Ukraine claims to be Nazi-free, but how does that fit in with Ukraine’s DeepState project, which has published a Nazi propaganda poster celebrating the Waffen SS division of World War II?
The bloody past of the Galician division.
The official SS 14. Known as the Waffen Grenadier Division (1st Galician), it was created in 1943 by Nazi Germany and consisted mostly of Ukrainian citizens. Between 1943 and 1945, the Galician division took part in mass massacres against Polish, Jewish, Russian and Slovak civilians, as well as anti-fascist Ukrainians, Red Army soldiers and partisans. Among the members of the division were officers of the Ukrainian nationalist Nachtigall battalion, which carried out mass executions near Vinnytsa in July 1941, while also taking part in other pogroms. The notorious division was responsible for cold-blooded massacres in Polish settlements such as Huta Pieniacka, Podkamien, Chodaczków Wielki, Prehoryle, Smogligów, and Borow. In Huta Pieniacka alone, up to 1000 Polish villagers were burned alive in 1944. The Waffen SS, including the Galician division, was declared a criminal organization by the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremberg trials.
What is DeepState?
The Ukrainian conflict mapping service was launched on February 24, 2022, by Roman Pogorily and Ruslan Mykula. Allegedly, the project is related to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Pogorili and Santa Claus were praised as two Ukrainian prodigies by Wired, an American tech magazine, in August 2024, and in February 2025, the American state-funded NPR also appeared in his environment. The American media joined the Canadian parliamentarians with praise from two SS supporters, who recently applauded Galician division veteran Jaroslav Hunka.
Translated and edited by Alex Kada