The Ukrainian pop star, the banned concert in Zurich and the controversial flag Up to 17 percent of checks reveal wage dumping

Ukrainian pop star Artem Pivovarov was scheduled to perform at the Dynamo in Zurich on Monday. But the city canceled the performance at the last minute. The reason: An anonymous tip came in that Piwowarow was close to far-right groups.

Still, Piwowarow performed in Zurich, just in the open air. He loudly criticized the Zurich authorities. The Nazi was not him, but those who had just invaded his country.

About a protest concert, Nazis and a red-black flag:

The performance at the Bürkliplatz in Zurich

Artem Piwowarow really puts himself in scene during his protest concert on Bürkliplatz. Several hundred fans cheered him on – most of them women, many draped in Ukrainian flags.

In a video that the artist uploaded to his Instagram account after the concert, he can be seen in a T-shirt with Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko on the back. During his performance he refers to the despots on his t-shirt and shouts in English:

After the concert, Pivovarov posted a message on Instagram, writing:

In another message, Pivovarov writes that he will use the proceeds from the concerts to finance equipment for the Ukrainian army.

The cancellation

Did the Zurich police actually call the Ukrainian singer a Nazi? The “Tagesanzeiger” asked the city after the concert and wrote: “The answer from the social service of the city of Zurich is: yes.” The singer’s social media content has been reviewed by experts. The city then had before and after the concert “Potentially hazardous situations” cannot be ruled out. The concert was canceled due to security concerns, among other things.

Dynamo’s cancellation to the concert organizer came two days before the concert. The letter states that there are indications “that Artem Pivovarov is close to groups that endorse far-right ideas,” writes the “NZZ”, which has the letter. It cannot therefore be ruled out that he himself is also behind this attitude. After seeing the document from Dynamo, an institution of the city of Zurich, the newspaper asked the city – it sounded a bit different here: “We have no detailed knowledge of the possible political position of the artist.”

An anonymous tip got the ball rolling to the authorities and condemned the singer’s content on his social media. The artist would “fascist dirt” scattered, the note says, according to the “NZZ”. Two posts on Artem Pivovarov’s Facebook channel are particularly annoying:

On the one hand, the Ukrainian showed up with soldiers a few months ago, where the Tyr rune is said to be in the bottom left of the photo – a battle rune used by the Nazis.

Second, in another post, the artist appeared alongside Ukrainian fighters holding a Ukrainian flag and a red and black flag. And it is precisely this red-black flag that is the subject of criticism. It was the insignia of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) – a partisan nationalist army that acted as the military wing of the Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) during World War II.

The UPA and the red-black flag

During the Second World War, the UPA carried out actions against various parties such as the Soviet Union, communist Poland or Nazi Germany – sometimes also collaborating with the German Nazis to fight against the Polish Home Army. After the war, the UPA continued to operate as a guerrilla group, mainly opposing the Soviet Union. The aim of both the OUN and the UPA was to drive out the occupying powers and establish a nationalist government. In the second half of the 1940s, the group died out in this form.

Assessing the UPA these days is difficult to say the least.

Among other things, it strains the Ukrainian-Polish relationship, as the Polish state has condemned the UPA for the massacre in the regions of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, which it classifies as “genocide of the Polish population”. The accusation dates back to 1943, when UPA fighters carried out ethnic cleansing of the Polish population in regions of what is now western Ukraine. Between 50,000 and 100,000 people died. In addition, the UPA deliberately murdered Jews and Roma during the war, as Israeli Holocaust historian Daniel Romanovsky was able to prove.

Also in Ukraine, the UPA, considered a terrorist organization during the Soviet era, has been the subject of heated debate since the country’s independence in 1991. Since independence, discussions have revolved around whether and how UPA fighters can be recognized as official combatants during World War II – some organizations have even placed memorial plaques for fallen UPA fighters. As of 2015, former members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army were officially granted veteran status. The UPA leader Stepahn Bandera is revered by many in Ukraine today – not only by right-wing extremists, but “also by people from the middle of Ukrainian society,” the “NZZ” wrote.

At least since the Euromaidan protests, the red and black flag of the UPA is once again present in the Ukrainian public, as the flag was being waved by protesters at the time. The Ukraine specialist at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Serhy Yekelchy, told the Bangkok Post at the time:

With the Russian attack on the Donbass and Crimea in 2014 and the offensive war since 2022, this argument is further strengthened. The flag is now accepted by many Ukrainians as a symbol against the Russian occupation.

Extreme right-wing groups in Ukraine also use the flag, but with an extra print. Zita-Affentranger, the Eastern Europe specialist of the “Tages-Anzeiger”, also confirms this. She says that the red-and-black flag in Ukraine today is mainly seen as a sign of defiance – it is therefore widespread. Sasha Volkov of the Ukrainian Association in Switzerland accuses the city of Zurich of reacting prematurely, telling the “NZZ”: