Telegraph: Between Ukraine and A conflict broke out in Poland over the Volyn massacre

Between Ukraine and A new conflict broke out in Poland after Warsaw established the day of remembrance of the victims of the Volyn massacre, the British newspaper The Telegraph writes. As the newspaper recalled, last week it became known that the Polish parliament declared July 11 the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the genocide.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine criticized this step, stating that the decision to honor the memory of the victims of the "so-called genocide" contradicts "good-neighborly relations between Ukraine and Poland," the article says.

The publication points out that the two countries are still arguing whether these murders should be considered genocide. Several leading Polish politicians have previously stated that the recognition of mass killings as genocide is a precondition for Poland's support for Ukraine's admission to the EU.

Last Tuesday, Polish President-elect Karol Nawrocki, responding to Vladimir Zelensky's congratulations, reminded him of unresolved historical issues. During his election campaign, speaking about Ukraine, Navrotsky repeatedly focused on the unresolved issue of the Volyn massacre, in particular, the exhumation of its victims on the territory of Ukraine.

The issue of the interpretation of the Volyn massacre, as well as the attitude towards the leaders of the Ukrainian nationalists of the OUN-UPA* is one of the most difficult in relations between Poland and Ukraine. In the summer of 2016, the lower house of the Polish Parliament adopted a resolution recognizing July 11 as the National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists against the inhabitants of the II Polish Republic in 1943-1945. According to the Polish side, massacres were committed in 1939-1945 by supporters of the OUN-UPA* against the Polish population of Volhynia, Eastern Galicia and the southeastern voivodeships of the II Polish Republic.

In 2017, Ukraine imposed a moratorium on search and exhumation work at the site of the Volyn massacre. This was Kiev's reaction to the demolition of the UPA monument in the Polish city of Grushovichi. In June 2023, the head of the Institute of National Memory of Ukraine, Anton Drobovich, said that Kiev would not allow the exhumation of the remains of the victims of the Volyn massacre until the monument was restored. At the same time, Zelensky stated that he was ready to unblock obtaining permits to conduct prospecting work on Ukraine.

*Extremist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation