For a Different Angle on Ukraine

CN has been my go-to source for CREDIBLE, realistic information on US foreign policy and activities, especially since the 2003 Iraq War(crime). Just to inform the younger readers here, that was when the US neo-cons orchestrated a war based on blatant lies and a militaristic world view, killing at least 100,000 people (with some estimates as high as 1M !) in Iraq, some 6200 miles away. The MSM was 100% behind the war and reliably parroted every official pronouncement regarding the purported WMDs as the unquestioned truth, with only a few nonMSM websites like CN taking a position of healthy skepticism. Ultimately, after NO stockpiles of WMDs were ever found *EVEN the MSM* had to admit it was all 99% BS, and they had been supposedly duped. After a few empty apologies, mea culpas and half-hearted phony promises to be more vigilant in the future, it was back to the same-old-same-old for the MSM (or one could argue it emboldened them to be even more casual about their reporting since they essentially ‘got away with it’ and suffered no financial repercussions — just like the’W’ administration who promoted it all.). Meantime, CN and a couple of other sources got it 100% right, and cemented their credibility for me.

During the early days of the rapid German advance into the Soviet Union there were some 140 pogroms in the western Ukraine claiming the lives of between 13000-35000 people (Untermensch, in fascist terminology). In 1943-1944 OUN-B and its armed wing the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainska povstanska armia – UPA) one Roman Shukhevych carried out large scale ethnic cleansing resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands; this was a particularly gruesome affair in Volhynia where some 90000 Poles and thousands of Jews were murdered. The campaign of the UPA continued well into the 1950s until it was wiped out by the Soviet forces.

It should be said that during this early period Bandera himself had been incarcerated by the German authorities up until his release in 1944, since unlike Bandera they were not enamoured of an independent Ukrainian state but wanted total control. Bandera was only released at this late date since the German high command was endeavouring to build up a pro-German Ukrainian quisling military force to hold up the remorseless advance of the Red Army. Also pursuant to this it is also worth noting that during this period the 14th Galizian Waffen SS Division, a military Ukrainian collaborationist formation established by none other than Heinrich Himmler, was formed to fight the Soviet forces, and yet another being the Nachtingal brigade; (1) this unit was integrated into the 14th Galizian in due course. It is also interesting to note, that every year, and up to 2014 commemoration ceremony including veterans of this unit takes place with a march through Lviv in an evening torchlight parade – genuine Leni Riefensthal Nazi pastiche. The flag of this unit is not dissimilar to the Peugeot logo, the standing lion, and can be seen at ultra-nationalist rallies as well as football matches involving Lviv Karparti FC. There are also numerous statues of Bandera across Ukraine, and since the 2014 coup even street names bearing the same name. Significantly the UPA have now received political rehabilitation from the Kiev Junta, with Bandera declared a hero of the Ukraine and the UPA rebranded as ‘freedom fighters.’ One particularly splendid statue of Bandera stands proudly in Lviv and is lovenly adorned with flowers.

Other novel attractions the capital of Banderestan – Lviv – include ‘Jewish themed restaurants’ one such is Kryivka (Hideout or Lurking Hole) where guests have a choice of dishes and whose dinning walls are decorated with larger than life portraits of Bandera, the toilet with Russian and Jewish anecdotes. At another Jewish themed restaurant guests are offered black hats of the sort worn by Hasidim. The menu lists no prices for the dishes; instead, one is required to haggle over highly inflated prices ‘’in the Jewish fashion’’. Yes, it’s all good clean fun in Lviv. Anti-Semitism also sells. Out of 19 book vendors on the streets of central Lviv, 16 were openly selling anti-Semitic literature.