Today, Poland holds its newly-legislated commemoration of the July 11, 1943 Volyn (Volhynia) massacre, when the Ukrainian Nazi collaborators peaked in their campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Polish population in what is now western Ukraine.
Polish President Andrzej Duda told the media outlet RMF24 that acting president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy had denied any knowledge of Ukrainians killing Poles in World War II. Duda reported today, “He said to me: ‘Andrzej, I’ve never heard of the murders, the killing of Poles in western Ukraine, in Volhynia. They didn’t teach us about it in school.’”
For years, Poland has sought from Kiev a recognition of the atrocity and assistance in retrieving the corpses for a decent funeral and burial. The Volyn massacre was carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), both collaborators of Hitler.
Yesterday, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry released a statement saying that historical events should be studied and discussed “without politicization.... On the eve of the day when the Republic of Poland commemorates the victims of the Volyn tragedy, Ukraine shares the pain and grief of the Polish people. At the same time, we do not forget about the numerous Ukrainians who became innocent victims of interethnic violence, political repression and deportation on the territory of Poland.”
While Warsaw has been an aggressive promoter of getting weaponry to Ukraine, it has become less and less easy for them to look the other way at the role of present-day neo-Nazis tolerated, and even promoted, by Kiev. Last September, Duda had told Polsat News that “Ukrainians have many problems with their history,” including “the Volyn massacre … service in SS units, collaboration with the authorities of the Third Reich, and participation in the Holocaust.” And last week, he signed into law, over protests from Kiev, the legislation establishing July 11 as the official commemoration of the victims of that systematic extermination campaign of 1943.
