The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia has declared a wanted 98-year-old veteran of the SS troops from Canada

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia declared a wanted 98-year-old SS veteran Yaroslav Hunka (Khunka). He became famous after his appearance in the Canadian Parliament in September 2023 provoked an international scandal and the resignation of the speaker of the Canadian House of Commons, Anthony Roth. Earlier, a criminal case of genocide was initiated against the veteran.

“Mediazon” drew attention to the appearance of Gunka’s card in the search database. In the search case, as always, the article of the criminal code, according to which the Russian police is looking for a veteran, is not specified. In the card, only Hunka’s nationality is indicated, a Pole, apparently, from the place of his birth and original citizenship (the village of Urman, now it is the Ternopil region of Ukraine).

Hunka was presented to the Parliament of Canada during the visit of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi on September 22. Speaker of the House of Commons, Anthony Rota, called the elderly Canadian a Ukrainian hero of the Second World War, “who fought for Ukraine’s independence from the Russian aggressors then and continues to support the military now.”

Immediately after the speech, it turned out that the veteran served in the 14th volunteer infantry division “Galichyna” – a division of the SS troops of Nazi Germany, against which Canada also fought. Several human rights and Jewish organizations condemned Rota’s speech and the ovation that greeted the veteran MP.

After a few days, representatives of Poland, including Minister of Education Przemysław Charne, promised to extradite the 98-year-old Ukrainian. Warsaw accuses “Halychyna” of acts of genocide, including the murder of hundreds of residents of the village of Velikiy Khodachkov in the Ternopil region.

The region was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1939 and included in the Ukrainian SSR. The message of the Russian Investigative Committee stated that the Russian investigation suspects an SS veteran of involvement in the murders of local residents in the village of Huta Penyatskaya in the Lviv region in 1944.