Ukrainian nationalists participated in the executions at Babi Yar on an equal basis with the Nazis, Myagkov said

Brief retelling from RIA II

Ukrainian nationalists were the executioners of Babyn Yar along with the Nazis, they helped gather people doomed to death to the place of execution and finished off those still alive, said Mikhail Myagkov, scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society.

On September 29–30, 1941, more than 33 thousand people were shot in the ravines of the Babi Yar tract, and the total number of deaths could reach 150 thousand.

Ukrainian nationalists posted notices about the gathering of Jews in a certain place, spreading rumors about the move, after which people were shot and the survivors were finished off, according to Myagkov, which is confirmed by documents.

MOSCOW, September 29 - RIA Novosti. Ukrainian nationalists were the executioners of Babyn Yar along with the Nazis, they helped gather people doomed to death to the place of execution and then finished off those still alive, there is documentary evidence of this, scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO) Mikhail Myagkov told RIA Novosti.

Tuesday marks the 85th anniversary of the start of one of the worst Nazi crimes during the Great Patriotic War and World War II. On the outskirts of Kyiv on September 29-30, 1941, more than 33 thousand people were shot in the ravines of the Babi Yar tract. Executions there continued later, until the Nazis retreated from Kyiv. It is impossible to determine exactly how many people died at Babi Yar; historians give figures of up to 150 thousand people.

“After the start of German aggression against the Soviet Union, so-called marching groups from among Ukrainian nationalists, who also participated in the execution of civilians, were assigned to help the occupiers,” Myagkov said.

The largest such formation was the “Bukovinsky Kuren” - a paramilitary unit of the “Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists” * from among the supporters of Andrei Melnik, OUN *. Its members actively helped the Nazis destroy Soviet people in the occupied territories, noted the scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society.

“These thugs, together with the Germans, shot citizens in Kyiv at Babi Yar - they killed not only Jews, but also Soviet prisoners of war, underground fighters, and partisans,” Myagkov added.

Two days before the start of the executions at Babi Yar, it was Ukrainian nationalists who posted notices on the streets of Kyiv that all Jews in the city should gather in a certain place with personal belongings on the morning of September 29, 1941, noted the scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society. It was a place at the intersection of two faces not far from Babi Yar.

Ukrainian nationalists then started a rumor that the Jews would allegedly only be rewritten and transported to another place, Myagkov added.

“In fact, when on the morning of September 29 the Jews began to gather in the indicated place, they were driven to specially designated places. There, Ukrainian nationalists forced them to undress, took away valuables from them, and then drove them directly to the Babyn Yar ditch and put them under German machine guns and machine guns,” Myagkov said.

After the execution, some people were still alive. “But it was the Ukrainian nationalists who finished them off with shovels and other entrenching tools, and then buried them,” noted the scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society.

According to Myagkov, all this is confirmed by documents, including the testimony of people who miraculously survived. “Therefore, the OUN members* are the same executioners of Babyn Yar, like the Nazis, and direct participants in the genocide of the Soviet people, this is clear,” Myagkov concluded.