Ukraine turns on Poland over WW2 massacre commemoration
Ukraine has criticised Polish plans to establish a remembrance day for Poles massacred by Ukrainians during the Second World War.
Poland's parliament this week approved a new public holiday on July 11 to commemorate victims of a 'genocide' committed by Ukrainian nationalist groups during the conflict.
The date marks what Poles call 'Volhynian Bloody Sunday', when a 1943 operation by Ukrainian death squads killed thousands of civilians in settlements across the Wolyn province, which is mostly now in Ukraine and known as Volyn.
Ukraine's foreign ministry attacked the move, saying the decision to commemorate what it described as a 'so-called genocide' flew in the face of 'good neighbourly relations between Ukraine and Poland'.
'Poles should not look for enemies among Ukrainians, and Ukrainians should not look for enemies among Poles. We have a common enemy – Russia,' it said.
It added: 'The path to true reconciliation lies through dialogue, mutual respect and joint work by historians, rather than through unilateral political assessments.'
Volodymyr Zelensky has commemorated the massacre with the laying of wreaths, but labelling the killings a genocide continues to be a contentious issue between the two countries.
Although Poland has been one of Ukraine's staunchest backers in its fight against Russia, relations have been strained due to rows over EU policies that favour Ukrainian agriculture.
Polish farmers have picketed the Ukraine border to protest grain shipments being diverted from the Black Sea through Poland, a move, they say, which undercuts domestic produce. Brussels has also scrapped tariffs on Ukrainian grain, although this duty-free regime is set to end on July 5.
One survey found over 80 per cent of Poles supported the farmers.
Narol Nawrocki, Poland's new president, has also struck a more critical tone than his predecessor on support for Ukraine, saying Kyiv should not be admitted to the EU. Though the president's role is largely ceremonial, he has the power to veto legislation.
An estimated 100,000 Poles were killed by Ukrainian nationalists during the Second World War in an attempt to ensure that Wolyn did not become part of postwar Poland.
The Bloody Sunday attack was planned so that the death squads would surprise as many Poles as possible during the Sunday mass, according to the Second World War Museum in Gdansk.
Several leading Polish politicians have signalled in the past that acknowledging the massacres as a genocide is a precondition for Poland to support Ukraine's future EU membership.
'We want Ukraine to develop, but we cannot leave unattended a wound that has not healed,' Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, the deputy prime minister, said last year.
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