Following talks in Warsaw on Saturday morning with Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Ukrainian President's office, Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said that Poland and Ukraine remain partners on security matters.
However, "on historical issues we must tell each other the truth, because only in this way can we build the future", he added.
Turning to X, Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote: “Memory of the victims of Volhynia is not subject to negotiation. There are limits that must not be crossed,”
At the end of May, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky granted a military unit the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA,” referring to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
The move has sparked outrage in Poland, where the UPA is associated with wartime massacres of Poles in the Volhynia and Eastern Galicia regions of what was then German-occupied Poland.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has described Zelensky’s decision as an “unfortunate incident.”
Meanwhile, President Karol Nawrocki said he was outraged by the decision and called for Zelensky to be stripped of Poland’s highest state honour, awarded to him in 2023.
To address the dispute, Budanov arrived in Warsaw on Friday for two days of talks with Polish officials.
Later on Saturday, he held talks with aides of the Polish President.
“The discussion concerned bilateral relations, including historical issues arising from recent decisions taken by the Ukrainian side,” the Presidential Office said later in a post on X.
(mo)
Source: PAP