Petro Voinovsky | |
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Петро Войновський | |
| Born | (1913-09-08)September 8, 1913 |
| Died | April 8, 1996(1996-04-08) (aged 82) |
| Occupation | Ukrainian independence fighter |
Petro Oleksandrovych Voinovsky[a] (September 8, 1913 — April 8, 1996)[1] was a Ukrainian nationalist. He lived in Bukovina (a region of modern Ukraine that belonged to Romania before 1940), served in the Romanian army in the rank of lieutenant, resigned in 1935 due to the policy ofRomanianization (he refused to change his name into a Romanian one). He participated in Ukrainian scouting organizationPlast, joinedOUN in the 1930s. He initially supportedStepan Bandera, but later moved toAndriy Melnyk's faction. Since 1940 Voinovsky was the regional leader of OUN in Bukovina and Bessarabia.
In 1941, with German support, he organized the so-calledBukovyna Kurin [uk][b], the Bukovinian Battalion, the biggest paramilitary unit of Andriy Melnyk's faction, got the rank of a captain (Hauptmann). When the German-Soviet war began, the Bukovyna Kurin came to Ukraine in order to organize pro-German local administration. In November 1941 his unit was merged with the Kyivauxiliary police while Voinovsky and some other of his people were transferred toSchutzmannschaft battalions.
According to sources ofStepan Bandera's faction, Voinovsky actively helped Germans in their reprisals against Ukrainian nationalists - adherents of Bandera.[2] Nevertheless, he was arrested byGestapo inLviv in 1944 and imprisoned in Brez concentration camp where he became paralyzed.
From 1949 Voinovsky resided in the USA.
After Ukraine became independent in 1991, several mass-media proclaimed Voinovsky a national hero of Ukraine. A monument in memory of Bukovyna Kurin was erected inChernivtsi. Voinovsky visited Ukraine in 2003 and was interviewed.
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