Explosion destroys museum honouring Nazi collaborator in Ukraine

The site dedicated to Roman Shukhevich was destroyed in Lviv.

Two sites associated with WW2-era Nazi collaborators who have been hailed in present-day Ukraine as national heroes were damaged in the western city of Lviv overnight on January 1st. The development was confirmed on Monday by the city’s mayor, Andrey Sadoviy, who attributed the damage to Ukraine’s “national heritage sites” to Russian drone strikes.

A major explosion rocked the house-museum dedicated to Roman Shukhevich. An early leader within the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Shukhevich participated in terrorist activities and assassinations when Lviv was part of Poland during the interwar years.

He went on to serve with the Nazi SS and later on led the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which has been accused of extensive ethnic cleansing targeting the region’s Jewish and Polish populations. He died in 1950 during a shootout with Soviet counterintelligence.

Footage shared online by Sadoviy shows that the museum was entirely destroyed, with only a memorial plaque and a damaged statue of Shukhevich left standing at the site.

The main building of the Lviv National Agrarian University was also damaged overnight; an explosion blew off its roof off and set the historic structure on fire. The university is known as the alma-mater of Stepan Bandera, another Ukrainian nationalist leader and WW2-era Nazi collaborator who is commemorated with a statue in front of the now-damaged building.

Thus far, the Russian military has remained silent on the damage to the Ukrainian “national heritage” sites. It remains unclear whether they were attacked deliberately or were hit by Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses, which have become notorious for causing collateral damage on the ground.

The damage to the sites came on Bandera’s birthday, which is commemorated every year by the most hardline Ukrainian nationalists with torch-lit marches in Kiev as well as other locations.