League of Ukrainian Canadian Women, Edmonton Branch
We, the members of the Edmonton Branch of the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women are alarmed at the cowardly act of defacing a monument at the St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Orthodox Cemetery in Oakville. This is a hate crime and should be investigated immediately by the Halton Police.
Ukrainians were victims of both Nazi and Soviet terror during World War 2 and fought against both totalitarian regimes. Allegations slandering the Ukrainians who fought on two fronts is a tired old Kremlin narrative designed to sow doubt and distrust against a nation that is now again on the forefront of war with Russia. Various reliable English and Canadian judicial bodies have disproved these allegations several times over the decades. In its final report released in 1987, The CanadianCommission of Inquiry on War Criminals headed by the late Mr. Justice Jules Deschenes concluded the allegations against the "Galicia Division" were unfounded.
Ukrainians suffered unspeakable crimes at the hands of the Nazis. Over two million civilians from Ukrainian lands were abducted as slave labourers and forcibly taken to Germany. My own mother, as a 14year old girl, along with her parents were forced labourers, barely survived on starvation rations and were held in brutal, prison camp environments until the end of World War II.
It is essential to remember that only a few years earlier, Soviet Russia perpetrated the HOLODOMOR or Death by Starvation murdering millions of Ukrainians. The saying "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" is exactly how many Ukrainians viewed the war between Germany and Soviet Russia. Nazi plans for Ukraine were revealed on June 30, 1941 when Ukrainian Nationalists declared the reinstatement of Ukrainian independence. The Nazi's responded with mass arrests and Ukrainians began to battle both the Nazi's and the Soviets. The Nazi's occupation of Western Ukraine between 1939 and 1941 was the product of collusion under the infamous Hitler-Stalin pact of August 1939 and was extremely brutal. he Nazi's sadistically murdered and tortured to death up to 8,000 political prisoners and Ukrainian Catholic priests were especially targeted during their retreat.
Recent events around the world and even in Canada have exposed the breadth and depth of Russian intrusion into democratic processes, and the cunning use of disinformation and hybrid warfare at every level of society. Russian propaganda and disinformation against Ukrainians who fought the Nazis and later Soviet invaders are designed to discredit those who fought against totalitarianism. It creates discord and rewrites history for the Kremlin's nefarious purposes.
It is no coincidence that the current wave of propaganda from the Kremlin is occurring while Ukraine continues to battle Russian invaders in Eastern Ukraine.
