Ukraine's president awards Elon Musk, Ukraine's highest honor, amid the Kyiv regime's continued homage to repressive Nazi and historical symbols and the imprisonment of leftist opponents of the war.
Afrasianet - André Damon - A report on the website of (World Socialism) "wsws.org" Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has awarded the "Medal of Freedom" to billionaire Elon Musk to ensure that the Starlink network is used to target Russian depth, considering the measure as a dedication to Kyiv's approach to honoring right-wing figures and historical symbols allied with Nazism.
The report highlights the paradox between Western celebration of the Ukrainian regime and its internal practices, which include the imposition of martial law and the banning of opposition parties, along with the imprisonment of leftist anti-war activists and documentation of human rights abuses by the security services.
The text of the report is as follows:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a decree awarding US billionaire Elon Musk the "Medal of Freedom", the highest Ukrainian decoration awarded to a foreign national, on the pretext of his "outstanding personal contributions to the protection of human life and freedom".
The Financial Times reported that Ukraine is demanding that Musk allow its drones to use SpaceX's Starlink satellite network to be able to launch attacks up to 200 kilometers deep inside Russian territory.
This coincided with Western backers continuing to push the war deep into Russia, with Ukrainian forces firing Storm Shadow missiles with a range of more than 250 kilometers and launching about 600 drones towards the Moscow region in one of their biggest attacks.
During his visit to Kyiv on Aug. 24, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham allowed MBDA to declassify the technical data of the missile's British components to enable Kyiv to manufacture its own version.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington estimates that more than 2 million soldiers on both sides have been killed, wounded or missing.
Cracking down on leftist dissent and jailing anti-war protesters
This tribute to Musk—known for his support of far-right ideas, anti-Semitic rhetoric, and support for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and British fascist Tommy Robinson—reveals the nature of the regime in Kiev, which represses opponents of the war and prohibits left-wing political dissent.
On 10 November, a court in Pervomaisk sentenced 27-year-old socialist activist Bogdan Serutyuk, who heads the Metrotskyist Young Guard of Bolsheviks-Leninist in solidarity with the International Committee of the Fourth International, to 15 years in prison for opposing the war and calling for the unification of Ukrainian and Russian workers against it through his articles in the World Socialist Network.
The reasons for the verdict stated that he compared the citizens of Ukraine to fascists and belittled the "national heroes", led by Stepan Bandera.
These rulings are part of a repressive mechanism that included a ban on the Communist Party in 2015, the suspension of 11 parties in March 2022, including five left-wing parties such as the Socialist Party of Ukraine, and the closure of the courts of the largest opposition party in June 2022.
The UN Human Rights Office also reported on 23 September 2025 that 22,814 criminal investigations had been opened and cases of torture and ill-treatment of detainees by the Security Service of Ukraine had been documented.
Zelenskyy rules under martial law imposed since February 2022 and extended by parliament 20 times, despite his presidential term ending on May 20, 2024, and his refusal to hold elections on the grounds that they would create a "tsunami that will tear the country apart."
The Historical Record of Honoring Nazi Collaborators
The medal is part of a series of official honors for figures who allied with Nazism and participated in the massacres, with Zelensky signing a decree on May 26 awarding a special forces unit the honorary title of "Heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army" (UPA).
The army belongs to the Ukrainian Nationalist Organization led by Stepan Bandera, which welcomed Hitler's invasion in 1941 and whose militias took part in the Lviv massacres and killed about 100,000 Poles in Volhynia, Eastern Galicia and Lublin until 1945, according to the Polish National Memory Institute.
In response, Polish President Karol Noworki withdrew Zelensky's "White Eagle" medal on June 19, which he returned to Warsaw via a private shipping company the next day.
The official honor included the top collaborators of Nazi Germany, namely:
- Andriy Melnyk: Commander of the wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, whose battalion is accused of participating in the 1941 Babi Yar massacre (33,771 people were killed), where he was reburied in an official ceremony outside Kyiv on May 25 in the presence of Zelensky, despite the protest of the Yad Vashem Foundation.
- Roman Shukhevich: Officer in the "Nakhtigal" battalion and police and military commander of the rebel army, who was named "Hero of Ukraine" in 2007 and still retains the name of a street in Kiev.
- Stepan Bandera: Named "Hero of Ukraine" in 2010, a street named after him in Kyiv (formerly Moskovsky Street).
- Petro Dyashenko: Commander of a police battalion of the Nazi Security Service (SS) and recipient of the Iron Cross, honored by the parliament in 2015 and named streets in 6 cities after him, the last of which was last year.
- Jaroslav Stetsko: Bandera's deputy and advocate of the extermination of the Jews, who has been monumental and street in more than a dozen cities.
- Yevgeny Konovalits, founder of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, a servant of German intelligence in the 1930s, was reburied in the National Military Cemetery outside Kyiv on August 18 in the presence of Zelenskyy.
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Source: WSWS website
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