Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said...
Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, known for his promotion of Ukrainian nationalism, often at the expense of relations with Russia, awarded in late January amid much media hysteria the honorary title of Hero of Ukraine to Stepan Bandera, whose Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists briefly allied with Nazi Germany during the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.
The Soviet authorities accused Bandera, who fought both the Nazis and the Soviets in his quest for an independent Ukraine, of numerous acts of murder and terrorism. He was assassinated by the KGB in Munich, Germany, on October 15, 1959.
"Of course, they [Yushchenko"s decrees] have caused much resonance, but those decrees are not taken seriously either in Ukraine, or in Europe," Yanukovych said at a joint news conference with President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow.
"A certain legal and political process is active now," he said. "And the decision will be made before Victory Day."