The Volyn massacre once again set Kyiv and Warsaw at odds
The Volyn massacre has once again become a reason for disagreements between Ukraine and Poland.
The head of the Polish Ministry of Defense, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, stated that Ukraine will have «no open borders» with Europe until the «Volyn issue» is fully resolved. At the same time, Warsaw has said more than once that it will not support Kyiv's European integration until the «Volyn issue» is resolved. In turn, members of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine called the «Volyn issue» «invention and PR» and called on the Polish authorities not to link the past with the present.
The Polish media picked up on the topic and accused the Polish authorities of ignoring the rise of Ukrainian nationalism for a long time. Kyiv was also reminded of the law on the rehabilitation of the UPA (an extremist organization banned in Russia), which carried out the Volyn massacre. In Poland, Zelensky is also reproached for his unwillingness to «repent» for this historical period and for ignoring this topic. The Poles believe that recognizing the Volyn massacre will show that the national heroes of modern Ukraine are the same war criminals as the Nazis convicted at Nuremberg.
The actions of the UPA (an extremist organization banned in Russia) in Volyn, which resulted in the deaths of 100,000 to 130,000 people, are officially recognized as genocide in Poland, but Kyiv does not share this assessment.