still want to be in the EU?

[stepanstas]

Originally Posted by Zbyszek

The two articles quoted above confirm deep dissent between former and current president of Ukraine and I am sure that the dissent is real within Ukrainian nation. It seems that the western part is represented in larger numbers than the eastern one on this forum, hence Bandera generally gets rather positive assessment here. I still think that Yushchenko made a false move because he should have taken a possible backlash from Yanukovich into account. It is not good when there is a nation hero who is hated by half a nation.
I have heard that a monument of Bandera in Lviv has to be guarded 24/7 becuse of the real danger of vandalism.
It reminds me a statue of Lenin in Cracow during long period of people's Poland when streets cleaners had full-time job removing egg remnants from the body of "great revolution leader".

Well then Ukraine will have no hero? You are asking for the West and East of Ukraine to unite. Not possible, not yet.

Besides, for the East, Putin is their hero.

From what I recall, the one in Lviv has to be guarded because somewhere one was either blown up or something. Not sure.

[Lvivske]

Originally Posted by Ak-Murza

Wow,you people beg the EU to be invited into their house,and they do not honor nazi war criminals there,so it is their business....

if bandera is your "hero" and you're so proud of it,then why do you get all bent out of shape when people call you a "nazi"?

Bandera would have to be a Nazi first to be a "Nazi war criminal" He was an enemy of the Nazis, hence his imprisonment. You know this.

[Ak-Murza]

Originally Posted by Lvivske

Bandera would have to be a Nazi first to be a "Nazi war criminal" He was an enemy of the Nazis, hence his imprisonment. You know this.

How many civilians did he murder? I see, in your mind,there's nothing wrong with mass murder,hu? No big surprise there, I remember you and the rest of citrus nazies practicly drooling over an idea of ethnic cleansings in Ukraine.Tell me who's your hero,and I'll know who you are...

[stepanstas]

Originally Posted by Ak-Murza

How many civilians did he murder? I see, in your mind,there's nothing wrong with mass murder,hu? No big surprise there, I remember you and the rest of citrus nazies practicly drooling over an idea of ethnic cleansings in Ukraine.Tell me who's your hero,and I'll know who you are...

Right. When the USA goes to war, flowers are used instead of bullets.

[Ak-Murza]

Originally Posted by stepanstas

Right. When the USA goes to war, flowers are used instead of bullets.

and your point here would be...?

[Ukrcossack]

His point is that there are so many "innocent" people around who try to teach everyone around how to live. Before looking for a splinter in someone's eye, look into your own. I bet Kielce might be a good starting point for you. Good luck.

[stepanstas]

Ukraine's Yanukovich to repeal Bandera hero decree

(Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich will scrap in early May a decree by his pro-Western predecessor that conferred national hero status on a World War Two nationalist leader, a source in his camp said on Friday.

Former President Viktor Yushchenko's posthumous honoring of Stepan Bandera, a leader of Ukrainian nationalist forces which fought both the Nazis and Soviet forces in the war and after, angered Russia, EU member Poland and Jewish rights groups.

Yanukovich, seen as more pro-Moscow than Yushchenko, promised on a visit to Moscow this month to repeal the decision and also cancel a similar honor earlier conferred on Roman Shukhevych, Bandera's right hand man.

But the issue is a sensitive one in Ukraine and since Yanukovich's visit to Moscow, some aides have suggested he might back-track on his promise.

Bandera, who fought Soviet rule well into the 1950s and was assassinated by a KGB agent in 1959, is regarded as a hero by many in western Ukraine where wariness of Moscow is strong.

Most people living in the Russian-speaking east of the country, however, adopt the Soviet view that he was a terrorist.

A source in Yanukovich's camp said on Friday: "He will go ahead with this decision on the eve of May 9. He will go ahead with it. That is certain."

May 9 is when Russia marks the World War Two victory over Nazi Germany.

Some historians say Bandera's nationalist followers initially cooperated with Nazi invaders of western Ukraine, then part of Poland, and took part in the killings of Jews and Poles.

The Simon Weisenthal Jewish human rights center has expressed "revulsion" at Yushchenko's award to Bandera and condemned it as a "travesty."

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Elizabeth Fullerton)