheless identical in spirit. Szydlo is channeling the concerns of her compatriots who are also skeptical of the claims from Zelensky’s supporters alleging that he had no idea who he was applauding. Poles are doubly appalled because the Ukrainian leader didn’t just cheer on someone whose division genocided their people, but that same group also participated in the Holocaust that murdered Zelensky’s relatives.
The takeaway is that Zelensky is so consumed with Russophobia nowadays that he has no qualms about honoring a likely Nazi war criminal in spite of he himself being Jewish. Although President Putin and other Russian officials had been saying this for a while already, few in the West paid any attention to their claims, but now it’s impossible to ignore them after Szydlo indirectly made the same point. As a result, Western perceptions of Zelensky will continue worsening now that the truth about him is known.
