Russian authorities have launched a criminal case and are seeking an extradition request against a 93-year-old alleged Nazi collaborator who currently resides in Ormstown, Que.
A statement from the Russian Embassy in Ottawa said that Ukrainian-Canadian Vladimir Katriuk volunteered to serve in the SS battalion 118 and was personally involved in the “genocidal massacre” of the Belarusian village of Khatyn on March 23, 1943, also known as the Khatyn massacre.
“Given the seriousness of the crimes committed by Vladimir Katriuk and the fact that his accomplices were proven guilty and faced the death penalty for exterminating civilians of the Khatyn village in [Belarus], an extradition request would be logical for bringing the Nazi collaborator to court,” Kirill Kalinin, Press Secretary of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Canada, said in a release.
“We do count on full and impartial support of the Canadian Government. We will always remember that Canada was our Ally in fighting Nazi Germany and the Canadian contribution to the Allied Victory over Nazism, as well as the liberation of Europe in 1945.”
The Russian criminal code states that war crimes and the extermination of civilians on Nazi-occupied territories should not go unpunished and the Embassy states that no one who participated in or assisted the Nazis with this “can escape responsibility for heinous and inhumane crimes.”
The Embassy states that it expects full and impartial support of the Canadian government in its extradition request for Katriuk.
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