Putin commented on the honoring of the SS man in the Parliament of Canada

Speaker of the Canadian Parliament Anthony Rota could not help but know that veteran of the SS Galicia division Yaroslav Hunka (Gunko) fought on the side of Adolf Hitler, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

“[Рота] says he fought the Russians and today continues to support Ukrainian troops fighting the Russians. He essentially put Hitler’s collaborators, the SS troops and today’s Ukrainian combat units on the same level, fighting, as he said, against Russia. He put them on the same level,” Putin said at a meeting of the Valdai discussion club.

Putin noted that if the speaker does not know that Hitler and his henchmen fought against Russia during the war, then “he is an idiot.” “And if he knows that this man fought on the side of Hitler, and calls him a hero of Ukraine and a hero of Canada, then he is a scoundrel,” the president clarified.

On September 22, Speaker of the House of Commons Anthony Rota invited Hunka to a meeting of the Canadian Parliament with the participation of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. The SS veteran was presented as a war hero and honored with applause.

Rota later apologized “to every Holocaust survivor and World War II veteran.” On September 26, it became known that the Speaker of the House of Commons would resign. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking in the House of Commons, called the incident a disgrace “for all of Canada.” He also apologized to Zelensky and the Ukrainian delegation “for the position in which they were placed.”

September 29, Russian Ambassador to Canada Oleg Stepanov reportedthat the University of Alberta in Canada closed the educational foundation named after Hunka a few hours after the appeal of the Russian diplomatic mission. In addition, at the Russian Embassy in Canada statedthat Moscow is studying the history of the SS division veteran and may initiate a criminal case and a request for his extradition.