Nationalists and ultra-right march in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev reminding of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which was founded 75 years ago.
Thousands of people marched with torches in their hands on Saturday in the center of the Ukrainian capital. Organizers of the march report about 20,000 participants, who also lit pyrotechnics.
Approximately 5,000 policemen guarded the demonstrators. The ultra-right parties “Freedom,” “Right Sector” and “National Corps” called for marches across the country.
UPA was founded in Western Ukraine during the German occupation. Its fighters in 1943 conducted ethnic cleansing in the Volyn region. At the same time, tens of thousands of Poles were killed. After the end of the war, they fought until the beginning of the fifties in today’s Western Ukraine against the Soviet security organs.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko praised the officers of the UPA as “the best sons and daughters of the Ukrainian people who resisted two “totalitarian regimes”.