The question of who was Stepan Banderas is popping up in regard to the Ukraine/Russia war. This Facebook post rekindled my interest.

I took up the challenge to look him up. First I tried the Wikipedia article Stepan Bandera. This introductory paragraph confused me.

Bandera cultivated German military circles favorable to Ukrainian independence, and organized OUN expeditionary groups. When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, he prepared the 30 June 1941 Proclamation of Ukrainian statehood in Lviv, pledging to work with Nazi Germany. For his refusal to rescind the decree, Bandera was arrested by the Gestapo, which put him under house arrest on 5 July 1941,…

Without reading farther I found the History News Network article Who Was Stepan Bandera?. This is the paragraph that cleared up my confusion about the Wikipedia paragraph.

The Germans intended to keep Ukraine for themselves. They arrested Bandera for his intransigence on the issue of independence, but released him in 1944 when it appeared that his popularity with Ukrainians might help stem the Soviet advance. But whatever their disappointment with the Germans, the Banderists never disagreed with their Jewish policy in Ukraine, which eventually killed over 1.5 million Ukrainian Jews.

The story of Bandera has many complexities. If you are interested, you might want to read more of the articles in the links above.