Zeman was commenting on the appalling scenes, which showed thousands of Ukrainian nationalists holding a torchlight procession across the Ukrainian capital on Thursday to commemorate the 106th birthday of Stepan Bandera, a Nazi collaborator and the Ukraine nationalist movement's leader during World War II.
"There is something wrong with Ukraine," the Czech Republic's leader told radio F1 on Sunday. "Yesterday evening I was browsing the Internet and discovered a video showing the demonstration on Kiev's Maidan on January 1."
"These demonstrators carried portraits of Stepan Bandera, which reminded me of Reinhard Heydrich," Zeman said, referring to one of the main architects of the Holocaust and at the time a Reich-Protector of Czech Republic's territories.
"The parade itself was organized similar to Nazi torchlight parades, where participants shouted the slogan: 'Death to the Poles, Jews and communists without mercy'," Zeman explained.
Bandera was the head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which collaborated with Nazi Germany, and was involved in the ethnic cleansing of Poles, Jews and Russians.
"Glory to the nation! Death to enemies!","Ukraine belongs to Ukrainians" and "Bandera will return and restore order", were the repeated slogans during the neo-Nazi march. Some of the participants wore World War II Bandera's insurgent army uniforms while others paraded with red and black nationalist flags.
The Czech President said something is "wrong" not only with Ukraine, but also with the European Union, which did not protest or condemn this action.
"Don't forget that Bandera is considered a national hero in Ukraine, his image is hanging in the Maidan, his statue is in Lvov. In reality, he was a mass murderer," Zeman said last summer on Czech Television.
Russia too has on numerous occasions condemned the resurgence of neo-Nazi traditions in Ukraine and considers such displays of militant nationalism as means to fabricate history.Czech President Milos Zeman: "While Stepan Bandera is seen in #Ukraine as a national hero, the fact remains that he was a mass murderer"
- Balkan news (@NewsBalkan) June 2, 2014
"Torch-lit marches in Ukraine demonstrate that it is continuing to move along the path of the Nazis!" Konstantin Dolgov, the foreign ministry's human rights envoy, said last week. "And this is in the center of civilized Europe!"
Comment: It won't be long before it's clear to even to the most ignorant European citizens and politicians that Ukraine has serious fascists elements in its society and government. These Svoboda and Right Sektor members are Nazis, and they're not hiding it. It's utterly disgusting that the EU is a silent bystander to the rise of extreme nationalism in Ukraine. Read these SOTT articles for the bigger picture behind the Ukraine crisis and Ukrainian Nazis: