The speaker of Canada's parliament has resigned after inadvertently honoring a Ukrainian Nazi veteran, triggering global condemnation and calls from the Kremlin for Ottawa to bring 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka, a Ukrainian who fought for a Nazi unit in World War II, to justice.
Speaker Anthony Rota stepped down saying he made an "error" by inviting Hunka to the House of Commons and hailing him as a "hero" during a visit to the legislature by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Members of parliament from all parties rose to applaud Hunka, unaware of the details of who he was.
Rota, who initially resisted calls to resign, said he had no knowledge Hunka, a Ukrainian immigrant from Rota's parliamentary district, had served in a Nazi-linked military unit that was accused of killing Polish and Jewish civilians, though it was never convicted in a court of committing war crimes.
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Polish Education Minister Przemyslaw Czarnek said on September 26 he had "taken steps" to start the extradition of Hunka, while Russia on September 27 called Rota's resignation an "insufficient step."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Canada's parliament needed to publicly condemn Nazism and called on the Canadian authorities to "bring to justice or to extradite to those who wish to bring to justice this criminal."
The furor comes 19 months into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has accused Ukrainian leaders of being "neo-Nazis" despite Zelenskiy being Jewish and losing family members in the Holocaust. Moscow has also sought to justify its full-scale invasion with the need to "de-Nazify" its neighbor.
Peskov repeated that narrative on September 27, saying that the incident in the Canadian parliament "once again confirms Kyiv's Nazi ideology."
Hunka served in the 1st Ukrainian Division, also known as the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, or the SS 14th Waffen Division, a volunteer unit that was under the command of the Nazis.
The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies has called the incident "shocking" and "incredibly disturbing."
"This incident has compromised all 338 members of parliament," the organization said in a statement, adding it had "handed a propaganda victory to Russia, distracting from what was a momentously significant display of unity between Canada and Ukraine."
In his apology, Rota said he alone was responsible for inviting and recognizing Hunka. His office confirmed that it did not share its invitation list with any other party or group before Hunka's visit.
Ukraine's government has not commented on the incident.
Zelensky's visit to Canada was part of a tour aimed at bolstering international support, after addressing the United Nations and visiting U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington.
During the visit, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged additional aid to Zelensky's war-torn country.
Canada is home to the world's second-largest Ukrainian diaspora and Zelenskiy, in his speech to parliament, expressed thanks for the backing given to Kyiv since Russian troops poured over the Ukrainian borders in February 2022.