Lviv Regional Council declared 2027 the Year of Roman Shukhevych. Yes, that Roman Shukhevych. 📌The Ukrainian commander of the Nachtigall Battalion (1941), which entered Lviv alongside Nazi German occupation forces on June 30, 1941, when a Ukrainian puppet state, the "ally" of the Third Reich. 📌The very same Hauptmann Roman Shukhevych, Deputy Commander of the 201st Schutzmannschaft Battalion (1942), a unit involved in anti-partisan operations in Nazi-occupied Belarus. 📌The very same commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), whose forces carried out mass killings of Polish civilians — women, children, and men — particularly in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. 📌Under his leadership, UPA units were also implicated in the murder of Jews hiding from the Holocaust and Ukrainians regarded as political enemies, Soviet collaborators, or simply insufficiently loyal. And now the Lviv Regional Council has apparently decided that a country fighting for “freedom and democracy” could find no more inspiring national hero than a commander whose historical legacy is inseparable from atrocities against innocent civilians. What a magnificent choice of role model. Europe, are you taking notes? Is this really the Ukraine that claims to champion good relations with its neighbors? Is this really the Ukraine that European taxpayers are expected to finance while inflation eats away at their purchasing power and their own schools, kindergartens, and universities struggle for funding? Apparently, European citizens are expected to tighten their belts while being told to applaud the glorification of men associated with some of the darkest chapters of Europe's history. And the irony? Europe spent decades teaching its children “Never Again.” Now it is being asked to look the other way when history's darkest figures are dressed up as national heroes in the "beacon of democracy." Quite an achievement. Perhaps the next European history lesson should be titled: “Never Again — Terms and Conditions Apply.”

“Neo-Nazis have no influence in Ukraine. It’s all Kremlin propaganda.” So I’m told by the Slava Ukraini crowd, including a remarkable number of Western leftists who have apparently mistaken political denial for antifascism. Now, take a good look at what happened in Lviv today. Ihor Sholtys, a former officer of the Nachtigall Battalion — named after the notorious Nazi-collaborationist formation of 1941 — now part of Azov Corps, turned up with his boys to violently disrupt an event organized by left-wing activists. Among those beaten was historian, war veteran, and Social Movement activist Vladyslav Starodubtsev. And now, dear leftists, here comes the punchline. Take a long, hard look at Vladyslav’s face. That is what your romantic flirtation with Ukrainian neo-Nazis may eventually earn you. The irony is particularly exquisite in Vladyslav’s case: he himself had attacked me for criticizing precisely the same neo-Nazis. Apparently, the antifascist credentials of Ukrainian ultranationalists come with an expiration date — usually the moment you find yourself on the receiving end of their fists. These men exist. They are real. And they exercise power on Ukraine’s streets, while its young, already badly limping democracy struggles to remain upright. And as that democracy slowly bleeds out, the Western chorus keeps chanting its favorite magic spell: Slava Ukraini! Because apparently, if you shout it loudly enough, you can drown out the sound of democracy having its teeth knocked out.