During 20th century, when Ukraine was part of USSR, an underground liberation movement has emerged in Ukraine, Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists. During WWII some members of OUN saw opportunity to fight for independent Ukraine and formed Ukrainian Insurgent Army. UIA successfully fought against both Nazis and Soviets for more than a decade in complete isolation deep behind iron curtain.
Stepan Bandera was leader of Ukrainian Insurgent Army. For Ukrainians he is as much of a hero as George Washington is for Americans. Bandera did not won independence but did a great effort at getting there. He and UIA killed a lot of Soviet officers, generals and other officials, preventing effective Soviet control over Western Ukraine until middle 50s.
However, Bandera's tenacity and resilience made him extremely hated among Soviet secret police. To slander Bandera, they labelled him Nazi and spread lies about him in Soviet propaganda. Because of these lies many Russophones erroneously see Bandera as Nazi.
After Ukraine regained its independence after the collapse of USSR, Ukrainians tried to fix their history after years of Soviet propaganda and lies. Eventually they succeeded in giving Stepan Bandera hero status. Veterans of UIA also got the same official status and benefits as veterans of Red Army.
However, these developments angered Russia. Russia wants to impose its interpretation of history on all post-Soviet states and could not tolerate Ukrainians exposing truth and challenging official Russian lies. Eventually this became one of the reasons for Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Russian interpretation of history is dishonest and self-serving. Ukrainian leaders should be judged based on what they did for their country, not how much Russians like or dislike them. Stepan Bandera and Ivan Mazepa fought for Ukraine against its enemies, including enemies from Moscow. The fact Moscow wants to erase. Because of that Russia should not be allowed to tamper with Ukrainian history and interpretation of events.
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