Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that he will donate the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, which he received from Ukraine, to the Volhynia Massacre Victims Memorial Museum in Chełm.
“Let this decoration become a symbol of the memory of the tens of thousands of innocent Poles who were brutally murdered during the Volhynia Massacre,” the politician said.
Speaking at a press conference, the Law and Justice (PiS) MP commented on the recent actions of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky directed against Poland.
“President Zelensky’s words were extremely harmful and extremely irresponsible. They were merely the culmination of an entire chain of events, of a process we have observed over recent months, recent years, and particularly in recent weeks, since a military unit was named after […] UPA heroes,” he said.
In his opinion, naming the military unit after UPA heroes was “a disgraceful act that has brought Polish-Ukrainian relations to a point they have not reached for a long time and one that requires an absolutely decisive response.”
According to Morawiecki, “with his scandalous decision, Zelensky is opening a new front in a dispute with Poland and wants to commemorate UPA criminals.”
“Apparently, the front against the Russians is no longer enough for him, and he is looking for new confrontations. I ask – where is Donald Tusk’s response? Polish patriots, led by President Karol Nawrocki, are defending our national memory, while the government buries its head in the sand and allows Kyiv to cross one red line after another. Poland says ‘enough.’ Without the truth about Volhynia, without exhumations, and without an end to the cult of Bandera, there can be no consent to further negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. Tusk remains silent, but we Poles have no right to do so,” he declared.
Morawiecki also appealed to representatives of the December 13 coalition.
“First of all, I call on those currently in power to stop burying their heads in the sand. I call on Donald Tusk to unfreeze the bill that has been sitting in the parliamentary freezer, submitted by President Karol Nawrocki and by Law and Justice (PiS). In this bill, we explicitly define UPA criminals […] as perpetrators of genocide,” he stated.
The politician explained that the proposed legislation would amend Article 256 of the Criminal Code “so that anyone who glorifies the UPA or uses symbols, medals, emblems, or other insignia associated with Ukrainian nationalists from the Second World War would be subject to criminal penalties.”
“I demand the deportation of everyone in Poland who uses such symbols. Passing this law will provide us with an unquestionable legal basis for such actions. If the mayor of Lviv comes here – immediate deportation. Expulsion of people who glorify the UPA online and praise Bandera,” he said.
Morawiecki to Donate the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise to the Volhynia Massacre Victims Memorial Museum
The Law and Justice (PiS) MP also announced that he would donate the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise to the Volhynia Massacre Victims Memorial Museum in Chełm.
“Let this decoration become a symbol of the memory of the tens of thousands of innocent Poles who were brutally murdered during the Volhynia Massacre. Since Ukraine’s corrupt elite cannot do it, I will do it for them,” he declared.