Poland Plans Memorial for WW2 Massacre Victims Amid Strained Ukraine Ties
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced the creation of a national memorial to honour the victims of what he described as a 'genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists' during World War Two. The announcement came on the anniversary of the Volyn massacre, a series of killings in the then German-occupied region of Poland, now part of Ukraine.
According to Polish authorities, approximately 100,000 ethnic Poles were killed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1945. The UPA was a nationalist formation that fought for Ukrainian independence against both the Soviet army and Nazi Germany. The massacre also claimed thousands of ethnic Ukrainian lives at the hands of Polish forces, a fact that has long complicated relations between Warsaw and Kyiv.
'Truth is our duty toward the victims, but also a way to overcome a painful past for the sake of a better future,' Tusk said in a statement on Saturday. He added that 'memory cannot be the servant of hatred' and urged Ukraine to acknowledge these events if it aspires to join the European Union.
The announcement follows a diplomatic row that escalated last month when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was stripped of Poland's highest state honour after naming a Ukrainian military unit after the UPA. In response, three former Ukrainian presidents returned their White Eagle awards to Poland in solidarity with Zelensky.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki, however, stressed that the dispute would not affect Poland's support for Ukraine in its ongoing war against Russia's full-scale invasion launched in 2022. 'We must act, but our support for Ukraine remains unchanged,' Nawrocki said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described Poland's move as a 'strategic mistake'. In a video address, President Zelensky noted that Ukrainian and Polish officials had participated in joint prayers to commemorate the victims of the Volyn killings. 'Ukraine is doing its part to honestly establish the facts about those killed in those years,' he said, while emphasizing that both nations now face a common threat from Russia.
Historical interpretations of the UPA remain divisive: many Ukrainians view the group as freedom fighters against Soviet and Nazi oppression, while Poland considers them perpetrators of ethnic cleansing. The new memorial aims to preserve the memory of the victims without inflaming nationalist tensions, though the controversy highlights the delicate balance between historical reckoning and current geopolitical alliances.
