Zelenskiy Knew

As I stated in a related piece, the coverage of the Canadian Parliament scandal has been largely disingenuous and has omitted several critical points.

The history of World War II is largely misunderstood – especially in the West. I often think of the book (and movie) Sarah's Key wherein the 1942 Vichy round-up of Jews is revisited. One of the points made in the movie is that people have forgotten that it was the French who did this – not the Germans. People have largely forgotten and misunderstood that German fascism was not alone. There were many fascist movements in Europe. Some embraced Nazi anti-Semitism, some didn't. The ultra-nationalist Ukrainians who joined with the Nazis certainly did and were quite keen to slaughter not just Jews, but Poles and Russians as well.

Ukraine never existed as a fully independent country until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. At that point the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic became an independent nation – today's Ukraine.

Ukrainian nationalism (which had certainly emerged during the Russian Empire), hated Soviet domination and found a ready ally in Nazi Germany. Ukraine wanted to drive out the Soviets and create an ethnic state and as such these nationalist were willing participants in 1941's Operation Barbarossa as well as the Holocaust. Then as now, the actual borders of Ukraine were sketchy as the actual land of 'Ukraine' would be rather small – the western portions of today's country belonging historically to Poland and Hungary and the east and Crimea indisputably belonging to Russia.

Ukrainian nationalists fighting Russia during World War II were in alliance with the Nazis. One can almost forgive contemporary Westerners for not immediately understanding this but Zelenskiy would have known it instantly. He would have known that the man being applauded was at the very least a Nazi collaborator.

But he wasn't just a collaborator, he was part of a notorious Waffen-SS unit – a murderer and war criminal to be sure.

And this is where Canadian protestations of ignorance fail. Canada has a large Ukrainian population and current Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland has her own Ukrainian fascist pedigree as her grandfather was also a Nazi ally during the war.

Like the Americans the government in Ottawa was keen to combat communist influence during the Cold War. They didn't want their immigrant populations being influenced by familial or ecclesiastical ties across the ocean, those living under communist regimes. As such, they eagerly recruited ex-fascists (although in some cases they weren't really ex- anything).

These figures could infiltrate these Canadian (and American) communities and report to and work with the authorities in order to block suspected communist influence. The UK had ended up with some of the men from these Galician Waffen-SS units. Their atrocities were downplayed for the official record and Canada eagerly took them in – and this would include Mr. Hunka who was recently applauded.

That's what so interesting here. Hunka and this Galician Waffen-SS unit were not just normal post-war Ukrainian émigrés – which might have included some Nazi collaborators who were able to slip in under the radar. No, these men were allowed in with full knowledge of their past. Unless all vetting was dispensed with, it's impossible that this would not have come up as parliamentary staff set up this event. The parliamentary leaders knew and again it's hard to imagine that the Trudeau's people wouldn't have known. They would want to protect the PM and as such would look into such people before a display like that was endorsed. A quick look at Hunka would have revealed this. It wasn't something secret or deeply buried.

To my mind, Freeland's fingerprints are all over this. Time will tell if it leads to a rift between her and Trudeau. She has long been leading the pro-Ukraine and anti-Russia charge within Ottawa's corridors of power and beyond.

But the media isn't really looking into any of this, let alone teasing out its real implications. Moscow received the message loud and clear along with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's recent diatribe against Russia. For Moscow, the history of eighty years ago and the lessons of the war that killed over twenty million of its people are alive and well – and the messaging sent by the West is rather poignant and certainly alarming.

But Zelenskiy knew. His record of revisionism and the embrace of fascism is well established. Russia has exaggerated this in its Denazification language but it's not all fantasy. Zelenskiy may be Jewish but obviously he had subordinated this to his nationalist commitments and has been a willing participant in the rehabilitation of Ukrainian fascism and has openly endorsed or quietly looked the other way as the surviving elements and new generation of Ukrainian fascism has gone mainstream. He helped to incorporate these people into his military and his government has even endorsed the naming of streets, monuments, parades, and other celebrations that would generate major scandals in Western countries and capitals but Western media looks the other way as Zelenskiy is the West's tool and stooge.

Zelenskiy knew – count on it.