It has come to our attention that reportedly a presentation on "VYSHYVANKA DAY" in Canada’s Parliament by a young Ukrainian woman, Lesia Voroniuk, was abruptly cancelled. The purported reason given was that among notable Ukrainians, who also wore as part of their attire an embroidered shirt, was Stepan Bandera, and whose shirt was recreated as part of a general project -- " Embroidery in the attire of notable Ukrainians".
A REMINDER: Stepan Bandera was a political leader of the Ukrainian National Resistance against Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. He spent almost 4 years in a Nazi concentration camp and was assassinated by a Soviet agent in 1959.
TO NOTE:
– Only recently Stepan Bandera's tomb in Munich, Germany, was AGAIN vandalized (as it was several times over the past years and decades) by Russian agents.
– Moscow’s targeting of memorials to Ukrainian National Resistance leaders has always been, and continues to be, a common place occurrence both in Ukraine and abroad.
– After the Russian occupation of Crimea and the start of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine in 2014, Vladimir Putin and his cohorts have never tired of declaring that "Ukrainians are Russians" and that Ukraine and Crimea "will never follow in Bandera's footsteps".
– Therefore, we call upon Canadian politicians as well as community leaders to always maintain and strengthen the collective resolve and stance against Moscow's, and its "fellow travelers’”, lying narrative of disinformation and propaganda about the Ukrainian national liberation struggle in the 20th century, and its current version of that narrative that Ukraine is presently run by "neo-Nazis".
Stepan Bandera's "VYSHYVANKA" on Parliament Hill would have been a very a propos message to Moscow.
