UKRAINIAN Red Army and disaster relief veterans appealed to the Kiev parliament’s human rights commissioner at the weekend to end an unconstitutional ban on communist political activity.

The open letter to senior jurist Valeria Lutkovska — who has held the office since 2012, predating February 2014’s EU-backed coup — was signed by soldiers decorated for heroism during the second world war, including Hero of Socialist Labour SG Boyko and GF Chub, a commander of the Order of the Red Flag.

Younger signatories included V Pihotskyy, who risked his life in the clean-up of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Kiev’s “decommunisation” law bans all Soviet symbolism and bars communists from taking part in elections.

In their letter, the veterans describe their “shock” on learning of the new law and ask Ms Lutkovskaya to defend “political rights enshrined in the constitution of Ukraine, flagrantly violated by the current government.”

They also call for respect for the Communist Party, both in its present role as a “true opposition” to the regime and for its historic achievements.

“The mere fact that under its leadership the multinational Soviet people destroyed the ‘brown plague’ of fascism should make this party a model of determination, courage and patriotism for future generations,” the letter reads.

It protests that the same authorities who are ripping up red flags and destroying hammer-and-sickle signs are allowing far-right groups to “brazenly parade in their uniforms with nazi swastikas on their sleeves.

“Have you wondered, Valeria, how unbearably painful it is for the veterans who defeated fascism back in 1945 now to see its dark shoots sprouting wildly across Ukraine?” the authors ask.

“Is it possible that the Ministry of Justice has the right to throw communists out of the electoral field, along with the millions of voters who at elections at all levels have given their votes to the party?

“Under the constitution the prohibition of any party is only possible in court and, as you know, the Ministry of Justice attempts to indict the Communist Party of Ukraine failed.

“The ban contradicts the democratic principles that supposedly adhere in Ukraine and violates universally recognised international standards for free and fair elections.”