Banderastan grows in strength. Only someone completely fooled by propaganda, or deliberately misleading can claim otherwise. Unfortunately, all of these categories include people governing in Poland.
The defeat of president Bronislaw Komorowski, the main advocate of Ukrainian-Polish reconciliation surprised me a bit. Moreover, I thought just as probably Mr Komorowski that his presidency will last forever, that Poland will kneel in front of Ukraine and do what we have been doing to the United States, as it was called by the former Polish Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, ‘blow job’.
Not that I have anything against reconciliation between Poles and the Ukrainians. However, at the stage where is Ukraine now, something so daring as ‘reconciliation ‘between Poland and Ukraine is not possible at all.
Part of the so-called Polish political class has already understood that maybe it is not a good direction. However, they figured out that it is a little too late. Thanks to their generous support, a genocidal ideology plague has already been bred in Ukraine and there is no indication that it is going to disappear soon. Ukrainian ‘Patriots’ are not (as they are represented by multiple lobbyists for Ukraine in Poland) harmless students.
‘We aren’t police, we can act a bit more radically’. These are the words of Andrea Sanin, a local organiser of the Right Sector said after ‘taking over duties ‘of Police by the Right Sector in Kharkiv.
In Poland, since the outbreak of Maidan, almost every Polish citizen was commanded to love the struggle for independence of the Ukrainians. Anyone who has Internet could see on their own eyes how Ukraine gained this independency. At present, there is a combination of Bandera Right Sector, Azov etc. Nazis and worshipers of Oskar Dirlewanger from such units as Misanthropic Division who fight in the ranks of Azov.
Significant example of the ideological similarities of the ‘reformers’, that is, ISIS and neo-Nazis in Ukraine is also what recently happened in Szyrokino in Mariupol, where ‘patriots’ from Misanthropic Division (fighting in the ranks of Azov) publicly burned icons and Bibles. On the pictures, we can see them showing a flag with the inscription “Toten fur Wotan” – “Kill for Wotan (Odin)”.
The fact that the Right Sector is now entering officially into the structure of the SBU (the Ukrainian intelligence) to form a special group Alpha is perhaps part of ‘a new stage of the Ukrainian revolution‘, which was mentioned in Jarosz’s speech. It will help Ukrainian ‘patriots’ to get weapons, specialized training, money and, above all, the legitimacy of the government for their actions. Although, unfortunately, not everyone is so optimistic about this novel idea.
‘I hope that the leaders of the SBU and Alpha will have enough common sense not to accept absolutely unprepared and (from the psychological point of view!) inadequate people into their ranks. Preparation of a Spetznaz officer requires more than one year. In the Soviet years, Alpha was a rather strong division with a good school. All the credit was taken to Peter Zakrevsky . According to President of the Association of Veterans of Anti-terrorist Division Alpha, Sergey Goncharov “if these “volunteers” will become a part of SBU, it won’t be an elite anti-terror division, but the rabble”.
Why ‘patriots’ are not suitable candidates from the ‘psychological point of view’? We can see on this record. How will Ukraine look like in the hands of those people serving in the SBU, it is easy to predict. Government of Hungary realized this fact and protects their national minorities in Ukraine. Entry of ‘patriots’ from the RS into the structure of the Ukrainian intelligence means only that the Bandera and neo-Nazi ideology is becoming (maybe it has already become) an official political doctrine for Ukraine and the people who hold it are installed in the official structures of the State, which will have an impact on the functioning of the entire country.
Polish presidential candidate Grzegorz Braun said: ‘Since the end of World War II, there were no people in Europe who armed themselves, referring with the positive sentiment to the tradition of murdering of Poles and Jews, “-.
However, as you can see, it happened. Now even those Poles who personally sent Ukrainians bulletproof vests to support them in the fight against ‘Russian aggression’ changed their minds and now alerting Poles about the threat from neo-Nazis and Bandera supporters from Ukraine.
Tomasz Maciejczuk – Open Dialog Foundation volunteer who delivered the Polish bulletproof vests for Ukrainians fighters on the front said: ‘… Anyway it is worth talking and explaining to Ukrainians why the swastika, the SS Dirlewanger symbols or Volhynia Massacre are extremely negative and unwanted elements. Our voice must be heard, the dialogue must finally begin’.
After months of Polish support and propaganda for Ukraine, isn’t it too late for naive gestures’ of talking and explaining the Ukrainians why the swastika, the SS Dirlewanger symbols or Volhynia Massacre ‘are extremely negative and undesirable’? I think that a large part of the Ukrainians, despite doubts of Mr Maciejczuk is well aware of why the swastika is not exactly our favourite symbol.
Meanwhile, during these ‘educational’ talks of Mr. Maciejczuk, the Right Sector enters into the structure of government and wants to overthrow the president and continue to fight in the Donbas. Not as the so-called ‘terrorist operation’, but as a normal, regular war with Russia.
According to Ukrainian leadership, part of the regular units of the army does not want to fight anymore. Part of the army wants to overthrow the government in Kiev. Others want to dodge the military service in the Ukrainian ‘army’. That’s why, Ukrainian ‘patriots’ entering the SBU has become one of the main and real forces in Ukraine.
Only a small spark is needed to aggravate and lead to a real conflict in Polish-Ukrainian relations. Volunteer battalions, established by Polish Xportal, that patrol the Polish-Ukrainian borders in search of Bandera militia members show us the state of these relationships.
It is also demonstrated by how the Polish Legia fans were treated in Kiev. ‘They (Ukrainian fans) had knives and slashed us like a hunted animals’, or by incident in which Ukrainians beat three employees of the Polish Embassy in Kiev. It is also proven by the change in official media narrative in Poland and abroad. The threat from Russia is now shifted to Ukraine. It is noted that the Ukrainians are not such exemplary democrats as we used to think.
Historian and lecturer Andrzej Zapałowski, Ph.D. said: “There are tens of thousands of weapons out of control in Ukraine, there is an ideology that inspires young people in the west of the country. If no one in this country did not mind the fact that, for several months, hundreds of kilometres from the front political militias paraded on the streets with guns, what more do you need? In fact, the threat is at our borders’.
To illustrate this in a slightly different manner, I will use an anecdote. My friend works in the bar in Cracow (Polish city). Once I came to her work for a coffee. Behind the bar (as a bartender) was a Ukrainian, and another Ukrainian stood drinking. I got into a discussion with Ukrainian drinking outside the bar. He told me that he is a member of the Right Sector, ‘but that does not mean anything because the Right Sector is different than Bandera supporters from the past – ‘They like Poles’. ‘Besides, only about two thousand ‘militants’ of Right Sector is actually under arms so there is nothing to fear’.
This gentleman, as it turned out, works in one of Cracow bars.
The same friend also told me that the greatest number of people who apply for job in this bar are Ukrainians. What is certainly very good news for Polish entrepreneurs who, in order to cut their costs, will be able to employ Ukrainians illegally as a cheap labour, instead of Polish people complaining all the time about the rates and working conditions.
On the other hand, maybe there is nothing to be afraid of? Even if something happened in Poland from the side of Bandera patriots, we are protected by Fraternal Assistance Act, which says that, as a result of the country’s security threats, the officers of foreign states will be able to operate legally on Polish streets, including the permission to use weapons. What officers? Perhaps the officers of nationality which holds 90 percent of the media in Poland, of this nationality which the UPA ‘heroes’ willingly collaborated with during Second World War?
Konrad Stachnio is an independent Poland based journalist, he hosted a number of radio and TV programs for the Polish edition of Prison Planet, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.