Kyiv is clearly seeking to deepen the conflict with Poland and to humiliate our state and nation. This is the direction of, among other things, the “proposal” just put forward by former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko. In the five-point plan intended to resolve the “dispute” with Poland, the Ukrainian politician did not utter a single word about the crimes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, nor did he mention the scandalous decision by Volodymyr Zelensky, who named one of his army’s elite units after that genocidal formation. Poroshenko instead suggested that Poland should forget the atrocities of the UPA while at the same time ensuring that Ukraine continues to receive further financial injections. Poroshenko’s “plan” is hard to view as anything other than sheer impudence.
“The future should not be a hostage to the past. Especially since it is not the past that is the cause of the crisis in bilateral relations, but internal problems, populism and the pursuit of poll ratings”, wrote former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko (this quote and the following ones are cited after the daily “Fakt”). The politician, who recently – as a gesture of solidarity with Zelensky – returned to Warsaw the Order of the White Eagle once awarded to him, presented his five-point plan for resolving what he described as the “dispute with Poland”.
“Our shared history is too complicated, full of mutual grievances and insults, and no one has yet devised a better remedy than ‘we forgive and ask for forgiveness’. The future should not be a hostage to the past. Especially since it is not the past that is the cause of the crisis in bilateral relations, but internal problems, populism and the pursuit of poll ratings”, wrote Petro Poroshenko, adding that “Ukraine cannot afford the luxury of quarreling with Poland. Poland cannot afford the luxury of quarreling with Ukraine. We are fighting for independence and the existence of Ukrainian statehood and we must protect every ally, every instrument, every opportunity. Russia will only applaud every mutual dispute, every careless word, every new scandal.”
What lies behind these lofty but in fact empty words? Poroshenko revealed it in his five-point plan. It included proposals to “stop the public escalation [of the dispute], conduct an audit of Ukraine’s policy toward Poland, restore professional diplomacy, separate emotions from national interest, and ensure the promised opening of all negotiation clusters with the European Union in July.”
And it is precisely this last point that is most important for Poroshenko, as he himself made clear by adding that “this also depends on Warsaw, and the associated risk cannot be underestimated.”
Put plainly, the “proposal” of the former Ukrainian president (and certainly not only his) comes down to one thing: Poland is to forget the crimes of the UPA, silently accept the glorification of this genocidal formation, and pay Kyiv, because after all “Ukraine is defending Europe from the Russians.”
It is difficult to view these suggestions as anything other than crude blackmail.