3rd April 2010, 04:12
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Registered User
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: New Jersey, USA (Born In Ukraine)
Posts: 1,586
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Donetsk court rules Bandera's Hero of Ukraine title illegal
Quote:
A court in eastern Ukraine on Friday ruled that former President Viktor Yushchenko's decree to award onetime Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera the title of a national hero was illegal.
Yushchenko issued the award in January, but a few days later a Donetsk-based lawyer appealed the president's decree in the Donetsk District Administrative Court. Volodymyr Olentsevych argued that the Hero of Ukraine title can only be awarded to Ukrainian nationals, which Bandera wasn't.
President Viktor Yanukovych, who succeeded Yushchenko on February 25, has said the Bandera controversy will be settled before this year's Victory Day.
The sides have 10 days to appeal the ruling.
Bandera's Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists briefly allied with Nazi Germany during the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. The Soviet authorities accused Bandera, who fought both the Nazis and the Soviets in his quest for an independent Ukraine, of numerous acts of murder and terrorism. He was assassinated by the KGB in Munich, Germany, on October 15, 1959.
Bandera is a controversial figure in Ukraine, with many in the more nationalist west of the country considering him a hero.
DONETSK, April 2 (RIA Novosti)
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