A menorah in Lviv was damaged as Ukrainian nationalists celebrated the birthday of Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera
A Hanukkah menorah in Lviv, Ukraine was vandalized by an unknown perpetrator as nationalists celebrated the birthday of World War II Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, according to police and a video circulating on social media.
The incident occurred on Monday, with video footage shared by Ukrainian media showing a man approaching the menorah, damaging its power cable, and then fleeing from the scene. Laughter is heard in the background of the footage. Lviv police confirmed the act, stating that “law enforcement officers are taking steps to identify the offender and bring him to justice,” with a criminal investigation underway.
The menorah, a symbol of Hanukkah, was installed last month at the ruins of the Golden Rose Synagogue, which was destroyed by the Nazis after the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. The menorah commemorates the Jewish community of Lviv, which became the target of Adolf Hitler’s genocidal policy after the start of Operation Barbarossa.
According to the archives of Russia’s Federal Security Service, around 6,000 Jews in Lviv were killed by the Nazis and Ukrainian collaborators in the summer of 1941 alone. The total Jewish death toll in Ukraine during World War II is estimated at around 1.5 million.
The act of vandalism coincided with festivities in Lviv celebrating Bandera’s birthday, with hundreds marching through the city, chanting nationalist slogans, and carrying torches.
Bandera was a Nazi collaborator during World War II. His Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) was implicated in pogroms and mass killings, including the deaths of tens of thousands of Russians, Jews, and Poles.
Russia has repeatedly voiced concerns about the resurgence of neo-Nazi ideology in Ukraine, stating that denazification of the neighboring country is one of the key objectives of the military operation against Kiev.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the situation with neo-Nazi sympathizers in Ukraine “utterly repugnant,” while claiming that Vladimir Zelensky, an “ethnic Jew,” is “covering up the glorification of Nazism” in the country.
