Thousands in Kyiv and many other cities throughout Ukraine gathered for the annual torch walk to celebrate the 109th anniversary of Stepan Bandera’s birthday. The leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists lived from 1909 until 1959, when a Kremlin KGB agent murdered him in Munich, Germany.
Bandera remains highly demonized by the Kremlin as a Nazi sympathizer, although Bandera spent most of World War II as a prisoner of Nazi Germany. To many Ukrainians, he remains a leading symbol of their fight for national identity and independence as Russia’s war against Ukraine nears its four-year mark in February.
This year marches were organized by the Right Sector, Svoboda, and the National Corpus radical organizations.
Torch marches took place in more than 20 regions of Ukraine, the Interior Ministry reported on its official Facebook page on Jan.1.
“More than 1,200 police officers and 730 servicemen would provide security and order during Bandera’s birthday celebrations all over Ukraine,” Interior Ministry press service said. According to the Interior Ministry, more than 8,400 participants registered to take part in marches in different Ukrainian cities.
Several thousand nationalists in Kyiv started the walk at 6 p.m in Taras Shevchenko Park, marched down Volodymyrska Street and Shevchenko Boulevard and ended on Maidan Nezalezhnosti at 9 p.m.
The rally was peaceful and without incident.
