Ukrainians deserve peace, not the ashes of Nazi criminals

Members of the fascist Carpathia-Sich unit, Ukrainian Armed Forces, Kyiv, May 20, 2026. (See note below.)

By Sevim Dağdelen, X, May 21, 2026. Translated by Helmut-Harry Loewen.

While Chancellor Merz is transferring billions in German taxpayer money to a Ukraine mired in corruption and holding out the prospect of EU military aid to Kyiv, the Zelenskyy regime is repatriating the remains of Nazi collaborator Andriy Melnyk and his wife. The exhumation took place on May 19 in Luxembourg in the presence of representatives from Zelenskyy’s office, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance. “After decades abroad, they have now returned to their homeland. And today they are being welcomed by the Ukrainian flag and the national anthem, by the Ukrainian military, by Ukrainian children, and by the entire Ukrainian people,” the Ukrainian Presidential Office jubilantly announced regarding the SS collaborator.

As a reminder and for context: Andriy Melnyk served as chairman of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) beginning in 1938. During World War II, the OUN split in 1940 into an organization led by Andriy Melnyk — known as the “Melnykists” (OUN-M) — and the “Banderists” (OUN-B) under the leadership of Stepan Bandera. OUN-B members fought in the “Nachtigall” and “Roland” battalions on the side of the German Wehrmacht in the war against the Soviet Union. OUN-M members provided the volunteers for the Waffen-SS Division “Galicia.” They were specifically deployed to combat partisans and in the extermination of Jewish communities.

On January 1, 1942, Melnyk — whom Zelenskyy has honoured — proclaimed: “In the German soldiers, we see those who, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, drove the Bolsheviks out of Ukraine; we are duty-bound to support them in a principled and organized manner in their crusade against Moscow — regardless of all difficulties. We are living in the era of the birth of a new order in Europe. Ukraine must take its place side by side with other nations in a Europe that has been renewed and consolidated under the leadership of National Socialist Germany. It has been assigned responsibilities dictated by its geopolitical location and its historical traditions.”

Andriy Melnyk portrait, 1940

Requiem services for the repatriated antisemite, Wehrmacht, and Waffen-SS collaborator are planned for May 22 and 23 in Kyiv, with the burial to take place on May 24 at the National Military Memorial Cemetery in Kyiv. Melnyk is to be enshrined in the newly created National Pantheon of Outstanding Ukrainians. Ukrainian diplomatic missions have already identified 98 burial sites of “deserving Ukrainians” in 21 countries who are eligible for further repatriations. German taxpayers are, after all, footing the bill for the reburials of Nazis in a country that, at the instigation of Chancellor Merz, is soon to become an “associate member” of the EU, complete with a military assistance clause.

Merz must go! Not another euro for Zelenskyy, the Nazi collaborator and Nord Stream saboteur! Ukrainians deserve peace, not the ashes of Nazi criminals.

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Photo Note: “Founded in 2014 after the Maidan coup by members of the Svoboda party and the military sports group Sokil, the Carpathia-Sich Battalion, which was later disbanded but then reactivated in 2022, is a volunteer unit. It follows in the tradition of the National Defence Organization of ‘Karpats'ka Sič,’ which was formed in 1938 on the initiative of the fascist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and wiped out in the fight for independence against Hungary.” See Susann Witt-Stahl, “Kiev integrates German neo-Nazi corps into the regular Ukrainian army,” The Left Chapter, May 15, 2025. Translated by Helmut-Harry Loewen.

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Born in Duisburg to Kurdish Alevi migrants, Sevim Dağdelen served as a Member of the German Bundestag and spokesperson for foreign policy from 2005 to 2025 for The Left Party. She left that party to co-found the BSW Party and is a member of its Federal Executive Board. Her most recent book, a bestseller in Germany is "NATO: A Reckoning with the Atlantic Alliance.” @SevimDagdelen