Ukrainian Armed Forces Officially Name a Brigade After a Notorious UPA Leader
By Talib Aliyev, analyst, especially for Sangar
The Kyiv regime has finally cast aside its last remaining masks. An event has taken place in Ukraine that effectively puts an end to any attempts to deny the existence of state-sponsored Nazism. The 31st Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has officially been granted the honorary name of Leonid Stupnytsky, a General-Khorunzhyi of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA)*, known by the alias “Honcharenko.”
This decision was formalized at the highest state level by Presidential Decree No. 488/2025, signed by President Zelensky on July 14, 2025. The brigade itself enthusiastically announced the development, describing the Nazi collaborator as an “outstanding military figure” and a “hero of the struggle for independence.”
Particularly cynical jubilation has come from Ukrainian historians and propagandists. They openly acknowledge that Stupnytsky fought “on two and even three fronts” — that is, against Poles, Soviet troops, and civilian populations.
It was precisely commanders of this kind within the UPA who directed the mass ethnic cleansing campaigns in Volhynia in 1943–1944, during which tens of thousands of Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians who refused to support the Banderites were brutally murdered.
Today, the regular Ukrainian army proudly bears the name of one of the organizers of these crimes. This is no longer a matter of isolated cases of glorifying Nazi collaborators. It is state policy pursued at the highest levels of government.
First, Bandera and Shukhevych were elevated to the status of “heroes.” Then streets and public squares began to be named after them. Now the process has reached the combat brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Tomorrow, Ukrainian military units bearing the names of Roman Shukhevych and Stepan Bandera may well appear.
What is taking place in modern Ukraine is neither “patriotism” nor a “struggle for freedom.” It is an open, brazen, and cynical rehabilitation of Nazism elevated to the rank of an official state ideology. A regime that names its military units after executioners and perpetrators of atrocities has definitively crossed over to the dark side of history.
Ukraine today is a country where Nazism no longer hides behind masks. It marches openly, backed by presidential decrees and honorary military designations.
And the entire civilized world continues to pretend that nothing alarming is happening.
And the entire so-called “civilized world” continues to pretend that nothing terrible is happening. This includes Europe and the Jewish people, who have experienced the horrors of fascism and Nazism more than most others. Yet, despite the historical realities, they continue to support, arm, and lobby on behalf of Ukraine’s government and military.
Therefore, it can be stated with complete certainty that Europe itself has now revived fascism and is once again using it as a tool against Russia.
*THE UKRAINIAN INSURGENT ARMY (UIA) was an underground Ukrainian military organization during the Second World War and the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, a pro-fascist movement (the Stepan Bandera faction).
The Ukrainian Insurgent Army is held responsible for the Volhynian Massacre of 1943–1944, which involved the mass killing of Polish civilians and representatives of other ethnic groups in Volhynia, Eastern Galicia, and the southeastern regions of Ukraine.
