Moroz urges caution on UPA issue, opposes benefits for UPA veterans

KYIV - Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksander Moroz has called on national deputies not to rush to review the status of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and its combatants, reported the Ukrayinski Novyny news agency on October 27.

At a meeting with faculty and students of Kyiv National Economic University, Mr. Moroz said: "Is it necessary today to honor this organization, making its members out to be defenders of the motherland? And what about the nearly 200,000 victims of the Lutsk and Volyn tragedies of 1943?"

Mr. Moroz criticized the work on the UPA of historian Stanislav Kulchytskyi, saying that he uses materials of UPA soldiers and does not consider Soviet and German archives.

According to Mr. Moroz, German archives show that the Ukrainian Insurgent Army liquidated only 600 German soldiers during the war with the USSR, while at the same time Soviet partisans eliminated nearly 600,000 German troops.

The Rada chairman further stated that he is opposed to granting any social benefits to UPA soldiers. On May 9 President Viktor Yushchenko had called on the Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers to grant equal social benefits to veterans of the UPA and the Soviet Army.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, November 5, 2006, No. 45, Vol. LXXIV

| Home Page |