04.05.2017, Ukraine.
Nikolay Kokhanovsky, the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN, organization banned in Russia), appealed through Facebook to Kiev residents to hold an event called “Mortal Regiment” on May 9, the Lenta.ru online newspaper reported on May 3.
Kokhanovsky wrote, “Friends, let us stop the ‘vatnik’ frenzy in Kiev on May 9!” [In Ukraine, pro-Russian citizens are pejoratively called “vatniks”, meaning “cotton-padded jacket”, pointing to their supposedly low socioeconomic status – Editor]. “We, the OUN, call on of our sympathizers to come forward and to stop the vermin. On May 9, communists and their supporters will march again to honor an event called the ´Immortal Regiment´, whose roots are in Moscovia [a term used to denote Russia in XV–XVIII centuries – Editor]”, Kokhanovsky wrote in Facebook.
He declared further that “this procession has been marching under Stalin’s icon, under Soviet flags, when communists rudely attempt to tear up our red-black flag of struggle” (the flag of the Ukrainian nationalists – Rossa Primavera Information Agency).
On April 29, Zoryan Shkiryak, advisor to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, requested that Ukrainian citizens and their guests not to wear St. George ribbons during the holidays in May. Special warnings were raised regarding the 8th and 9th of May. As it follows from Shkiryak’s explanations, St. George ribbons can provoke a “logical and objectively correct reaction of Ukrainian patriots and citizens”.
In 2015, Ukraine adopted a law “On Condemning the Communist and National-Socialist (Nazi) Totalitarian Regimes on Ukraine and Forbidding the Propaganda of their Symbols”.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
