“Many Ukrainians assume that if Russia says Bandera is bad, then he must be a hero,” said Professor Joanna Getka of the University of Warsaw, highlighting how Moscow’s aggression has reinforced Bandera as a symbol of resistance among Ukrainians.
A recent report by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) noted that Russian disinformation campaigns in Poland do not promote pro-Russian narratives but instead exploit historical wounds—particularly the 1943–45 Volhynia massacres, carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the armed wing of Bandera’s Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B).
While Bandera was imprisoned by the Nazis at the time, he remains a divisive figure between Polish and Ukrainian memory cultures.
Maria Piechowska, an analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs, said most Ukrainians associate Bandera and UPA with anti-Soviet resistance, not atrocities against Poles.
“There’s a mutual lack of understanding,” she said, warning that Russia exploits this gap.
While Bandera’s image surged following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and the 2022 invasion, Piechowska noted that the peak of his glorification may have passed. New wartime heroes are replacing historic ones, she said, and symbols like the red-and-black UPA flag now primarily represent national resistance to Russia.
Professor Jan Pisuliński of the University of Rzeszów explained that Bandera’s postwar exile and assassination by the KGB contributed to his symbolic role. Yet modern political movements linked to his ideology, such as the Svoboda party, have little public support.
Experts emphasized that Russia manipulates historical divisions with tailored propaganda—emphasizing Bandera’s role in anti-Polish violence to Polish audiences while portraying him as a traitor to Ukrainians.
Dr. Roman Kabachiy from Ukraine’s National World War II Museum added that while UPA-linked names may appear in military units, Bandera himself is not widely invoked.
“We’re not thinking about Bandera every day,” he said. “We’re thinking about Kherson, my hometown, being shelled from across the Dnipro.”
The scholars called for de-escalating tensions through historical dialogue, education, and careful handling of shared memory. Without that, they warn, Russia will continue exploiting these unresolved divisions.
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Source: PAP