To the editor: Poland’s withdrawal of the state honor of the White Eagle from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is completely justified (“Zelensky returns Poland’s highest honor after Polish leader revokes it in feud over history,” June 20).
While I recognize the severe challenges Ukraine faces today, the historical record indicates that the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA, founded in part by Stepan Bandera, was heavily implicated in extreme violence and the mass murder of civilians, including Jews and ethnic Poles, during World War II. Honoring Bandera’s UPA alienates Ukraine’s neighbors and minorities, and risks empowering the propaganda narratives used to justify Russia’s invasion. True democracy and freedom are incompatible with the glorification of fascist ideology.
In 1934, Bandera organized the assassination of the Polish interior minister, Bronisław Pieracki, and was sentenced to death after being convicted of terrorism, subsequently commuted to life imprisonment. Bandera and UPA sought an independent Ukraine, but the methods they employed and their cooperation with Nazi Germany cannot be whitewashed.
Michael Edelstein, Los Angeles
