All 21 councillors voted in favour. They said the Lviv decision insulted the memory of Polish victims of UPA crimes and ran counter to relations built on historical truth and mutual respect.
The resolution orders Przemyśl’s mayor to begin legal steps to end a 1995 cooperation agreement. Cooperation would resume if the Lviv council annuls or withdraws its decision and the city’s authorities clearly distance themselves from initiatives glorifying those responsible for crimes against civilians.
Mayor Wojciech Bakun said on social media that joint activities were suspended “until Lviv’s authorities clearly define their position”. He said Przemyśl would not stay indifferent to provocative, anti-Polish actions.
The Lviv council named 2027 the year of the UPA, its commander Roman Shukhevych and Oleh Olzhych, a figure in the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists.
The move has also strained diplomacy between Warsaw and Kyiv. A Ukrainian government source told Polish Press Agency (PAP) on October 21 that the decision was an “unpleasant surprise” and that Kyiv was working to block it. Ukraine’s foreign ministry said it harmed relations with Poland and was taken at regional level.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he did not understand “this suicidal tactic”. Two days later he said President Volodymyr Zelensky had indicated he would not back the decision if it were up to him, and was “very dissatisfied” with the affair, according to Tusk.
The resolution was proposed by Sviatoslav Sheremeta, a deputy from former President Petro Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party. At Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski’s request, he has been banned from the Schengen area until October 20, 2031.
The two countries have long been divided over the nationalist Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists and its military wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Between 1943 and 1945 the groups carried out ethnic cleansing that killed nearly 100,000 Poles, many of them women and children.
Poland calls the killings genocide. Many Ukrainian historians and politicians see them as part of a wider conflict in which both sides bore blame. In Ukrainian memory, the groups are often regarded as symbols of the fight for independence and of postwar resistance to Soviet rule.
Relations between Kyiv and Warsaw worsened after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky decided at the end of May to give the name “heroes of the UPA” to a military unit.
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Source: PAP, Polish Radio