Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement condemning the ceremonial reburial of Colonel of the Ukrainian People’s Army and Head of the OUN, Andriy Melnyk, and smeared his name.

In similar situations before, I wrote long posts comparing the biographies of Bandera and Shukhevych with Menachem Begin, the difficult and bloody path of Ukrainians and Jews toward establishing their states, and in doing so exposed the hypocrisy and blatant double standards in the accusations made by official Israel against figures of the Ukrainian national liberation struggle.

But the time for historical enlightenment is over.

Dear Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

Who Ukrainians rebury on Ukrainian soil, whom Ukraine grants state honors to, and whom Ukraine commemorates is none of your business. Your opinion on this matter is of no interest.

Focus on your own problems, including the sharp rise of anti-Israeli sentiment around the world in recent years. Which, by the way, was not something observed in Ukraine. But with statements like these, you are making a major contribution toward Ukraine eventually joining that broader trend.

And step down from the pedestal of moral superiority because you do not possess it. Your position, or rather the practical absence of one, regarding the bloody moscow aggression against Ukraine demonstrates this clearly.

And yes, Melnyk spent almost the entire war in the Nazi Sachsenhausen concentration camp, just like Bandera.

Honor to the Ukrainian soldiers of Jewish origin who are fighting and giving their lives for a free Ukraine against the moscow occupiers.

Author: Andriy Illienko, Officer of the “Svoboda” Battalion, Former Member of Ukrainian Parliament