Zelensky honors Hitler ally

By Russ Bellant, May 28, 2026

Several days ago, Volodymyr Zelensky held a ritualized state burial of Andriy Melnyk in Ukraine, replete with pomp and circumstance. Most media reports acknowledge that Melnyk was a military ally of Nazi Germany in WWII, but omit the substance of his role.

Melnyk was a leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) after its founder was killed in 1938. It later split into two factions. But Nazi Germany allied with both groups, training and arming their members. When Hitler launched his surprise invasion of the USSR in 1941, Melnyk led the ROLAND battalion that marched into Ukraine with the German forces. Massive killing of citizens then began, with the help of Ukrainian collaborators that were trying to show Hitler their loyalty. While some OUN leaders were restricted later in the war, the OUN continued to organize military support and build regional alliances to support the Third Reich until the end of the war.

Because the still-factionalized OUN has a significant role in the Ukraine government today, Zelensky has chosen to elevate them even though in more recent years they still honored their WWII alliance with Hitler. In fact, Melnyk and others kept their wartime Nazi alliances intact for the rest of their lives. They even wore patches of the Second Panzer Division of WWII as they joined the killing operations against Ukrainian citizens that were ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine from 2014-2021. Some also wore KKK patches. In seven years, the United Nations estimated 15,000 were killed by the Kiev government and its OUN allies. This was all before Russia invaded in 2022. Little coverage of this mass killing was reported in the American media.

Zelensky himself was elected to office six years ago, but canceled elections and banned political parties except those of the far right. His original campaign was funded by the foremost organized crime figure of Ukraine, Ihor Kolomoisky. While many uphold him as a hero these days, his conduct still goes without scrutiny in the west. Even elevating WWII Nazis as heros does not invite much review. But the elevation of Nazis in U.S. government circles today does not arouse much consternation either.