How is it that the background of this unrepented Nazi – he wrote in blogs in 2010 and 2011 that the years spent under the SS colours were the best years of his life – had become invisible to those who arranged his invitation to the Canadian parliament? The answer is the mainstream media presentation of the war as a conflict between Good and Evil. Obviously, the Good cannot be suspected of harbouring Nazi skeletons in the closet. If there is no longer even a pretense of even-handedness in the covering of the Ukraine war in Western media, there is no reason to expect a politician to dare have a critical approach to anyone or anything Ukrainian.

Thus, mainstream media ignore Nazi insignia on the uniforms of certain units of the Ukrainian army. This Manichean view of the essentially geopolitical conflict impede a clearer understanding of and, more importantly, a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian parliament eliminated a diplomatic solution by means of a decision to ban negotiations with Russia. Without formally doing as much, Western powers have cornered themselves into a dead end: it is impossible to negotiate with Russia, painted in much of the Western media as the Evil incarnate. Moral indignation has replaced geopolitical rationality.

In presenting Hunka, the speaker of the Parliament in Ottawa said,

“We have here in the chamber today a Ukrainian Canadian war veteran from the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians and continues to support the troops today even at his age of 98.”

Fighting against the Russians has become a supreme moral value. The fact that Hunka had volunteered for the SS unit does not, in the mainstream view in the West, invalidate his heroism in “fighting against the Russians”. In today’s frenzied climate, having fought in a SS unit pales in comparison with being blamed as a “Putin’s apologist” for calling for an end of hostilities.