The state of Polish–Ukrainian relations following Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s glorification of UPA perpetrators was the subject of discussion on TV Republika’s Today’s Guest program. The guests were Michał Wójcik, a Law and Justice (PiS) MP, and Piotr Bakun of the Professor Senyszyn’s New Wave movement.
Piotr Bakun stressed that he could not understand Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s statement that everyone has the right to have their own heroes.
“That would be like Germany naming one of its streets after Adolf Hitler and saying, ‘For us, he is a hero, so that is what we will call the street.’ President Zelenskyy behaved very badly. Naming anything after criminals who murdered Poles in Volhynia is a grave mistake,”
Bakun said, emphasizing that honoring Stepan Bandera is unacceptable from the Polish perspective.
Michał Wójcik pointed to the brutality of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), whose members murdered Poles regardless of whether they were children, adults, or the elderly.
“We remember it all too well to this day. Pregnant women had their stomachs cut open, and people were tortured and murdered with axes. What happened several decades ago is simply beyond comprehension. Today, we must remember that Ukraine is on its path toward the European Union. I cannot imagine Ukrainians becoming members of the European Union if they continue to tolerate these criminals and executioners,”
Wójcik stressed.
The Law and Justice MP argued that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy knew exactly what he was doing.
“We do not trade away our past or the memory of our compatriots – 120,000 of whom were murdered. When Ukrainians found themselves in a difficult situation because of the war between Ukraine and Russia, we helped them selflessly. People often gave up their own apartments for Ukrainians, took entire families into their homes, and yet the President of Ukraine is doing something that strikes at Polish history,”
Wójcik said.