KYIV, 1 Jan Annual torchlight procession on the occasion of the leader's 113th birthday Ukrainian nationalists Stepan Bandera ended on Saturday in the center of Kiev near the office of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. to Zelensky's office. They prayed near the office of the head of the Ukrainian state and finished the procession, after which they all dispersed. The action went smoothly. Bandera was the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), one of the main initiators of the creation of the OUN militant wing of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army *, whose goal was to proclaim the struggle for the independence of Ukraine. UPA * was formed in October 1942. She operated primarily in Western Ukraine and fought against Soviet troops, collaborating with the Nazis. In May 2015, the then president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, gave the OUN-UPA * the status of «fighters for independence» of Ukraine, and its participants — the right to social guarantees. Moscow condemned this decision, noting that «Ukraine is the country where neo-Nazis from words got down to business and killed thousands of civilians «and» that such actions should be adequately assessed at the international level. » The heroization of the UPA * and Bandera and Roman Shukhevych, who led it, are criticized by many war veterans and politicians who accuse Bandera of collaborating with the Nazis. * The organization is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia 
Aksyonov called Bandera an ideological leprosy
