Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz made the comments after opposition leader Jarosław Kaczyński, head of the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, said over the weekend that Ukraine should not be allowed to join the European Union as long as it honours nationalist groups responsible for World War II massacres of Poles.
Speaking at commemorations on Saturday marking the 83rd anniversary of what are known as the Volhynia massacres, Kaczyński said PiS would oppose Ukraine's EU accession until Kyiv stopped glorifying those responsible for the killings and ensured that Polish victims were found and given proper burials.
"We will do everything, including in Europe and the United States, to make the Ukrainian elite understand that this harms Ukraine, its future, its people and its sovereignty," Kaczyński said during ceremonies in the eastern Polish city of Chełm.
In a separate speech over the weekend, Przemysław Czarnek, deputy leader of the PiS party and its candidate for prime minister, also delivered scathing criticism of Ukraine over historical issues.
Speaking in Lublin, eastern Poland, on Saturday, Czarnek said Warsaw had a "moral duty" to urge European and world leaders to stop what he described as "the resurgence of Nazi ideology" in Ukraine.
Critics said he used language that closely echoed justifications Russia used for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine and which much of the international community rejected as disinformation.
'Festival of hypocrisy'
Asked about the shift in the PiS party's position, Kosiniak-Kamysz said the former governing party, which was in power from 2015 to 2023, had abandoned the strong support it expressed for Ukraine after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.
"What we are seeing is a festival of hypocrisy," he told reporters on Monday during a visit to the village of Różnowo in northern Poland.
He accused PiS of adopting the rhetoric of far-right politician Grzegorz Braun, leader of the ultranationalist Confederation of the Polish Crown party.
"Today PiS has the face of Mr. Braun," Kosiniak-Kamysz said.
He noted that PiS politicians had previously expressed solidarity with Ukraine and supported assistance for the country after Russia launched its invasion.
"They were the ones shouting 'Glory to Ukraine.' They were the first to travel there and provide help," he said.
"I will defend that policy of support," he added.
Kosiniak-Kamysz warned that the increasingly confrontational rhetoric from the opposition could encourage hostility toward the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens living in Poland.
He argued that such language risked creating a climate in which Ukrainian children could become targets of abuse or violence.
At the same time, he said Poland would continue to seek full historical clarification over the Volhynia massacres, in which Polish historians estimate that more than 100,000 Polish civilians were killed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) between 1943 and 1945.
Poland classifies the killings as genocide, while many Ukrainians regard the UPA primarily as a symbol of the country's struggle for independence.
The issue remains one of the most contentious points in relations between Warsaw and Kyiv, despite Poland's strong political and military support for Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion.
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Source: IAR, PAP
Click on the audio player above for a report by Piotr Urbaniak.