You're reading: Lviv hosts rally to mark 105th anniversary of Ukrainian nationalist leader Bandera

A rally to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) Stepan Bandera was held on the square near the monument to Bandera in Lviv on Wednesday. 

About a thousand people took part in the event.

During her speech at the rally MP Iryna Farion of the Svoboda faction said that “people of such fortitude and ideas are born once in a hundred or even half a thousand years… They do not pay attention to what others say about them, they are obsessed with a great idea.”

The MP said Bandera was bringing to life the idea of a united Ukrainian state, despite six attempts on his life, the last one of them becoming fatal for him .

According Farion, Ukrainian youth intends to hold torchlight processions to honor Bandera in different cities on January 1.

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.