Someone beyond me makes sense of the Ukrainian nazism propaganda.
"Many have remarked on the hollowness of Russia's "de-nazification" narrative and assume that it's some recent piece of disinformation cooked up for the purpose of this present conflict. The history is more complex, and frankly, delicate. I'll attempt to explain here briefly.
During World War II, some Ukrainians sympathized with Hitler because they either admired fascism, hated Russia, or both. They coalesced into an organization called the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). That group had two factions, the OUN-M led by Andrew Melnyk, and the OUN-B, led by Stepan Bandera. OUN-B was much more extremist, and aligned with the Nazis.
In 1941 Yaroslav Stetsko and OUN-B led a massacre of Jews in Lviv (or Lwow, to reflect its then-Polish status), and proclaimed himself premier of a new short-lived Ukrainian government, with allegiance to the Nazis. After the war, the OUN-B remained aligned with various anti-communist factions around the world and collaborated with the ABBN (anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations), the WACL (World Anti-Communist League), and the Asian People's Anti-Communist League.
The Korean CIA, Moonies, and Taiwanese nationalists, allied with these European factions to fight communism; they persisted throughout the Cold War and Reagan endorsed the OUN-B, going so far as to appoint its affiliates to key positions in/near his administration. But as alarming as that sounds, the OUN-B was a small faction of rabid fascist nationalists and not representative of the broader coalition of pro-democracy factions that emerged in Ukraine after 1991.
But the OUN-B hated one thing even more than communists: Russian imperialism.
Since Putin's rise to power, he has resented this small OUN-B faction because it historically resisted Russia's imperial advances. No longer important politically in Ukraine, today's far-right parties struggle to gain more than about 2.3% of the vote.
By contrast, Germany's far-right AfD party has attracted around 10% of the vote, more recently. So which country has more of a Nazi problem? Thankfully, far right parties are failing to gain much support anywhere in Europe today.
The fact that Zelensky is himself Jewish makes claims of "denazification" by Russia seem all the more ludicrous; but it makes more sense (kinda) when you understand this backstory about the OUN-B.
In 2014, when Putin illegally invaded Ukraine for the first time they also invoked this "Ukrainian nazis" narrative and it was as stupid then as it is now. But Putin is trying to exploit this odd bit of history, and the revulsion towards 20th century naziism as a propaganda device for his military and domestic audience.
I hope this makes more sense now and will help people debunk Russia's lies more effectively. Primary source for this was Russ Bellant's "Old Nazis, The New Right, and the Republican Party" (1988) pp. 69-73. The book is worth the read, especially right now. Thanks."

[haaretz.com]