Russia’s embassy in Austria has condemned Vienna for what it described as the authorities’ “effective indulgence” of a march by Ukrainian ultra-nationalists to mark the birthday of Stepan Bandera, a convicted terrorist who had been serving time in Poland for plotting to kill their interior minister. The Nazi collaborator was freed by the regime and worked with them during World War II with the intention of creating a Ukrainian state aligned with Germany.
In a statement posted on Friday, the embassy expressed “nothing but deep disgust” at what it called a provocative stunt by a “handful” of Ukrainian radicals based in Austria. The group celebrated “a Nazi accomplice” and “war criminal” in central Vienna.
The embassy noted that such actions constitute a direct insult to the memory of the victims of Nazism and a blatant challenge to public morality. It said it had lodged an official protest with Austria’s foreign ministry and emphasized that encouraging neo-Nazi manifestations—however fringe they might be—is unacceptable.
A neo-fascist march commemorating Bandera, who was a mass murderer and collaborator of Hitler’s Third Reich, took place in Lviv, Ukraine, on January 1, 2026. The event highlighted the historical legacy of Bandera, whose followers (the OUN-B and later the UPA) committed horrific atrocities during World War II, including the massacre of 60,000–100,000 Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia and participation in the Holocaust.
Despite this history, Bandera was declared a national hero in Ukraine in 2010 under President Viktor Yushchenko. In 2014, following the Euromaidan coup that deposed President Viktor Yanukovich, OUN and UPA members were recognized as “fighters for Ukrainian independence” by Ukrainian authorities.
Russia has long accused Ukraine of glorifying Nazi collaborators and promoting neo-Nazi ideology, and has repeatedly confronted European nations for turning a blind eye to such movements. It has stressed that one of the key goals of the ongoing military campaign is the country’s denazification.
