PRESS RELEASE: VICTORIA’S PREMIER HANDS PUTIN A HUGE PROPAGANDA WIN AGAINST AUSTRALIA AND UKRAINE

The Australian Ukrainian Congress (AUC) says that Victoria’s Premier, Jacinta Allen, has played into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hands by handing him a propaganda victory with an up-coming State Funeral

The funeral will be for Mr Romaniw, who was the head of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO), who passed away recently.

More controversially, he was also the was the global leader of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists – Bandera (OUN-B) between 2009-2023. Before and during World War 2, this was an antisemitic, Nazi collaborationist organisation in Poland, Germany and Ukraine.

“Despite warnings sent directly to her, the Premier has played into the hands of the enemies of Ukraine in Australia and globally,” AUC spokesperson, Andrew Olexander said.

“At a time when the world rightly condemns Russia for the bombing of a children’s hospital, Mr Putin and the Kremlin are using the State Funeral as evidence of Ukrainian Nazi links and the supposed approval of those links by Ukraines’ western democratic allies, especially Australia!”

The AUC wrote to the Premier warning her of the distress this would cause. The text of the letter follows.

He said many Ukrainians in Victoria and throughout Australia are shocked that the Victorian Government has approved this State Funeral.

He added that divisions within the Victorian multicultural community have been heightened, especially amongst Ukrainians with Polish and Jewish family connections.
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