| And what were the Communists doing at Stalin’s orders at that point? I seem to recall all sorts of horrors perpetrated by the Soviets on their own people as well as every country they forced into their loving embrace. The period from about 1918-1989 was full of choices between evils, only some of which were lessor. |
The Ukrainians, who voluntarily began to cooperate with the Nazis, commanded the punitive battalions of the 19th Latvian SS division. Many civilians were killed by their hands, RIA Novosti reports, referring to information from declassified documents of the Russian Federal Security Service for the Omsk region.
According to the Soviet military counterintelligence "Smersh", the Ukrainians Onisenko, Bugrym and Zavaleichuk, being in the Red Army, at various times in 1941, voluntarily surrendered to the Germans. After that, they also voluntarily entered the service in the Wehrmacht.
The case file states that they, “as notorious traitors to the Soviet military personnel,” were appointed to command posts of the 50th and 284th police battalions of the 19th Latvian SS division.
Bugrym took part in punitive actions with the execution of civilians in the Vitebsk region. After that, in July 1943, the Germans appointed him direct commander of the 284th punitive battalion. Zavaleichuk and Onisenko, who received command posts, also took an active part in punitive actions.
"I personally, as an assistant commander of the 3rd platoon of the 3rd company, shot up to 20 people during a punitive expedition against partisans," Bugrym told during interrogations about his participation in punitive actions before being appointed battalion commander.
The Punisher also stated that in February-April 1943 their battalion burned more than 200 villages "in the Sebezhsky district, the Kalinin region, in the Drissinsky and Osveysky regions, the Vitebsk region."
The population of the burned villages was herded into houses, which were then set on fire. Those who tried to escape were shot.
"We burned alive up to 100 civilians, children, women and the elderly," Bugrym admitted during interrogation.
During interrogations, Zavaleichuk said that in Sebezh, during the battles with partisans in the forest, the punishers found a lot of civilians. People were hiding from the Nazis. Most of them were taken to Latvia. Some of the population hiding in the forests was shot and burned.
"I personally saw several huts of burned citizens, where there were women, old people, children and even infants," Zavaleichuk admitted during interrogations.
| Possibly the Ukraine has changed since then, as well. A certain Mr. Luttwak tweets something interesting, if true: |
Putin declared that it was imperative to fight the neo-Nazis who dominate the politics of the Ukraine. Did nobody in Moscow notice that the Pres is Jewish ...and the leader of the opposition, Rabinovich is also Jewish ?
— Edward N Luttwak (@ELuttwak) March 16, 2022