A torch-lit parade has been held in the city of Lviv marking the 117th birthday of Stepan Bandera

Ukrainian far-right activists have marked the 117th birthday of WWII-era nationalist leader and Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera in the city of Lviv in Western Ukraine.

In footage published by Ukrainian media on Thursday, a line of people holding red flares is seen, meant to honor one of the leaders of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) during WWII. The group allied with the invading Nazi Germans in 1941 and carried out massacres of Poles, Jews, Russians, and Ukrainians they accused of collaborating with the Soviets.

Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko declared Bandera and the UPA national heroes shortly before leaving office in 2010. While the decision was rescinded under his successor, Viktor Yanukovych, it was later reaffirmed by the leadership installed following the Western-backed 2014 Euromaidan coup.

Ukrainian nationalist groups, especially in the West of the country, regularly commemorate dates connected to other infamous Nazi collaborators, such as Roman Shukhevich, another prominent figure in the UPA.

The Ukrainian authorities’ tacit support for the rehabilitation of such controversial figures has recently strained relations with Poland, one of Kiev’s key backers in the conflict with Moscow.

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Officials in Warsaw, including President Karol Nawrocki, have repeatedly called out Ukrainian authorities for glossing over the atrocities committed by the UPA during WWII.

Between 1943 and 1945, Ukrainian nationalists slaughtered up to 100,000 ethnic Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, regions which were later incorporated into Ukraine.

The Russian government has consistently accused the current Ukrainian leadership of embracing Nazism and whitewashing known WWII-era collaborators.

When the conflict between Moscow and Kiev escalated into open hostilities in February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin made the “denazification” of the neighboring country one of the key objectives of his military campaign.