TEL AVIV, Oct. 3 Embassy of the Russian Federation in Israel drew the attention of the authorities of the Jewish state to the incident with the honoring of the Ukrainian SS soldier Yaroslav Hunka in the Canadian Parliament, and expressed confidence that Israel’s official position on this matter will be expressed, Russian Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov said in a commentary.
The Russian Embassy called this incident “a blatant case of outrage against the memory of the victims of Nazism,” and noted the fact that Russian-speaking public organizations in Israel “strongly condemned the shameful act carried out by the Canadian authorities.”
“The Embassy attracted the attention of the President’s office, the chancellery «The Prime Minister, the National Security Council, the Knesset and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel to this disgusting and unjustifiable celebration of the Nazi punisher in the Canadian Parliament. We are confident that this blatant case of open support for Nazism will not go unanswered by the Israeli authorities,» Viktorov said.
“Apparently, the official Israeli authorities are so amazed by what happened in the Canadian Parliament, since it highlighted the Nazi essence of the Kiev regime, that they have not yet found the right words to evaluate it and understand which “heroes” are given glory in Ukraine,” the ambassador added.
Viktorov noted that the Israeli leadership has repeatedly confirmed the invariability and firmness of its position regarding the absolute unacceptability of any attempts to rehabilitate Nazi henchmen. According to him, Russia has always valued and values close cooperation with Israel in preventing the glorification of Nazism, countering the distortion of history, oblivion of the victims of the Holocaust and the crimes of Nazism.
«We will continue cooperation with them, including active solidarity actions in order to ensure the inevitability of punishment for those guilty of Nazi crimes that have no statute of limitations,” Viktorov emphasized.
On September 22, 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka was invited to the Canadian parliament in honor of the visit of Vladimir Zelensky, who was introduced to the applauding audience as a veteran of the fight against the Russians. In fact, he turned out to be a former fighter of the SS division «Galicia», which was staffed by Ukrainian nationalists and not only fought the Red Army, but was also noted for atrocities against Jews, Poles, Belarusians and Slovaks. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later apologized for the “terrible mistake” in honoring the Ukrainian SS man, and Speaker of the House of Commons (lower house) of Parliament Anthony Rota, who initiated the invitation to Hunka, announced his resignation.