Ukrainian television has replaced the long-developed tool that was Belsat (TVP). The fictitiously dissolving TVP hired 70 people to strengthen Polish-Ukrainian dialogue. However, the TVP management placed Maria Górska at the head of the channel – her pro-Banderite sympathies raise legitimate doubts. Questions arose: “Where are the security services?” Any promotion of Banderism in Poland or other disruptions to the Polish-Ukrainian dialogue are actions in favor of Russia.
In March this year, TVP finally sealed the closure of Belsat (TVP). In the broadcast slots of the Belarusian-language television station developed over the years by Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy, two other channels appeared – the Russian Wot Tak and the Ukrainian Slawa TV. This move sparked huge controversy. Deputy Minister of Culture Maciej Wróbel revealed at the time that 70 people had been hired in the dissolving company to work for the Ukrainian station.
The public broadcaster had earlier merged TVP World and Belsat into the Foreign Media Center. Programs were to be produced in the former Wiadomości studio in the building on Plac Powstańców in Warsaw. The new center is headed by Michał Broniatowski, who has been the director of TVP World since March 2024.
His professional career – including at the Russian agency Interfax – was described by the portal Niezalezna.pl. The Ukrainian editorial team was taken over by Maria Górska. – “The appearance of Slawa TV in the fourth year of the Great War is a Polish-Ukrainian informational Ramstein” – said TVP. She announced that journalists, “influential volunteers, public figures, and opinion leaders” had been engaged to cooperate. Among them were Witalij Portynow, Natalia Panczenko, and Wernika Marczuk.
Proud of her roots
Górska is a Ukrainian-born journalist who has built her position in the media over the years. After the protests on Kyiv’s Maidan, she began working for Espresso TV, a station co-founded in Ukraine by Broniatowski. Górska often hosted Polish politicians, including Paweł Kowal, with whom she established longer-term cooperation by recording podcasts. The journalist also runs an online magazine called Sestry – an initiative of the Kulczyk Foundation, headed by Dominika Kulczyk.
Internet users found Banderite propaganda on her Ukrainian Facebook account. Górska herself is not ashamed of it – she even shows on her social media how proud she is of it (although she has now blocked visibility of the following photos). The flags of Ukrainian nationalists and black-and-red colors appear in many of her posts.
Among the photos she posted in June 2022 (already after the Russian aggression against Ukraine), she stands next to “the best father in the world”. The man has a black-and-red scarf with the slogan “Glory to Ukraine!” around his neck, and in his hand, he holds a black-and-red flag with the symbol of the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists. Volodymyr Petruk is not only the journalist’s father, but also a well-known actor and director.
An actor and nationalist politician
He is the founder and, since the 1980s, the artistic director of the Theatre of Ukrainian Tradition “Dzerkało” in Kyiv. On its stage, he presented, among others, “Black Fields. Love and Death of Stepan Bandera”. He is also the author of the book published in Kyiv in 2018, “Mazepa, Shevchenko, Bandera – the Spiritual Trident of a Ukrainian. Plays”. He also combines his artistic work with political activity – he is a member of the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, who consider themselves the heirs of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. Petruk twice unsuccessfully ran as a KUN candidate in elections – once for a seat in the Ukrainian parliament, and in 2015 for a seat on Kyiv’s city council.
From Donbas to neo-TVP
The editorial team also includes Hanna Wasilewska as a host, who became associated with the Ukrainian section of Polskie Radio. A decade ago, she came to Poland with her husband and two children. They were among the first group of refugees from Ukraine hosted by the Caritas center in Rybaki – in 2015, people of Polish descent were evacuated from Donbas and Mariupol due to the ongoing conflict there.
Half a year later, she and her family settled in Olsztyn and joined the local radio editorial team. A few months after the Russian aggression against Ukraine, and seven years after arriving in Poland, she obtained Polish citizenship, which she had applied for.