# Is Ukraine a 'Nazi State'?

> The Kremlin's wartime myth of a 'Nazi Ukraine' needing 'denazification' is false: Ukraine's 2015 decommunization law bans the symbols of both Nazism and communism as totalitarian regimes.

Canonical: https://holospravdy.com/en/is-ukraine-a-nazi-state
Period: suchasnist | Type: spoke | Updated: 2026-06-18

**TL;DR.** The Russian aggression of 2022 was officially justified by "denazification" — that is, by the thesis that Ukraine is supposedly a Nazi state. At the level of the state this is refuted by a single verifiable fact: Ukraine is one of the few countries where Nazism is banned **by law**. The decommunization package of 2015 equated and banned the propaganda and symbols of both totalitarian regimes — the Nazi and the communist. A state that bans Nazi ideology by law is, by definition, not Nazi.

## The myth

"Denazification" is the word with which the Kremlin designated one of the goals of the invasion. Behind it stands the thesis that Ukraine is a Nazi state, governed by Nazis, and therefore requires "cleansing" from outside. This is a claim about the **state**: about its system, its law, and its official ideology. It is precisely at this level that it should be tested — and it is precisely here that it falls apart.

## The fact: Nazism is banned by law

Ukrainian legislation contains a direct ban on Nazi (and communist) symbols and propaganda[1]. It was introduced by a law adopted on 9 April 2015 as part of the decommunization package. Under it, one may not publicly display the symbols of either regime, perform their anthems, or name streets and squares after their figures[2]. The Constitutional Court of Ukraine subsequently found this law to be in conformity with the Constitution.

Precision of wording matters here. To equate two regimes in a ban does not mean to declare them identical; it means that **both** are placed outside the law[2]. A state cannot simultaneously ban Nazism by law and be Nazi — this is a direct logical contradiction.

## Why both regimes in particular are banned

The ban is not symmetrical by accident — it has a historical basis. The Ukrainian people suffered from **both** totalitarianisms: from the communist one (the famine of 1921–23, the [Holodomor of 1932–33](/en/holodomor-man-made-famine), the postwar famine of 1946–47, decades of repression) and from the Nazi one (the German occupation brought mass death)[3]. That is why the state condemns and bans both ideologies — as two experiences of the extermination of its own population, not one.

## What this means

The accusation of "state Nazism" is easy to check at the level of the state — by its laws. And they say the opposite: Nazi ideology and symbols in Ukraine are **banned**, on a par with the communist ones. Attempts to save the thesis by shifting the dispute to individual historical figures or symbols do not save it: they no longer concern the system of the state but assessments of the past — a separate and complex question that does not make present-day Ukraine "Nazi." The "denazification" of a country where Nazism is banned by law is not a goal but a propaganda cover for aggression.

## Citation sources

[1] paraphrase: «В законе у нас запрет нацистской и коммунистической символики и пропаганды.» — Why Nazism and communism are banned in Ukraine (16.05.2024) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgrVmFo11Ng (timecodes: 01:00)

[2] summary: «По законодательству Украины нельзя демонстрировать нацистскую и коммунистическую символику, нельзя называть площади и улицы именами нацистов и коммунистов. Приравняли и запретили — это не значит, что коммунизм и нацизм одно и то же, это значит, что и то, и другое запрещено.» — Why Nazism and communism are banned in Ukraine (16.05.2024) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgrVmFo11Ng (timecodes: 09:42, 10:00)

[3] summary: «Украинский народ пострадал и от коммунизма (голод 1921–23, 1932–33, 1946–47 годов, репрессии), и от нацизма: когда немцы заняли Украину, они принесли смерть. Поэтому в Украине запрещена и нацистская, и коммунистическая символика и идеология.» — Why Nazism and communism are banned in Ukraine (16.05.2024) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgrVmFo11Ng (timecodes: 01:37, 23:00, 23:30)