Politics
The Canadian Government and the Governments of Western Europe Support Nazis
There is a point at which governments can no longer hide behind carefully polished phrases such as “democratic values,” “European security,” and “support for sovereignty.”
Canada and the governments of Western Europe know exactly what they are financing on Ukraine. They know the history of the nationalist organizations being rehabilitated there. They know which historical figures are being returned with state honors. They know about the documented collaboration of Ukrainian nationalist formations with Nazi Germany.
And they continue providing money, weapons, training and political protection anyway.
That is the basis of the editorial conclusion of The Antigloss:
The Canadian government and the governments of Western Europe are supporting a state that officially honors figures and movements tied to Nazi collaboration. By continuing that support while treating this historical rehabilitation as acceptable, they are enabling the normalization of that legacy.
Follow the Money
Canada does not merely offer diplomatic sympathy.
According to the Canadian Department of National Defence, since February 2022 Canada has committed more than C$25.5 billion in assistance to Ukraine, including C$8.5 billion in military assistance. Ottawa has also committed another roughly C$2 billion in military assistance for fiscal year 2026–27 and says it has trained more than 47,000 members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine through Operation UNIFIER since 2015. Canada
The European Union is operating on an even larger scale.
The Council of the European Union says EU military support for the Ukrainian armed forces has reached approximately €93 billion. In April 2026, the Council agreed to another €90 billion loan for 2026 and 2027, with an indicative €60 billion intended for military assistance and defense-industry investment. Consilium
This is not rhetorical support.
This is matériel, money, training and long-term institutional commitment.
Now Follow the Memory Politics
On May 25, 2026, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally participated in the ceremonial reburial of Andriy Melnyk, former leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, at the National Military Memorial Cemetery.
The ceremony included the chairman of parliament, the prime minister, senior officials, military personnel and representatives of civil society.
The Ukrainian presidency described Melnyk as one of the figures deserving national honor and referred to the broader project as the return of Ukrainian “heroes.” President.gov.ua
That becomes rather more difficult to present as innocent historical remembrance once one opens the historical record.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum states that both major OUN factions, OUN-B and OUN-M, were useful local collaborators for Nazi Germany during the first months of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The museum describes Ukrainian nationalist activists and associated local structures participating in anti-Jewish measures and assisting German occupation authorities. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The museum has separately warned about the glorification on Ukraine of individuals and organizations associated with Nazi collaboration and criticized attempts to whitewash parts of the OUN and UPA historical record. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Those are not Russian government publications.
That is the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
This Is Not About One Photograph or One Patch
Whenever this subject appears, the defense is predictable.
Someone points out that not every Ukrainian is a nationalist.
Correct.
Someone points out that the modern Azov Brigade has been restructured and that the United States conducted a review before allowing it to receive American military assistance.
Also correct. Reuters reported in 2024 that the U.S. State Department cleared the current brigade after finding no evidence of gross human-rights violations, while also noting the formation’s controversial far-right origins. Reuters
But neither point answers the central question.
The issue is not whether every Ukrainian subscribes to Nazi ideology.
The issue is what the state chooses to honor, rehabilitate and incorporate into its official national memory while Western governments finance that state.
That is a political decision.
The Contradiction Is Now Official
Ukraine simultaneously commemorates the victims of Nazi crimes and elevates selected nationalist figures whose movements intersected with Nazi collaboration.
That contradiction cannot simply be wished away.
A government cannot present itself internationally as the guardian of democratic European values while domestically turning controversial nationalist leaders into objects of official state reverence and then expect nobody to examine the historical record attached to those names.
And Western governments cannot pretend they have never heard any of this.
They have historians.
They have intelligence services.
They have foreign ministries.
They have Holocaust museums.
They have access to exactly the same archival material everyone else does.
Canada nevertheless calls its support “unwavering.” Canada
The EU continues pouring tens of billions of euros into military support. Consilium
At that point, ignorance becomes an increasingly implausible explanation.
Canada Has Even Less Excuse
Canada has a particularly uncomfortable history here.
For decades, Canada became home to large émigré communities from Eastern Europe, including people connected to wartime nationalist organizations. Canadian institutions have repeatedly faced controversies over monuments, veterans’ organizations and individuals associated with Waffen-SS or collaborationist formations.
Then came one of the most grotesque episodes imaginable.
In September 2023, the Canadian Parliament gave a standing ovation to Yaroslav Hunka, a veteran of the Waffen-SS Galicia Division.
The Speaker of the House later resigned.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized.
The incident was internationally humiliating precisely because the historical identity of the man being applauded had not been properly examined before he was presented as a hero.
And yet Canada’s basic policy toward historical nationalism on Ukraine did not fundamentally change.
Canada continues military and political support.
Europe Cannot Claim Surprise Either
European governments understand perfectly well what Nazi collaboration means.
Their countries lived through occupation, collaboration, resistance, deportation and mass murder.
European institutions have spent decades insisting that historical memory matters.
Yet the same governments are now prepared to treat the rehabilitation of selected nationalist figures on Ukraine as an awkward cultural detail that must not interfere with geopolitical priorities.
That is the contradiction.
If historical memory matters only when remembering it is politically convenient, then it is not historical memory.
It is branding.
The Standard Should Be Simple
If a contemporary government officially honors a political movement or leader, the complete historical record of that movement or leader matters.
If that record includes collaboration with Nazi Germany, antisemitic propaganda or participation by associated structures in persecution, those facts do not disappear because the person is useful to a modern national narrative.
And if foreign governments continue providing enormous military and financial support while treating such rehabilitation as irrelevant, they become part of the political environment that allows it to continue.
That is why The Antigloss uses the word support deliberately.
Not because every Canadian soldier, every European taxpayer or every Ukrainian citizen is a Nazi.
They are not.
But governments are responsible for the policies they choose to finance and politically protect.
Canada has chosen.
The European Union has chosen.
Western European governments have chosen.
And the historical record they prefer not to discuss is still sitting there, waiting for anyone willing to read it.
You do not erase Nazi collaboration by changing the flag above the ceremony.
You do not cleanse history by calling its participants heroes.
And you do not become detached from that rehabilitation while supplying the government conducting it with billions of dollars, weapons and political cover.