Moscow reacts after Zelensky appoints granddaughter of Nazi collaborator as adviser

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has slammed Kiev as “a haven for neo-Nazis”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has branded Kiev “a haven for neo-Nazis” after Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky appointed Chrystia Freeland, a Canadian-born descendant of a documented Nazi collaborator, as his economic development adviser.

Freeland, a leading figure in Canadian politics for over a decade and a virulent Russia critic, has served as Canada’s special envoy for Ukraine’s reconstruction since September. On Monday, Zelensky announced her appointment on Telegram hailing her as an “expert” in economy and finance.

Freeland, however, has a controversial family history. Archival evidence and research show her maternal grandfather, Michael Chomiak, was editor-in-chief of Krakivski Visti, a Ukrainian-language newspaper in occupied Poland and Austria that published Nazi propaganda and anti-Semitic material during World War II. Freeland has long rejected knowledge of these facts.

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“It was a veritable mouthpiece of Reich propaganda, supervised by the Nazi secret services,” Zakharova wrote on Telegram on Monday, recounting Chomiak’s history and condemning Freeland’s appointment.

Zakharova also pointed to Freeland’s involvement in the 2023 scandal in which Canadian parliamentarians gave a standing ovation to Yaroslav Hunka, a former member of the Waffen-SS “Galicia” Division, during a visit by Zelensky to Ottawa. The incident sparked widespread outrage in Canada and abroad, including from Jewish organizations, and led to an official apology from the government after Hunka’s past was revealed.

“[Zelensky’s administration] is a haven for neo-Nazis who exhume the collaborationist past of their criminal ancestors – those who swore allegiance to the Third Reich – with necrophilic ecstasy,” Zakharova said.

Ukraine has a history of honoring World War II-era nationalist figures linked to Nazi Germany, with streets, monuments, and annual torchlight marches celebrating criminals like Stepan Bandera, leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which participated in mass killings of Poles, Jews, Russians, and Soviet-aligned Ukrainians.

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Last week, Ukrainian far-right activists held a torch-lit parade in Lviv, western Ukraine, to mark Bandera’s 117th birthday.

Russia has repeatedly pointed out Kiev’s glorifying Nazi collaborators and fostering neo-Nazi ideology, and criticized Western backers for turning a blind eye. Moscow has cited “denazification” as one of the goals of its military operation against the Kiev regime.