HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
<<<<heir deeds passed into folklore and helped to keep alive Ukrainians' ***desire for independence****.>>> from Russia, subsequently to become a colony of the West. To: Peoples War <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Copies to: Anti-NATO <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: Stasi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Ukraine: Fury over plan to recognise UPA 'bandits' - Telegraph [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG Date sent: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 16:20:24 +0100 Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK > --------------------------- > > Russian fury over plan to recognise Ukraine 'bandits' > =================================== > By Askold Krushelnycky in Prague > (Filed: 18/07/2002) > DAILY TELEGRAPH > > A row has erupted between Russia and Ukraine over a move to recognise > officially as freedom fighters an MI6-backed Ukrainian partisan group which > fought against the communists during the Cold War. > > Legislation is to be proposed by the Ukrainian government to enable the > veterans of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) to obtain the pensions and > other benefits former Red Army veterans receive. > > Russian newspapers have launched fierce attacks, calling UPA members > "bandits" and have said that officially acknowledging the UPA as national > heroes would damage relations with Ukraine's Russian population, about 10 > per cent of the total. > > The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement which made clear "the > negative position of Russia" in relation to the plans. > > The Kremlin admonished the Ukrainian government for apparently taking the > side of the nationalists instead of reining them in. > > Anatoly Zlenko, the Ukrainian foreign minister, responded that "the question > about rehabilitating UPA fighters is an internal matter for Ukraine". > > The partisan army fought against the Nazis occupying Ukraine during the > Second World War and later turned its guns against the communist forces > which it saw as Russian occupiers. > > It numbered about 100,000 men and women and mostly operated in the hills and > forests of the western Ukraine, an area dominated by the Carpathian > Mountains. During the Cold War Britain secretly helped the UPA and a sister > group, the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists. > > British intelligence helped the guerrillas to maintain contact with > Ukrainian nationalist emigres in the West and with western governments. MI6 > also helped to train some of the guerrillas in parachuting and unmarked RAF > planes, taking off from bases in Cyprus and Malta, dropped them into > Ukraine. > > Unfortunately for the Ukrainians, one MI6 agent with detailed knowledge of > the operation was the traitor Kim Philby. > > Working with Anthony Blunt, another of Russia's spies recruited in the 1930s > in Cambridge, Philby alerted Soviet security forces about the planned drops. > Dozens of Ukrainian guerrillas were intercepted and most were executed. > > For years, under Roman Shukhevych, the UPA fought against Soviet forces > augmented by communist troops from Poland and the then Czechoslovakia. The > communists admitted the guerrillas inflicted huge losses on them. > > Che Guevara, Cuba's revolutionary hero, voiced admiration for the UPA's > organisation and tactics and borrowed their techniques. > > Communist forces fought back with vicious reprisals against the civilian > population. Thousands were murdered or sent to the Soviet gulags. > > This week, a mass grave was discovered in a monastery in western Ukraine > containing the bodies of around 130 men, women and children who are believed > to have been murdered in 1946 by Stalin's security forces for suspected > connections with the Ukrainian independence movement. Shukhevych was killed > in an attack by Soviet forces on his command bunker in 1950. > > Starved of weapons and political support and facing overwhelming odds, the > UPA guerrillas were broken as a fighting force by 1953. > > Thousands of UPA members were captured and were either executed or spent > years in Siberian prison camps. Others concealed their past and tried to > blend into Ukrainian society while some managed to escape to the West, > including Britain. > > Their deeds passed into folklore and helped to keep alive Ukrainians' desire > for independence. > > --------------------------- > ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST > > --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
