The strong protests by Ukrainian nationalist organizations against the raising of the red flag of victory on May 9 is splitting the country, Regions Party MP Volodymyr Tolstenko has said.
He said that a number of nationalist organizations in western Ukraine were strongly against the law, under which parliament established that raising the red flag of victory on May 9 is a form of perpetuating the victory in the Great Patriotic War (World War II). Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk regional councils called on the public in these regions to boycott the execution of this law.
"They [the nationalist organizations] are currently continuing the deeds… of the OUN, UPA, the bearers of the ideology of extreme right-wing nationalism and chauvinism, who, through their actions, are now splitting Ukraine into two parts, worsening relations with our brother-Slavs of Russia and Belarus. This was especially apparent under the ‘orange’ government. Their actions are hampering Ukraine’s movement towards democracy, as well as European integration processes," Tolstenko was quoted as saying by his press service.
He said that the parliament’s decision to raise, along with the state flag of Ukraine, replicas of the red flag of victory on Victory Day was a fair tribute to those who heroically died at the front during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, and to those veterans who are still alive.
