As long ago as 1995 the Lviv Oblast Council recognized the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) as a combatant in the Second World War and the participants of the national liberation movement as fighters for the freedom in Ukraine. However, even now, over eleven years of independence, participants in the national liberation movement, who fought against two, Nazi German and Bolshevik Russian, occupiers, still remain the most outcast part of society. This is, in any case, the opinion of Lviv Oblast Council deputies. So, to radically change the situation and properly mark the sixtieth anniversary of the UPA, they displayed a new initiative on July 11. They think it is Verkhovna Rada that must now recognize UPA as a combatant in World War II and the national liberation struggle of the 1940s and 1950s and its participants as fighters for the freedom of Ukraine. The Lviv deputies also hope that the legislative initiative on this matter will be submitted to Verkhovna Rada by none other than President Leonid Kuchma. Also in Lviv, the public elects call on Myron Yankiv, chairman of the Lviv Oblast Administration, to officially request the head of state to confer the highest state awards on outstanding UPA warriors. It is suggested, in particular, that the title of Hero of Ukraine be bestowed (posthumously) on General Roman Shukhevych, UPA commander-in-chief, OUN leader Yevhen Konovalets, and Stepan Bandera.
