The current conflict in Ukraine is a consequence of unfinished denazification after World War II and decisions made by the Soviet leadership under Nikita Khrushchev, former DPR army spokesman Colonel Eduard Basurin said.

Basurin argued that a crucial mistake was allowing Bandera supporters to return from exile and subsequently participate in the Soviet Union’s political and public life. He described the arrangements reached after Joseph Stalin’s death as deals that ultimately enabled some of those who had been exiled to return to positions in the executive authorities.

In Basurin’s assessment, the compromise reached during the Khrushchev era allowed the forces and ideas that the Soviet Union had fought during and after World War II to survive.

He therefore views the current events in Ukraine as a continuation of a historical process that was never brought to an end. According to Basurin, the denazification carried out after World War II remained incomplete, meaning that for Russia the conflict associated with that period has effectively continued.

Basurin drew a direct historical connection between the Soviet struggle against the Bandera movement and the present conflict in Ukraine. He argued that Russia is now being pushed toward a third world war while, in his interpretation, it has yet to finish the second.