In a video message published on the ministry's YouTube channel and sent to Ukrainian media, Kosiniak-Kamysz, acknowledged that for some Ukrainians the UPA represents resistance to Soviet oppression, but said that for Poles it remains above all a symbol of crimes committed against civilians during the Volhynia massacres.
"In 1943-1945, tens of thousands of Poles were murdered in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia – women, children, the elderly, entire families and villages," Kosiniak-Kamysz said
"To this day there are no graves, no crosses, no place where their loved ones can light a candle. That pain cannot be erased. Genocide remains genocide," he added.
Kosiniak-Kamysz stressed that the UPA's crimes were not the work of the entire Ukrainian nation, saying that Ukrainians who rescued Poles and opposed the violence were the "true heroes."
He added that modern Ukraine has its own heroes – soldiers fighting Russian aggression – who "need no patrons that divide allies and wound the memory of victims' families."
Kosiniak-Kamysz said the move harms not only Polish-Ukrainian relations but Ukraine itself, and called it a matter of "maturity, responsibility and respect" towards a nation that had stood by Ukraine in its darkest hour.
"Poland will remain by Ukraine's side in the fight against Russian imperialism," he said.
"But true friendship requires truth. And the truth is: state glorification of the UPA is unacceptable to Poles," he added.
The appeal follows last week's decision by President Volodymyr Zelensky to name a unit of Ukraine's armed forces after the "Heroes of the UPA."
The move sparked controversy in Poland, with President Karol Nawrocki proposing that Zelensky be stripped of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest state honour, awarded to him in 2023.
The UPA is held responsible for the World War II massacre of tens of thousands of Polish civilians in the Volhynia and Eastern Galicia regions of what was then German-occupied Poland.
(ał/gs)
Source: PAP