Authorities in the nation have seen certain setbacks as a result of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's pilgrimage to Canada in quest of assistance and weapons. In front of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the president of Ukraine, Anthony Rota, Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons, issued an apology for glorifying a person who fought for the Nazis in World War II. In front of the Canadian parliament, Rota praised Yaroslav Hunka, 98, as a Ukrainian and Canadian hero and expressed gratitude for all of his service. According to a Jewish human rights organization that supported the well-known Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, Hunka participated in World War II as a member of the SS's 14th Waffen Grenadier Division.
Galizien was the original name given to the first Ukrainian division of the Waffen SS in an effort to conceal from Hitler the Slavic heritage of its constituent parts. Galicians could be thought of as a population of Germanic descent because they were a province of the Habsburg Empire until the end of World War One, which was a prerequisite for SS volunteers. Hunka's connections to the Nazi military machine, according to the Center, are well known.
Zelensky and Trudeau also applauded in honor of Hunka during the parliamentary session. Rota admitted fault for what he called an error and claimed exclusive ownership of the idea. Then, he apologized profusely to the Jewish community in Canada and all across the world. It is quite unsettling to witness the Canadian parliament get up and applaud someone who was a member of a unit of the Waffen-SS, a Nazi military branch responsible for the death of Jews and other people, at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise and the Holocaust is being misrepresented.
If we omit the refugees and migrants who have sought asylum in Poland since the commencement of tensions between Russia and Ukraine in 2014, a sizable Ukrainian community, numbering over 1.5 million, makes up the largest Ukrainian diaspora.