Ukrainian Capital Names Streets After Nazi Collaborators

The Ukrainian Jewish Committee’s director has harshly criticized a decision by the Ukrainian capital’s legislature to name streets after Nazi collaborators.

Eduard Dolinsky said the Kyiv city council ruled Tuesday to name a city street after Ivan Pavlenko, whom he described as a Nazi collaborator and war criminal. Dolinsky said on social media Wednesday that Pavlenko led a Ukrainian unit involved in the killing of tens of thousands of Jews during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine.

Dolinsky said that the city legislators also named another Kyiv street after Nil Khasevich, an activist of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, who drew anti-Semitic cartoons and was involved in mass killings of Poles during World War II.

Dolinsky described the city council’s move as an insult to Holocaust victims. The Ukrainian authorities had no immediate reaction.