A torchlight procession and a motor race to mark the 104th anniversary of the birth of Ukrainian nationalist hero Stepan Bandera are taking place in several Ukrainian cities on Tuesday.
A torchlight procession will start at 1800 at the monument to Taras Shevchenko in Kyiv, and at 1700 near the building of the regional council in Lviv, according to the official Web site of the Svoboda All-Ukrainian Union.
Svoboda branches are holding similar events in Poltava, Kirovohrad, Ternopil, Melitopol, Rivne on January 1.
Nationalists will hold a motor race on the streets of Zaporizhia on January 1. A historical quest game “Old Luhansk” will take place in Luhansk.
Bandera, born on January 1, 1909, was a Ukrainian political activist who headed the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which fought for Ukraine’s independence from Polish, Russian and other foreign invaders. Bandera was killed by KGB agent Bohdan Stashynsky in Munich on October 15, 1959.
On January 20, 2010, third Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko conferred the Hero of Ukrainian title to Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).
On August 2, 2011 the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine upheld a ruling of Donetsk Circuit Court dated April 2, 2010 and a ruling of Donetsk Administrative Court of Appeals dated June 23, 2010 that declared illegal Yuschenko’s decree dated January 20, 2010 conferring the Hero of Ukraine title to Bandera.
