Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has introduced the creation of a nationwide memorial to the victims of a “genocide dedicated by Ukrainian nationalists” throughout World Struggle Two.
Tusk was talking on the anniversary of what Poland calls the “bloodbath” in Volhynia – a Polish territory in German-occupied Poland now a part of Ukraine and often called Volyn – by which it says some 100,000 ethnic Poles had been killed by the Ukrainian Rebel Military (UPA) in 1943-45.
Many in Ukraine see the UPA as heroes who fought for independence from the Soviet Union in addition to in opposition to Nazi Germany and Polish authorities.
Warsaw and Kyiv have for many years been at odds over the occasions, by which as much as 10,000 Ukrainian civilians are additionally estimated to have been killed.
Talking on Saturday, Tusk mentioned: “Fact is our obligation towards the victims, but additionally a strategy to overcome a painful previous for the sake of a greater future.
“Reminiscence can’t be the servant of hatred. The reply to nationalism can’t be extra nationalism,” the Polish prime minister mentioned, urging Ukraine to “embrace this fact” if the nation needed someday to hitch the European Union.
Final month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was stripped of Poland’s highest state honour over his resolution to call a Ukrainian army unit after the UPA, amid a diplomatic row between the 2 international locations.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki mentioned he needed to act – however careworn that the row wouldn’t impression Poland’s assist for Ukraine because it continues to battle in opposition to a full-scale Russian invasion launched in 2022.
Three former Ukrainian presidents later returned their White Eagle awards to Poland in solidarity with Zelensky.
In his video handle late on Saturday, Zelensky mentioned that “representatives of the Ukrainian state took half in joint prayers with representatives of the Polish state” in each international locations to commemorate the victims of the Volyn killings.
“Ukraine is doing its half to truthfully set up the information about these killed in these years.
“We should not overlook that now… Ukraine and Poland have one frequent menace, and it is a mortal menace to our independence, to our states, to each metropolis, to each village, and this menace is named Russia,” the Ukrainian president mentioned.