Yad Vashem warns historical truth must not be sacrificed while Ukraine glorifies controversial wartime figure”
Israel sharply criticized Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave full state honors to Ukrainian nationalist leader Andriy Melnyk, whose movement collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.
The controversy erupted after Melnyk and his wife, Sofia Fedak-Melnyk, were reburied at Kyiv’s National Military Memorial following the transfer of their remains from Luxembourg. During the ceremony, Zelenskyy described them as iconic Ukrainians of the 20th century and praised efforts to build a national pantheon of Ukrainian heroes.
Melnyk led one faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, a movement that opposed Soviet rule but also promoted antisemitic rhetoric and included members involved in the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust. Although Melnyk later fell out with the Nazis and was detained by them, his earlier cooperation with Nazi Germany remains a deeply painful historical issue.
The ceremony has reignited a long-running dispute over Ukraine’s honoring of nationalist figures linked to Nazi collaboration, including past commemorations of Stepan Bandera and other controversial leaders.
Yad Vashem condemned the tribute, saying such national commemorations damage historical truth and insult the memory of Holocaust victims. Israel’s Foreign Ministry also said there is no place for ignoring the truth about victims murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.
The dispute places Ukraine in a difficult moral position. While Kyiv seeks to honor nationalist resistance against Soviet domination, Israel is making clear that heroism cannot be separated from historical responsibility for antisemitism, collaboration and Jewish suffering.
