page_title: Ukrainian Insurgent Army
section_title: Commemoration in Ukraine
hierarchical_section_title: Ukrainian Insurgent Army / Commemoration in Ukraine
caption_attribution_description: English: Golden Cross "25th anniversary of UPA" of Albert Hasenbroekx (1967) Українська: Золотий Хрест 25-річчя УПА громадянина Бельгії Альберта Газенбрукса «Західний» (1967 р.)
context_page_description: The Ukrainian Insurgent Army was a Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary and later partisan formation. During World War II, it was engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Soviet Union, the Polish Underground State, Communist Poland and Nazi Germany. It was established by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The insurgent army arose out of separate militant formations of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists—Bandera faction, other militant national-patriotic formations, some former defectors of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, mobilization of local populations and others. The political leadership of the army belonged to the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists—Bandera. It was the primary perpetrator of the ethnic cleansing of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.
  Its official date of creation is 14 October 1942, day of the Intercession of the Theotokos feast. The Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army at the period from December 1941 till July 1943 has the same name.
context_section_description: According to John Armstrong, "If one takes into account the duration, geographical extent, and intensity of activity, the UPA very probably is the most important example of forceful resistance to an established Communist regime prior to the decade of fierce Afghan resistance beginning in 1979... the Hungarian revolution of 1956 was, of course, far more important, involving to some degree a population of nine million... however it lasted only a few weeks. In contrast, the more-or-less effective anti-Communist activity of the Ukrainian resistance forces lasted from mid-1944 until 1950".
  On 10 January 2008, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko submitted a draft law "on the official Status of Fighters for Ukraine's Independence from the 1920s to the 1990s". Under the draft, persons who took part in political, guerrilla, underground and combat activities for the freedom and independence of Ukraine from 1920–1990 as part of or assisting the following:
  Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO)
  Karpatska Sich
  OUN
  UPA
  Ukrainian Main Liberation Army
  They will be recognised as war veterans.
  In 2007, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) set up a special working group to study archive documents of the activity of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) to make public original sources.
  Since 2006, the SBU has been actively involved in declassifying documents relating to the operations of Soviet security services and the history of liberation movement in Ukraine. The SBU Information Centre provides an opportunity for scholars to get acquainted with electronic copies of archive documents. The documents are arranged by topics (1932–1933 Holodomor, OUN/UPA Activities, Repression in Ukraine, Movement of Dissident).
  Since September 2009, Ukrainian schoolchildren take a more extensive course of the history of the Holodomor and the fighters of the OUN and the UPA fighters.
  Yushchenko took part in the celebration of the 67th anniversary of the UPA and the 65th anniversary of Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council on 14 October 2009.
  To commemorate National Unity Day on 22 January 2010, Yushchenko awarded Bandera the Hero of Ukraine honor posthumously. A district administrative court in Donetsk cancelled the presidential decree granting the honor to Bandera on 2 April 2010. The lawyer Vladimir Olentsevych argued in a lawsuit that the honor is the highest state award that is granted exclusively to citizens of Ukraine. Bandera was not a Ukrainian citizen, as he was killed in exile in 1959 before the 1991 Declaration of Independence of Ukraine.
  On 16 January 2012, the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine upheld the presidential decree of 28 January 2010 "About recognition of OUN members and soldiers of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army as participants in struggle for independence of Ukraine" after it was challenged by the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, Nataliya Vitrenko, recognising the UPA as war combatants.
  On 15 May 2015, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a bill into law that provides "public recognition to anyone who fought for Ukrainian independence in the 20th century", including Ukrainian Insurgent Army combatants.
  In Kiev, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Zhytomyr, the UPA flag may be displayed on government buildings "on certain holidays".
  In December 2018, Poroshenko confirmed the status of veterans and combatants for independence of Ukraine for UPA fighters.
  In late 2018, the Lviv Oblast Council decided to declare the year of 2019 to be the year of Bandera.
caption: Golden Cross "25th anniversary of UPA" of Albert Hasenbroekx [pl; uk] (1967)
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