Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, adopted the law on Wednesday after it was submitted by President Volodymyr Zelensky. The pantheon is intended to honor leading figures in Ukrainian history.
“No one will tell us which heroes to respect,” Zelensky said.
Ruslan Stefanchuk, the Speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, said the pantheon would include “the best sons and daughters of the Ukrainian nation.”
No list of people to be honored has been announced. Ukrainian lawmakers have said, however, that Stepan Bandera, a wartime Ukrainian nationalist leader deeply controversial in Poland, could be considered.
The issue is highly sensitive in Poland because of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Historians say UPA units carried out coordinated attacks on about 150 Polish-inhabited towns and villages in the Volhynia region in July 1943.
Poland regards the killings as genocide. Some Ukrainian historians frame the events as part of a broader wartime Polish-Ukrainian conflict.
Bandera remains one of the most divisive figures in Ukraine’s modern history. Some Ukrainians regard him as a symbol of resistance to Soviet rule and a martyr in the struggle for independence while others view him as a fascist and Nazi collaborator.
In January 2010, then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko posthumously awarded Bandera the title of Hero of Ukraine, prompting widespread criticism. The award was annulled the following year because Bandera had never been a Ukrainian citizen.
The pantheon act comes after a separate decision by Zelensky to name a Ukrainian military unit after the "Heroes of the UPA." That move drew criticism from Polish President Karol Nawrocki, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, and Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski.
Parliamentary Speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty called for restraint until the names proposed for the pantheon are known. He said Poland should respond “reasonably” and keep channels of dialogue open, while adding that the final decision was Ukraine’s sovereign choice and that Kyiv would bear responsibility for it.
Maciej Wewiór, a spokesman for the Polish foreign ministry, struck a similar tone. He said Poland hoped the pantheon would not include people responsible for crimes against Poles. He also called for emotions to be cooled and said Poland respected Ukraine’s right to build its own national identity.
Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the Polish President's Office, took a sharper line. He said that “glorifying Bandera and criminals does not fit within the values of Western civilization."
He added that Poland would not accept such actions and that “the voice of the victims cannot be drowned out by the voice of Bandera’s followers.”
Opposition politicians urged a tough response. Paweł Jabłoński, a member of parliament from the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) and a former deputy foreign minister, said the Ukrainian parliament’s decision "directly glorifies" the UPA.
He called it an “unfriendly act” and said Poland should take retaliatory diplomatic measures.
Krzysztof Tuduj, a lawmaker from the right-wing Confederation party, said the pantheon showed that Ukraine respected strength and exploited weakness.
He added, however, that Poland should also emphasize those Ukrainians who appreciated Polish assistance after Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Ukrainian lawmaker Mykola Kniazhytskyi rejected the criticism, saying the law was an internal Ukrainian matter and was not directed against any other country.
He said Poland was acting in the interests of Ukraine’s opponents, including Russia, by allowing itself to be drawn into a historical dispute.
The Wirtualna Polska news website reported that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha is expected to visit Warsaw with a compromise proposal.
Diplomatic sources told Poland's PAP news agency on Wednesday that Ukraine was seeking talks with Poland in the coming days.
The dispute has already led to an exchange over state honors. On June 19, Nawrocki said he had decided to strip Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state decoration. Zelensky returned the order to Warsaw the next day.
Former Ukrainian presidents Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko later renounced their own Orders of the White Eagle.
Several senior Ukrainian officials also gave up Polish state decorations.
Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the PiS party, said he would return the Ukrainian Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, which he received in 2022.
Several other opposition politicians also said they would return Ukrainian decorations.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP