The first Galician Division, shaped by the Nazis from Ukrainian volunteers throughout WWII, is blamed for atrocities in opposition to Poles
Ukraine’s president and Canada’s prime minister greeted a former member of the notorious SS 1st Galician Division, which fought for the Nazis in World Struggle II, as they attended a parliament session in Ottawa, in line with pictures shared by the Related Press.
One of many pictures, taken within the Home of Commons on Friday, confirmed a smiling Vladimir Zelensky clenching his fist and Justin Trudeau applauding to any person exterior the picture.
AP’s caption defined that the 2 leaders “acknowledge Yaroslav Hunka, who was in attendance and fought with the First Ukrainian Division in World Struggle II earlier than later immigrating to Canada.”
What the US information company described as “the First Ukrainian Division” was actually the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, also referred to as the first Galician Division.
Related pictures have been shared by AFP, which described Hunka, aged 98, as a “Canadian-Ukrainian conflict veteran.”
Movies from parliament additionally confirmed MPs giving a standing ovation to the previous Nazi unit fighter.
Non è un incubo, è la realtà. Zelensky, Trudeau e il parlamento canadese celebrano l’anziano nazista ucraino Yaroslav Hunka arruolato volontario nella divisione ucraina delle SS-Galizia di Hitler e Himmler. Il bello è che non si vergognano neanche un pò. https://t.co/QETK56BmH1pic.twitter.com/N3XdPleQB9
— Likelihood 🤺 Giardiniere 🍊 🔞 (@ChanceGardiner) September 24, 2023
The first Galician Division was assembled the Nazis in 1943, when the Soviet Union was gaining the higher hand on the Japanese Entrance. It comprised some 80,000 volunteers, primarily Ukrainians, from the area of Galicia, spanning what’s now southwest Poland and western Ukraine.
The notorious unit participated in brutal anti-guerrilla operations throughout Poland and Soviet Ukraine, and had been accused of massacres and different atrocities in opposition to the Polish, Jewish and Russian civilian populations. It was crushed by the Purple Military in July 1944 and shortly rebranded because the Ukrainian Nationwide Military, earlier than surrendering to the Western Allies after the autumn of Berlin in Could, 1945. After the conflict, a number of the members of the first Galician Division fled to Canada, which has a big Ukrainian diaspora.
Throughout his speech to the Canadian Parliament, Zelensky stated Canada has all the time been on the “brilliant facet of historical past” throughout earlier wars, and thanked Trudeau’s authorities for the help it has supplied to Ukraine amid the battle with Russia.
In late August, Zelensky posted a picture on social media, that includes a Ukrainian soldier sporting the patch of the first Galician Division. Kiev’s troops have additionally been noticed carrying patches of the infamous thirty sixth Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, one of many worst Nazi penal models, the third SS Panzer Division ‘Totenkopf’, and various swastikas and different far-right symbols.
Ukraine is the one nation on this planet that has built-in overtly neo-Nazi militias into its nationwide navy. These models had been as soon as described by Western media retailers as “neo-Nazi,” however are being known as “far-right teams” amid the battle between Kiev and Moscow.
