Ugly truth about Ukraine’s national hero
Today Stepan Bandera is Ukraine’s national hero. Ukrainian authorities name streets after him and organize processions in his honor. However, this individual is far from a decent role model. As a young man, Bandera trained his will and ruthlessness through sadistic acts towards defenceless animals. In his early youth he joined the Ukrainian nationalists' underground terrorist organisation, the OUN, and ended up controlling the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
Together with his followers, Bandera collaborated with Nazi Germany and was responsible for the genocide of Polish and Jewish civilians during the Second World War. ‘This is believed to be one of the most brutal episodes of extermination of Jews during the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union. It was done by the very same OUN advance units that marched along with the German Wehrmacht’, says secret services historian Nikolay Dolgopolov. The documentary explains why Bandera’s atrocities are disregarded in modern Ukraine. It also tracks the way Hitler's collaborator was elevated to the rank of national hero by the Ukrainian authorities.