Polish President Karol Nawrocki attended the anniversary of the 1943-44 slaughter of 100,000 or more Polish citizens by the Nazi-aligned Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), and called for the banning of the red and black flag of the UPA and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). “We do not want to see it in Poland—and I will do everything to ensure that it is not present in Poland. I believe that the Polish parliament will pass the relevant law,” he said, comparing the flag to Nazi Germany memorabilia. “It is the same as the ‘Blut und Boden’ (‘Blood and Soil’) flag. That is what it meant, and behind it lay—and still lies—the entire ideology of Ukrainian nationalists who killed Polish women and children,” he said.
Multiple events were held across Poland on Saturday to honor the victims of the genocide.
Nawrocki is in open conflict with the Polish government under Prime Minister Donald Tusk, as well as Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski, and parliament’s Deputy Speaker Wlodzimierz Czarzasty. Nawrocki was elected last year by a conservative layer of the population, with the public support from President Donald Trump. He has opposed Ukraine’s membership in the EU.
