How the Canadians had Zelensky accidentally praise a Nazi 'hero' in Ottawa, giving Russian propaganda a boost

From the start of its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Russia has insisted that its sole purpose was to rid Kyiv’s political leadership of “neo-Nazis.” The claim was ludicrous from the beginning, not the least because Ukraine is led by Volodymyr Zelensky, the country’s first Jewish president. Russia itself also has a far more robust right-wing movement than does Ukraine.

Still, Russian propaganda outlets have seized on whatever evidence they could find — usually tattoos or insignia worn by Ukrainian soldiers — to suggest that their original excuse for invading Ukraine remains valid.

Last week Zelensky unexpectedly handed the Kremlin a small public relations win when, during a visit to Canada, he accidentally celebrated a Ukrainian national who fought for the Nazis in World War II.

In responding to the incident, Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador in Washington, went so far as to implicate the United States, which had nothing to do with the gaffe — but such details rarely concern the Kremlin. The incident was evidence, Antonov argued, that the American “political elite generally demonstrate ‘inattention’ when it comes to Nazism in Ukraine.”

On Tuesday, House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota, who had recognized former Nazi collaborator Yaroslav Hunka during Zelensky’s speech on Friday, resigned his post over the controversy.

"It’s with a heavy heart that I rise to inform members of my resignation as speaker of the House of Commons,” Rota said in a statement.

Read more on Yahoo News: Poland’s education minister says he’s ‘taken steps’ to extradite Yaroslav Hunka, from CBC

A standing ovation

Zelensky traveled to North America last week for the second time since the war in Ukraine began in early 2022. After addressing the United Nations early in the week, he spent Thursday meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill and with President Biden in the White House.

He then traveled to Canada, where he addressed a joint session of Parliament the following day, urging continued support for Ukraine’s effort to expel invading Russian forces.

Later, during his own speech, House of Commons Speaker Rota, who represents a part of Ontario, singled out a member of the audience, Hunka, who is also one of his constituents. The entire chamber then turned to the 98-year-old Hunka, sitting in the gallery above.

Rota described Hunka as “a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero.” Zelensky and his wife, Olena, as well as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau all heartily cheered Hunka, who received a standing ovation.

But it quickly turned out that Hunka’s story — which he made no evident effort to hide — was not quite so heroic.

Read more on Yahoo News: Canadian Parliament accidentally honors Nazi — with Zelensky and Trudeau applauding, from the Independent

Independence or collaboration?

During the 1930s, Soviet despot Joseph Stalin caused millions of Ukrainians to die in a famine, known as the Holodomor, that has left a deep wound on the national memory. The suffering only emboldened nationalists, who saw their opportunity when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.

Hunka was among those who switched allegiances, joining the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (the brutal police force commanded by top Hitler deputy Heinrich Himmler) — as did many other Ukrainians, seemingly unaware that the Nazis’ plans for them were even more brutal than those of the Soviets had been. The unit fought in western Ukraine and, according to some historians, participated in atrocities against civilians — though, apparently, not in the mass murder of Jews, which was conducted primarily during that time by vicious squads known as the Einsatzgruppen.

Hunka emigrated to Canada after the war. The nation has been criticized for refusing to move more quickly to expel former Nazis and Nazi collaborators.

Read more on Yahoo News: Trudeau calls praise for Nazi-linked veteran ‘deeply embarrassing,’ from BBC

Rota resigns

The sight of Zelensky unknowingly applauding a Nazi was an embarrassment for Ottawa. Condemnation from Jewish groups was swift.

“The fact that a veteran who served in a Nazi military unit was invited to and given a standing ovation in Parliament is shocking,” said Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Canadian organization named after the famed Nazi hunter.

Rota quickly apologized. “I particularly want to extend my deepest apologies to Jewish communities in Canada and around the world,” he said, as calls for him to step aside mounted. He stepped down from his post on Tuesday.

Read more on Yahoo News: Ovation for man who fought for Nazis in WWII overshadows Zelensky’s address to Canadian lawmakers, from NBC

Kremlin response

With its near complete control over the information space in Russia, the Kremlin can essentially invent stories and feed them to ordinary citizens through television and radio networks. That task is made easier when, as in this case, reality plays along, however inadvertently.

“Many Western countries, including Canada, have raised a young generation that does not know who fought whom or what happened during the Second World War. And they know nothing about the threat of fascism,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in response to the Hunka controversy.

Russia continues to justify its military action with reference to the heroic defeat of Hitler in World War II. The claim is preposterous when it comes to attacking a much smaller country like Ukraine, but older Russians can still nonetheless be stirred by memories of the Red Army’s heroism.

Accordingly, propagandists used the celebration of Hunka in Ottawa to make the easy — though highly deceptive — comparison. “Nazis are always useful in the fight against Russians,” one columnist for RIA Novosti indignantly wrote.

Read more on Yahoo News: The Azov Battalion: Ukrainian patriots or neo-Nazis?, from ITN