Russia distorts the image of Stepan Bandera in order to distort Ukraine’s desire for independence, said Pavlo Sadokha, UWC Vice-President and President of the Union of Ukrainians in Portugal, in a column for Observador Portugese media.
Stepan Bandera became one of those heroes who symbolized the struggle of Ukrainians for independence during his lifetime. The Russians understood this, so they did everything to transform the image of a political figure because disinformation is one of the most powerful weapons of mass destruction, Sadokha says.
“The Moscow authorities knew very well that there would be a problem with the Ukrainians and that they would always be against the rule of a foreign country. Therefore, Russian propaganda tried to transform such figures as Bandera, portraying them as criminals and attributing to them “all the sins of the world,” the UWC Vice-President said.
For most Ukrainians, Bandera became a symbol of the struggle for independence: for the right to be called Ukrainians, to speak the Ukrainian language, and to build Ukraine as its own community of free peoples of the world.
“Consistent supporters of Ukrainian independence look at Stepan Bandera unequivocally positively. In contrast, opponents of Ukrainian independence transferred their anti-independence attitude to the leader of the revolutionary OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists). Those for whom independent Ukraine is just a game in history, resulting from a random coincidence of circumstances, prefer to remain silent about Bandera,” Sadokha quotes the well-known Ukrainian publicist Ihor Losiev.
All that Bandera professed and aspired for his people was to be free and have the opportunity to be Ukrainians. “These are actually the principles that unite Europe today,” Sadokha concluded.
