1943-44 OUN-UPA carried out a massive ethnic cleansing of Poles in Western Ukraine, during which 50,000-100,000 civilians were slaughtered. Earlier, it directed many of its members to join the German occupational police, some of which took part in the Holocaust and anti-partisan reprisals
KIEV, April 9, (TASS) - Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, acknowledged on Thursday that the activity of OUN-UPA (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists - Ukrainian Insurgent Army) was the fight for the country’s independence.
In the second reading on Thursday, the lawmakers adopted a law on the legal status and honoring the memory of participants of the fight for Ukraine’s independence in the 20th century.
A total of 271 lawmakers voted in favor of the decision, above the required minimum of 226 votes.
"The law envisages that the state recognizes the fight for Ukraine’s independence in the 20th century and defines a legal status of the participants for the fight for Ukraine’s independence in the 20th century," an explanatory note to the document reads.
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) is an ultra-right political organization in western Ukraine in the 1930's-50's of the last century. To reach the goal of establishing Ukraine as an independent state, it used extremist means, including terrorist attacks.
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists during World War II worked for German intelligence. In 1943, OUN organized the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), forming the backbone of the SS Division Galicia. OUN-UPA militants killed at least a million people, including almost 200 thousand Poles.
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