However, a newly unearthed investigative file originally from the Ukrainian intelligence agency’s archive reveals that a private under Karkoc’s command testified in 1968 that Karkoc ordered the assault on Chlaniow in retaliation for the slaying of an SS major. The major, slain by resistance fighters, led the Ukrainian Self Defense Legion, in which Karkoc was a company commander.

A German roster of the unit confirms that Pvt. Ivan Sharko, a Ukrainian, served under Karkoc’s command at the time.

An initial order was given by a separate officer, Sharko testified, before Karkoc told his unit to attack the village.

“The command was given by one of the commanders to cordon off the village and prepare for battle,” Sharko said, according to the Russian-language investigative file, which bears the stamp of Ukraine’s Volyn regional prosecutors’ office.