You're reading: Court upholds Yushchenko’s decree honoring nationalists

Kyiv's District Administrative Court on Monday upheld a 2010 decree by former president Viktor Yushchenko that posthumously conferred the status of independence fighters on nationalist militants who were active in western Ukraine during and shortly after World War II, the Our Ukraine party said.

"The claimant, Natalia Vitrenko, tried to prove the alleged illegality of Yushchenko’s decree honoring fighters for the independence of Ukraine. However, the court passed a legitimate, well-substantiated ruling and confirmed the decree to be absolutely legitimate," Our Ukraine’s press service quoted Yuriy Martyniuk, Yushchenko’s representative at the hearing of Vitrenko’s suit, as saying.

Interfax-Ukraine has not yet been able to obtain a copy of the court’s ruling.

By his decree, issued on January 28, 2010, Yushenko gave the posthumous status of independence fighters to members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), and members of various independence movements in Ukraine during the Russian civil war of 1918-1922.

Conferring the status on members of the OUN and UPA, groups that were fighting during and after World War II, was the target of Vitrenko’s suit.