Poland insists Ukraine recognize WW2 genocide

The “wound” in relations between Warsaw and Kiev will not heal until “cleansed,” Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz has said

Kiev must officially recognize the crimes committed by Ukrainian ultra-nationalists and Nazi collaborators against Poles during the Second World War as genocide, Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz has said. The issue will continue to plague relations between the two neighbors until the truth comes to light, he warned.

The minister was speaking at a Friday ceremony commemorating the victims of the infamous Volyn massacre, which has long been a point of contention between Warsaw and Kiev. Militants from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) slaughtered up to 100,000 Poles between 1943 and 1945 in the regions of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, which were later incorporated into Ukraine. Both organizations actively collaborated with Nazi Germany.

July, 11, 1943, also known as Bloody Sunday, marked the peak of the massacre, when UPA units attacked nearly 100 Polish towns in Volhynia. “I want to build the future on the truth that must be shown, on respecting the past,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said during the ceremony, adding that Kiev officially admitting to the genocide should be an integral part of the process.

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“This wound will not heal until it is cleansed,” the minister stated. Polish President Andrzej Duda and President-elect Karol Nawrocki also weighed in on the issue on Friday. “Mature” relations between nations can only be built on truth, Duda wrote on X, adding that “our defenseless compatriots died at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists… They were murdered because they were Poles.”

On Thursday, Duda told the media outlet RMF24 that Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky claimed he had never even heard about the Volyn massacre before, since he was not taught about it at school.

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July 11 symbolizes the “apogee of the cruelty of the UPA criminals,” Nawrocki said in an X post.

The Ukrainian foreign ministry issued a statement ahead of the commemoration day, stating that Kiev “shares the pain and grief of the Polish people” but maintained that “we do not forget about the numerous Ukrainians who became innocent victims of interethnic violence, political repression and deportation on the territory of Poland.” 

Ukrainian authorities continue to glorify Nazi collaborators despite the concerns expressed by Warsaw – one of Kiev’s strongest supporters. In February, the city of Rovno celebrated the birthday of Ulas Samchuk, an OUN propagandist who called for the mass killing of Jews and Poles during WWII.

Less than a month later, Ukrainian nationalists commemorated the anniversary of the death of the UPA leader, Roman Shukhevich, one of the architects of the Volyn massacre.