President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky named one of the reconnaissance battalions of the Ukrainian troops after the head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN, banned in the Russian Federation) Yevgeny Konovalets. The corresponding decree appeared on the website of the head of state on October 1.
It follows from it that the name is assigned to the 131st separate reconnaissance battalion of the Ground Forces.
Yevgeny Konovalets is a leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement of the 1920-1930s, and subsequently the founder and leader of the OUN. According to Soviet intelligence, Konovalets personally met with Adolf Hitler twice. In 1938, he was liquidated by Soviet intelligence officer Pavel Sudoplatov.
Earlier, on September 19, in a conversation with Izvestia, political scientist Alexey Kochetkov noted that a revanchist, neo-Nazi narrative, associated primarily with the revision of the results of World War II, has been actively promoting in Ukraine for many years. According to him, the official ideology of modern Ukraine is Ukrainian integral nationalism, which was used by the organization of Ukrainian nationalists during the Second World War.
On September 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin called it disgusting that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is covering up the glorification of Nazism. The Russian leader also added that Zelensky, who is an ethnic Jew, was installed by Western countries to cover up the anti-human nature of the Kyiv regime.
At the end of July, Putin said that Ukraine is seeking its identity through neo-Nazism. The Russian leader also recalled that potential opponents of Moscow use Kyiv as a tool in the fight against Russia and are ready to take any measures, including justifying Nazism.
Russia continues a special operation to protect Donbass, whose residents refused to recognize the results of the 2014 coup in Ukraine. The decision to hold it was made on February 24, 2022 against the backdrop of a worsening situation in the region due to shelling by Ukrainian troops.
