Nawrocki, attending the NATO summit in Ankara, told reporters he had just come from an hourlong meeting with Zelensky.
"I come to you straight from a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky. This meeting lasted about an hour. We discussed things with the president — it's of course a good custom and necessary in relations between neighbors to maintain channels of dialogue, channels of information. There has been a lot of tension recently around Polish-Ukrainian relations", Nawrocki said.
The Polish president said "what certainly does not change is that, for both Ukraine and Poland, the Russian Federation remains the main threat. We look in the same direction when it comes to threats to our independence — that does not change", he said.
However, Nawrocki said the two leaders had not been able to resolve historical issues. "We did not manage to resolve historical issues at this meeting, nor did we go into it with the hope that we would resolve all the issues", he said.
He stressed that for him, "the issue of the UPA, of UPA symbols, is non-negotiable". He said Poles' emotions regarding the Volhynia genocide are a non-negotiable matter, adding that Poland hopes for understanding from Ukraine that Bandera-associated symbols carry harmful connotations and also limit Ukraine's future in the EU. "We must also take responsibility for what is happening because of the Russian Federation", Nawrocki said.
"We addressed all these threads — historical, political, of the past and the future — in our conversation with President Zelensky, aware that what certainly brings us closer together is the awareness that the post-Soviet Russian Federation is a threat to both Ukraine and Poland", Nawrocki said. He added that both sides reaffirmed their positions during the meeting.
"I reaffirmed our position on the UPA issue, but we also discussed what this cooperation should look like in the future", he said. "Very good, so I'm glad, it was constructive, as always with President Zelensky. It's good that we met", Nawrocki concluded.
The Polish leader also said the summit provided an opportunity to meet other world leaders. "I spent the most time with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and there was also an opportunity for a brief conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump", he said.
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Source: PAP