On New Year’s night, Russia launched a massive attack on Ukraine, particularly targeting Lviv Oblast. Wreckage from a Russian drone hit the town of Bilohorshcha, completely burning down the museum dedicated to the political and military figure, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), Roman Shukhevych.
“On Stepan Bandera’s birthday [on January 1 – ed.], the Russians completely destroyed the museum of UPA General Roman Shukhevych in Bilohorshcha,” wrote Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi.
The attack destroyed Shukhevych’s belongings in the museum – a piano, bust, table, chairs, and an armchair. Earlier, several hundred exhibits had been moved to a safe place. The total losses from the shelling amount to over UAH 2 million (USD 52,631), according to local authorities.
“Symbolic and cynical. A war for our history,” added Sadovyi.
Parts of a Russian UAV also hit a dormitory in the town of Dubliany. Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi revealed that the building belongs to a university where, a hundred years ago, the leader and one of the organizers of the Ukrainian nationalist movement in western Ukraine, Stepan Bandera, studied. Additionally, there is a monument to Bandera near the university building, which survived the attack.
Meanwhile, Russians are also destroying everything Ukrainian abroad. On the eve of the New Year, unknown vandals painted the monument of Taras Shevchenko in Lisbon with the letter “Z” – symbolizing the Russian army and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, reported Pavlo Sadokha, UWC Vice-President and President of the Union of Ukrainians in Portugal.
“This seems like the ruscists decided to launch a massive attack on our historical and spiritual values,” said Sadokha. The Ukrainian family from Algarve promptly cleaned the monument from the paint.
Previously, in Chicago, vandals defaced Ukrainian sites with the letter “Z.” Among the damaged locations were the Ukrainian National Museum of Chicago, a Ukrainian church, a veterinary clinic serving the Ukrainian community, and a mural in the Ukrainian Village – a historic Ukrainian district in the city.
Earlier, in a column for Portuguese Observador, Pavlo Sadokha stated that Russia distorts the image of Stepan Bandera in order to distort Ukraine’s desire for independence.
Photos: Andrii Sadovyi
