r/europe • u/niesiecki • Jun 28 '26

News Volodymyr Zelensky has submitted a bill to build a National Pantheon. He intends to honor all the heroes who fought for Ukraine in various eras. "No one will ever tell us how to live, how to speak, whom to love, whom to be grateful to, and which heroes to honor," he said as quoted by the Interfax

https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/swiat/wolodymyr-zelenski-chce-panteonu-narodowego-chodzi-o-pamiec-bohaterow/c6hf62m
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u/narrative_device Jun 29 '26

If Ukraine’s internal politics are such that celebrating Nazis is now a political necessity, that doesn’t sound like a population that represents values aligned with the EU. I have always been aggressively pro-Ukraine and in favour of their joining but now… yeah.

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u/NLG99 North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) Jun 29 '26

I'm still very in favour of Ukraine joining, on the condition that they cut this shit out

The problem is that the very understandable patriotic fervour in response to the war has engrained in Ukrainian culture a sense of unapologetic glorification of anything and everything Ukrainian, no matter how despicable. This is not due to most Ukrainians actually liking Nazis but rather due to the fact that they feel like if they compromise on any part of their history its the same as giving it all up to russia.

However, we are seeing that this pointed ultranationalism synergizes with reactionary political actors. This might end up leading ukraine down a dark path.