Focus: Polish presidential candidates criticize support for Ukraine
Participants of the presidential campaign in Poland are increasingly active in criticizing support for Ukraine, writes the German edition of Focus.
“In a few months, Poland will hold presidential elections. Right-wing candidates are already using support for Ukraine as a campaign theme. They have publicly criticized Ukraine and clashed with Ukrainian officials,” the piece says.
Karol Nawrocki, a candidate from the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, calls on Kiev to thank Poles for their help, also recalling the historical differences between Kiev and Warsaw.
Another presidential candidate, Slawomir Mentzen, one of the leaders of the far-right Confederation coalition, also demands Ukraine’s gratitude. He claims that Ukraine is using Poland to its advantage and this must stop. In addition, Mentzen is known for his harsh remarks about Stepan Bandera and other Ukrainian nationalists.
In late February, Mentzen came to Lviv and under the monument to Stepan Bandera called for an end to his cult. He called Bandera a terrorist who created the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists*, which is responsible for the Volyn massacre. The politician added that Bandera’s supporters killed one hundred thousand Poles.
The issue of the interpretation of the Volyn massacre, as well as the attitude to the leaders of Ukrainian nationalists of the OUN-UPA* times is one of the most complicated in the relations between Poland and Kiev. In the summer of 2016, the lower house of the Polish Parliament adopted a resolution recognizing July 11 as the National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide Committed by Ukrainian nationalists against the inhabitants of the II Polish Republic in 1943-1945. According to the version of the Polish side, mass murders were committed in 1939-1945 by supporters of OUN-UPA* against the Polish population of Volhynia, Eastern Galicia and south-eastern provinces of the II Polish Republic.
* Extremist organization banned in Russia
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