A second Ukrainian has challenged in court outgoing President Viktor Yushchenko's decree to declare Stepan Bandera, whom many see as a Nazi collaborator during WWII, a national hero.

Valery Golenko, chairman of the Lugansk regional council, asked the Lugansk regional administrative court to cancel the decree to award Bandera the Hero of Ukraine title as the title can only be granted to Ukrainian citizens for heroic deeds or labor achievements.

"Bandera never was a Ukrainian citizen," Golenko said, adding that even if Bandera had any merits, they had nothing to do with the establishment and development of an independent Ukraine.

Yushchenko's January 22 move has already fueled fierce debate in Ukraine, where Bandera is a controversial figure, with his mainly West Ukrainian supporters considering him a hero.

An MP from Sevastopol in the Crimea burned his passport on Sunday in protest against the move, and a lawyer from the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk has challenged the decree in court.

Bandera, the son of a clerical family, was a leader of the Ukrainian national movement in Western Ukraine and headed the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in 1941-1959.

The Soviet authorities accused Bandera of numerous acts of murder and terrorism and authorized his assassination by the KGB in Munich, Germany, on October 15, 1959.

DONETSK, January 27 (RIA Novosti)