Nationalism as Ethnic/Racial/National Exclusivity
Putin’s narrative describes the Kyiv government as antisemitic and xenophobic. At the same time, it argues that Ukrainian Jews (such as the Prime Minister Arsenii Yatseniuk, along with the speaker of the house and figures like the Jewish oligarch Ihor Kolomoiskyi, who in Dnipropetrovsk has supported the largest Ukrainian-Jewish community) are Ukrainian nationalists and fascists.
The term Judeo-Banderite (Zhidobandera) is used in the Russian internet and media to denounce Kyiv’s leaders.2 However, there never was any persecution of minorities during Euromaidan or afterwards. There are some nationalist sects that propagate a racist ideology, but they are marginal and elected no members to the parliament on 26 October 2014. Even one of the two elected members of parliament from the Right Sector is a practicing Jew. Observers only have to compare this situation to the one that exists in Russia to see the cynical hypocrisy of these charges.The use of violence after 19 January 2014 radicalized the Euromaidan. At this time, the Right Sector (Pravyi Sektor) garnered more sympathy, particularly after Dmytro Yarosh, its leader, spoke to Ukrainska Pravda (Ukrainian Truth) on 9 February 2014 of his group’s differences with Svoboda. He stated that he did not accept “some things of a racist character” in Svoboda’s ideology (quoted in Kulyk 2015, 8). Yarosh insisted that he adhered to “the idea of Ukrainian nationalism in the interpretation of Stepan Bandera.” By this he meant (erroneously, if one examines the ideology of the OUN in the 1930s) that all ethnic groups who supported an independent Ukrainian state were equally part of the nation. Although the role of the OUN and UPA in the 1940s was a controversial issue, at this juncture (20 January 2014) one began to hear on Independence Square comments like: “a new Konovalets and new UPA will appear if violence is used against the Maidan” (quoted in ibid.). Ukrainian and Jewish activists fought side-by-side against the Berkut special police and hired goons (popularly known as titushky) who served President Yanukovych. Those who defended the protestors against attacks even included a group of Ukrainians who were Israeli army veterans. Since that time,
the T-shirt “Judeo-Banderite” has been worn by many Ukrainian Jews as a challenge to Putin’s propaganda.