The procession in honor of the 110th birthday of Stepan Bandera, the leader of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists took place in Kyiv.
The torchlight procession was carried out by the Right Sector and other right-wing and radical organizations. Participants of the event gathered near the monument to Taras Shevchenko in the central park.
Stepan Bandera is a Ukrainian politician, ideologist and theorist of the Ukrainian nationalist movement of the twentieth century. On his birthday on January 1, Ukraine traditionally hosts events to honor his memory, which wrap up with torchlight processions.
In 2019 Ambassador of Israel to Ukraine Joel Lion has written an open letter in which he stated that he is shocked by a decision of Lviv Regional Council to declare 2019 as the year of Stepan Bandera as Israeli Embassy reported on Facebook.
“I was shocked when I heard the decision of Lviv Regional Council to declare 2019 as the year of Stepan Bandera. I cannot understand how the glorifying of those, who directly participated in the horrible anti-Semitic crimes, helps to fight against the anti-Semitism and xenophobia. Ukraine should not forget the crimes committed against Ukrainian Jews and should not celebrate them by the worship of their performers in any way,” the message said.
