# Russia invades Ukraine {2022-02-24} (Part 1)

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Tags:** ukraine-invasion, breaking-news
**Created:** [February 24, 2022, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037 "2022-02-24T08:30:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 4083

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2022, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037/4083 "2022-04-05T11:27:25Z")

</div>

> [@Broomstick](#):
>
> (The author has a hard-on for this [Bandera guy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera))

It’s not just this author; Russian thinking on Ukraine is littered with references to Bandera. I addressed this briefly when I posted about the same “What Should We Do With Ukraine” essay **[yesterday.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-putin-s-failure-in-ukraine-embolden-other-areas/962189/17)**

> [@Will Putin’s failure in Ukraine embolden other areas?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-putin-s-failure-in-ukraine-embolden-other-areas/962189/17):
>
> “De-banderisation” is a reference to Stepan Bandera, an enormously controversial figure in 20th century Ukrainian history. In this context, it is a double reference — both to Bandera’s efforts in the 1950s to fight Soviet influence over Ukraine, as well as to his collaboration with Nazi Germany and his ultra-nationalist and anti-semitic viewpoints. In other words, it’s saying that any assertion of Ukrainian independence from Russia is inextricably tied up with Nazism, and that the two beliefs cannot be separated. This is delusional nonsense, of course, but that’s the Russian argument.

That’s the key thing here, and it’s why Bandera is such a powerfully representative symbol in Russian thinking. You cannot have Ukrainian independence without Nazism. The one leads rapidly and inevitably to the other. For proof, just look at Bandera!

It’s deeply, offensively stupid and hateful, but hey, we’re talking about Russian political philosophy here, it comes with the territory. (Read up on Aleksandr Dugin, too, if you have the stomach.)

_Edit to add:_ There is a good introduction to Dugin **[here,](https://www.npr.org/2022/03/27/1089047787/russian-intellectual-aleksandr-dugin-is-also-commonly-known-as-putins-brain)** but you really need to dig deeper to see just how whacked-out the guy really is.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russia-invades-ukraine-2022-02-24-part-1/960037)._