The Russian Embassy in Israel has asked Israeli officials to address reports of honoring Yaroslav Hunka, a former member of the SS Galicia Division, in the Canadian Parliament. Russia’s ambassador to Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, commented on the incident via RIA News.
“The Embassy has drawn attention to what appears to be a troubling and unjust celebration of a Nazi war criminal in the Canadian Parliament. We believe that this public display of approval for Nazism will not go without a response from Israeli authorities”, Viktorov said.
The diplomat stressed that Israeli authorities have repeatedly reaffirmed their clear stance against any attempts to rehabilitate Nazi figures. He added that Moscow will keep engaging with Jerusalem to curb any move that could glorify Nazism and undermine historical memory.
On October 3, Michal Kotler-Wunsch, the Special Representative of the Israeli Foreign Ministry for Combating Anti-Semitism in Ottawa, announced that Canada would acknowledge the entry of thousands of Nazis into the country after Germany’s defeat in 1945 and would recognize the arrest of national SS units responsible for the genocide of Soviet, Polish, and Slovak citizens, including Jews.
In a speech delivered to the Canadian Parliament on September 24, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine praised Hunka. One image from the address shows Zelensky and Prime Minister Trudeau greeting Hunka, who served in the First Ukrainian Division during World War II and who was present in Parliament in that moment.
Hunka, a former SS officer, disappeared with his family after the controversy in the Canadian Parliament.