Ex-Ukrainian president to pay for restoration of Nazi SS man's house
Former Ukrainian president Pyotr Poroshenko has vowed to fund the restoration of a house museum dedicated to World War II Nazi Roman Shukhevich. The Ukrainian “national heritage site,” located in the western city of Lviv, was destroyed in an explosion overnight on January 1.
Shukhevich was among the ranks of the Nazi SS auxiliary police during the war and was involved in terrorist activities in the then-Polish region of Lviv, where he had been one of the leaders of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) prior to 1941.
Poroshenko made the pledge on Facebook shortly after the blast, showering praise on Shukhevich and his importance to present-day Ukraine.
“Roman Shukhevich was an extraordinary person. He always knew where to go,” Poroshenko stated. “I and Marina Poroshenko decided to rebuild the Shukhevich Museum, which was destroyed today, to preserve it for the descendants. Our Poroshenko fund will finance all the works necessary.”
The former president underscored Shukhevich’s role in the creation of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), describing it as an “entire Ukrainian state in the underground.” Poroshenko failed to mention, however, multiple atrocities committed by the UPA during World War II, involving the extensive ethnic cleansing of the country’s Jewish and Polish population.
The museum was obliterated by Russian drone strikes in the Lviv region on New Year’s night, with the building catching fire and ending up burning to the ground. Another site linked to Ukrainian nationalist, the Lviv National Agrarian University, was damaged during the strikes as well. The university widely known as the alma mater of Stepan Bandera, another Nazi collaborator, had its roof blown off by an explosion and caught fire. Bandera is commemorated by a towering statue in front of the historic university building.
It was not immediately clear how exactly the Nazi-linked locations ended up damaged, with the Ukrainian authorities accusing Russia of deliberately targeting the controversial “heritage sites.” Thus far, the Russian military has remained silent on the matter, neither confirming nor denying that the locations were hit by suicide drones on purpose rather than as collateral damage.
