'A Shot to the Heart of Ukraine'
Andriy Parubiy and the "Bandera Lobby"
I accidentally permanently deleted Part 1 of my Substack crossover series just before I was ready to publish, so pardon the delay as I rewrite it…! In the meantime, I thought I’d chime in on the assassination of Andriy Parubiy, a veteran far-right politician and important ally of the “Bandera Lobby” who chaired the Ukrainian parliament in 2016-19. Instead of a long article about Parubiy, I just want to share some details about his dealings with the OUN-B, or Banderite faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, which still exists. Because this is hastily written, I won’t be paywalling anything today.
In 2002, Andriy Parubiy became the deputy chairman of the Lviv City Council, and the head of the “Society to Erect the Stepan Bandera Monument” in that unofficial capital of Ukrainian nationalism. In those days, Parubiy still commanded the neo-Nazi paramilitary group “Patriot of Ukraine.” According to Bandera biographer Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe, the “Society” was founded by Yaroslav Svatko, who served as the editor in chief of the OUN-B newspaper “Way to Victory” in the 1990s. Their efforts brought about the unveiling of Lviv’s (in)famous Bandera monument in 2007. Although local authorities mostly financed this monstrosity, Banderite veterans and “Ukrainian diaspora contributors” also helped to raise the funds.
By then, Parubiy rose to prominence as a “self-styled commander” of the “Orange Revolution.” Also in 2007, he joined Ukrainian parliament. He soon hired a leader of the OUN-B’s Youth Nationalist Congress (MNK) as an “assistant-consultant.” At some point, apparently by 2009, Parubiy got another parliamentary aide in Andriy Levus, a prominent MNK member who directed the OUN-B’s Ukrainian Information Service. (By 2014, Parubiy’s website was partnered with the Ukrainian Information Service.) Levus might have never left his side. In 2013, when Parubiy became the “commandant” of the “Maidan Self-Defense” units, he brought Levus on board as his deputy commander. In this capacity, perhaps they were both implicated in the false-flag Maidan massacre of February 2014. Levus reportedly tried to broker a ceasefire with the government, telling an official, “We will guarantee the safety of the police if they leave the city.”
After the “Revolution of Dignity” toppled the “pro-Russian” president Viktor Yanukovych, Parubiy became the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, and hired another MNK leader Serhiy Kuzan as his advisor. In 2015-16, Parubiy rose to deputy chairman and then speaker of Ukrainian parliament. Meanwhile, the OUN-B arranged trips for him to North America. In 2016, according to Borys Potapenko, an important OUN-B member from the Detroit area, “His visit to Canada was arranged by the League of Ukrainian Canadians and sponsored by the BCU Foundation.” These are OUN-B front groups. His visits to Washington were arranged by an “America Ukraine Committee” spearheaded by members of the OUN-B’s Center for US-Ukrainian Relations and Organization for Defense of Four Freedoms of Ukraine. These Banderites are united in the “World Council of Ukrainian Statehood Organizations,” chaired by Potapenko since 2017. “I worked with Mr. Andriy [Parubiy] for many years,” according to him. Among other things, these trips helped to introduce Parubiy to the Atlantic Council.
In 2019, the OUN-B and MNK launched the “Capitulation Resistance Movement” against Volodymyr Zelensky, the newly elected president who rose to power on a peace agenda. They threatened to overthrow Zelensky if he negotiated with Russia or made other concessions. At first this initiative was called “Protect Ukraine,” and Parubiy was the first to announce it, just ahead of the April 2019 election. Andriy Levus was the chief coordinator of the “Resistance Movement,” and another longtime Parubiy assistant, Ostap Kryvdyk, became its “International Secretary,” reviving his old role in the Maidan Self-Defense. Kryvdyk also functioned as Parubiy’s translator during his trips to North America. These connections make it appear as if Parubiy was the hidden godfather of the Banderite anti-peace movement. “An order not to return fire is not the path to peace, but capitulation! We won’t allow it!” he declared in June, as his term as parliamentary speaker came to an end.
Banderites around the world are mourning the death of Andriy Parubiy. The OUN-B leadership has already published a statement, calling his assassination “a shot to the heart of Ukraine” which must be avenged. There’s no doubt they will be feeling his absence in the years to come. As the journalist Leonid Ragozin commented, this was a man who “knew better than most how to stage a revolution in Ukraine.” Perhaps that explains his death, as things get more bleak for Zelensky.