Latest news with #UkrainianNationalists
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
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.
Al Jazeera
4 days ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Where does Poland's new president stand on Ukraine?
On May 30, the last day of Poland's presidential campaign, Karol Nawrocki laid flowers at a monument that has long sparked controversy. The 14-metre tall statue commemorating the Volhynian massacre depicts a crowned eagle, the symbol of Poland, with a cross shape cut out from its chest. In that cross, a child's body is impaled on a trident, representing the Ukrainian coat of arms, the 'tryzub'. The statue was revealed in July 2024 in Domostawa, a village in southeastern Poland close to Ukraine's border. It commemorates the ethnic cleansing of Poles by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the Polish-Ukrainian borderland between 1943 to 1945. While statistics vary, it is assumed that between 40,000 and 100,000 people perished in the massacre. But before Domostawa accepted the monument, several cities, including Rzeszow, Torun and Stalowa Wola, refused to host it due to the brutality of the sculptor's vision and in order not to damage relations with Ukraine. To Nawrocki, formerly the head of the Institute of National Remembrance, a state research institute, the scene felt like the place to end his presidential bid. 'The Volhynian Massacre was a cruel crime. The methods of murdering Poles were cruel. It was a neighbourly crime, because neighbours murdered neighbours. It was also a robbery, because Ukrainian nationalists often robbed their neighbours,' Nawrocki said. 'We have the right to talk about it. I have the right to talk about it as the president of the Institute of National Remembrance and I will have this right as the president of Poland after June 1.' Dear President @ZelenskyyUa, thank you for your message. I am looking forward to countinue partnership of our countries, based on mutual respect and understanding. I believe it requires not only good dialogue but also solving overdue historical issues. Poland has been Ukraine's… — Karol Nawrocki (@NawrockiKn) June 3, 2025During his ultimately successful campaign, President-elect Nawrocki, a nationalist, said that Poles should have priority in queues for doctor's appointments and called to limit Ukrainians' access to benefits. He also said he was against Ukraine joining NATO and the European Union, a stark contrast from Poland's traditional position of support as Kyiv fights off Russian forces. Warsaw's support, Nawrocki believes, should depend on Ukraine making amends for the Volhynian massacre, which could include the exhumation of Polish victims. Following the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in early 2022, Poland, under the rule of the Law and Justice – or PiS – party, which supported Nawrocki, accepted more than a million Ukrainian refugees and backed Ukraine with weapons as Kyiv's other European allies, such as Germany, hesitated. Thousands of Poles hosted Ukrainians in their homes as Poland became the loudest pro-Ukrainian voice in the EU and NATO. But while PiS has a long history of supporting Ukraine throughout its revolutions in 2004 and 2014, and following the Russian onslaught, anti-Ukrainian rhetoric is now taking hold. In the first round of the presidential election, 51 percent of Poles voted for candidates who had touted positions at odds with Ukraine's ambitions. Even the liberal candidate from the Civic Platform, Rafal Trzaskowski, suggested that Ukrainians who do not pay taxes should be deprived of child benefits. According to research by the Mieroszewski Centre, in 2022, 83 percent of Ukrainians had a positive opinion of Poles, but by November 2024, this number fell to 41 percent. In January 2025, 51 percent of Poles said that Ukrainian refugees receive too much support. Almost half of respondents said that difficult historical issues should be solved to improve Polish-Ukrainian relations. Research published in February 2025 by CBOS found that just 30 percent of Poles had a positive attitude towards Ukrainians, down from 51 percent in 2023, while 38 percent had a negative attitude towards their Ukrainian neighbours, up from 17 percent in 2023. 'I think that Poland should continue its support for Ukraine, but I am disappointed with the position of the Ukrainian state. If not for Poland's strong and decisive reaction at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, which encouraged Europe's support, Ukraine would not survive. And then in front of the United Nations General Assembly, Ukraine's president compared Poland to Russia,' said Nawrocki voter Michal, a 33-year-old travel guide. 'Ukrainians never showed any remorse for the Volhynian massacre. And I find it unacceptable that figures like Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych, who are responsible for massacres of Poles during World War II, are considered Ukraine's national heroes,' Michal added, referring to the Ukrainian nationalist leaders and Nazi collaborators. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine considers the decision of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland to establish 11 July as a Day of Remembrance for the victims of the so-called 'genocide committed by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian… — MFA of Ukraine 🇺🇦 (@MFA_Ukraine) June 5, 2025Michal's views are not uncommon. Meanwhile, grudges against Ukrainian refugees have swelled. 'In February and March 2022, in a few weeks, Poland became a country that was no longer culturally uniform. For many Poles, who had no experience of diversity, the very fact that suddenly their neighbours spoke a different language became difficult to accept,' said Rafal Pankowski from the antiracism Never Again association. Currently, more than 50 percent of Poles declare solidarity with Ukrainian refugees, down from 90 percent in 2022, he said, citing his organisation's polling data. 'One of the reasons why support for Ukrainians has fallen is right-wing propaganda and conspiracy theories spread on social media. We have been monitoring the situation since the beginning of the war, and it has been clear that in the long run, playing the anti-Ukrainian card will bring the far right political benefits. And this is what happened in this campaign.' Igor Krawetz, a Ukrainian commentator who has lived in Poland for almost 20 years, said that he is surprised at the speed of the shift. Two years ago, open hostility towards Ukrainians was viewed as inappropriate, even among the right, he said. 'Polish anti-Ukrainian xenophobia is no longer limited to spaces where Ukrainian migrants compete with Poles, such as low-skilled jobs. Now xenophobia is expressed by the middle class, too, who see that Ukrainians moved businesses to Warsaw, buy expensive apartments and are no longer poor people that need the Poles' support,' he added. The shift brings back memories for Krawetz. Polish solidarity with Ukraine ended in disillusionment and mutual accusations in 2004, when Poles supported Ukraine's Orange Revolution and in 2014, after the Euromaidan. 'Poles have got used to seeing Ukraine's misfortunes as their own pain. For the past 20 years, during crises, there have been romantic waves of brotherly support that lasted for several months and were always followed by complaints: 'I helped you in 2022 and you still haven't won the war' type of thing,' Krawetz said. 'I have survived the first and second wave of solidarity with Ukraine. I will survive the last one, too. It always comes back full circle.'
CNA
02-06-2025
- Business
- CNA
Nationalist Nawrocki wins Polish presidential election
Malgorzata Wojciechowska, a tour guide and teacher in her fifties, said Polish women "unfortunately do not have the same rights as our European friends". Anna Materska-Sosnowska, a political scientist at the University of Warsaw, called the election "a real clash of civilisations". CAMPAIGN CONTROVERSIES Nawrocki's victory is likely to embolden the populist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which ruled Poland between 2015 and 2023. Some analysts have predicted it could lead to fresh parliamentary elections if political deadlock with the government persists. Nawrocki's campaign was overshadowed at times by controversies over the circumstances in which he bought an apartment from an elderly man and his football hooligan past. A former amateur boxer, Nawrocki also strongly denied media reports in the last days of the campaign that he had procured sex workers while working as a security guard at a hotel. His opposition to Ukraine's NATO membership also brought heavy criticism from Ukrainian officials. Nawrocki used his last campaign hours on Friday to leave flowers at a monument to Poles killed by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II. "It was a genocide against the Polish people," he said. Poland is an EU and NATO member and a fast-growing economy of 38 million people with a leading role in international diplomacy surrounding Ukraine.
