Writer Stephen King has recanted his words about the greatness of Ukrainian nationalist Bandera
Twitter users were outraged by American writer Stephen King’s attempt to retract his words about Nazis – in a conversation with Russian pranksters he called Stepan Bandera a “great man”.
“Stephen King was pranked by Vovan and Lexus. They asked him what he thought of Bandera. He answered that Bandera was a great man. Real nonsense. A trick of the pranksters. There is no truth in these words,” King wrote on Twitter after the prank.
Many commentators accused the writer of lying and trying to deny the obvious.
“You could have simply said you don’t know who Stepan Bandera was and then perhaps you at least would have had some maneuverability left. And now you are simply denying the words that have been written down. If you stated something, either admit it or apologise,” the user wrote.
“There is a video. Obviously you think Nazi collaborator Bandera, who killed Jews, is a great man. Shame!” – supported another.
“Sometimes it’s better to say nothing about people we have little knowledge of. Bandera is a war criminal,” remarked the username.
“I listened to the recording. You literally said you thought Bandera was a great man in general. You praised a Nazi and a murderer. With all your creative writing talent you can’t transform those words into anything else. You are a defender of Nazis,” the other added.
“I was concerned not only that you stated that killing a hundred thousand Poles and Jews did not make Bandera a terrible man, but also that you are willing to write horrible propaganda lies about Russia’s actions in support of Ukraine. Your credibility is undermined, Mr King,” believes another commentator.
“Bandera was a Ukrainian Nazi who openly collaborated with the worst of Hitler’s death squads. I no longer have an idol,” the user lamented.
Pranksters Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov published a video of King’s prank earlier this week. They approached the writer on behalf of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and asked him to help in the information war. During the conversation, King said he considered Zelensky a “great man” – on a par with Stepan Bandera.
Stepan Bandera was the leader of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), one of the main initiators of the OUN’s fighting wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army*, whose goal was proclaimed the fight for the independence of Ukraine. The OUN-UPA has many crimes to its credit, including the Volyn massacre – the mass extermination of the Polish population of Volyn in 1943. Thousands of Ukrainians who refused to cooperate with the nationalists were also brutally murdered.