Whichever way people may spell the name of the city as ‘Kyiv’ or ‘Kiev’, once thing is very much true about this Ukrainian capital city – crisp and clean American dollars are almost flying in the air whereas ruling elites are already witnessing astronomical increase their income – seen and unseen. But there is more about this Ukrainian city.
According to the European Jewish Press, the city “wanted to name a street after Volodymyr Kubiyovych, a Nazi collaborator and SS official,” until Mayor Vitali Klitschko, apparently mindful of how bad this looks in the West, stepped in and put a kibosh on the plan. Mayor Vitali Klitschko overruled the city council and a popular vote of city dwellers to prevent the naming of a street after a World War II-era Nazi collaborator.
Until his intervention, everything was going swimmingly: the Jerusalem Post reported last Tuesday that according to Eduard Dolinsky, director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, “a street in the Ukrainian capital will be renamed following a motion passed by the city council, and will bear the name of Volodymyr Kubiyovych, who during the Holocaust was heavily involved in the formation of the Waffen-SS Galizien, a Nazi military force made up of Ukrainian volunteers”.
This eye-watering move was planned after a “historical expert commission within the council had put forward several options for the renaming of what is currently Przhevalsky Street in Kyiv”, and several names were put to a public vote. The National Socialist won handily: “The option to rename the street after Volodymyr Kubiyovych has so far received a majority, with 31% of the vote, with the second and third highest options receiving just 18% and 10% respectively”.
Some Ukrainians have a soft spot for the National Socialists because they fought against the Soviet Russians who starved and oppressed Ukraine, but honoring them at this late date is problematic on all kinds of levels, and Kubiyovych was hardly a good choice. Before the National Socialist invasion of the USSR, Kubiyovych “requested the creation of an autonomous state within Ukraine in which Poles and Jews would not be allowed to live”. Then, once the National Socialists had occupied much of Ukraine, Kubiyovych “took on a key role in the formation of the Waffen-SS Galizien, publicly announcing his willingness to take up arms and fight for the Nazi cause”.
After the war, Kubiyovych settled in France and won renown as an expert in Ukrainian history and culture. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t collaborate with the National Socialists.
