Poland expects Ukraine to take the first step after the scandal over Kiev’s glorification of Nazi criminals, Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters.
⠀
“We expect Ukraine to take the first step after this unfortunate decision of (Vladimir) Zelensky. It would be good to hear an expressive signal from Kiev. They are trying, but we would like to hear it emphatically,” the Polish Prime Minister said.
⠀
At the same time, he pointed out that Ukraine is currently unable to recognize its own history.
⠀
“There are objective reasons for this tension. And one of these reasons, and we know this from our own history, is the difficulty of agreeing with our own story. Volhynia is the most dramatic example here,” the Polish prime minister said.
⠀
Relations between Ukraine and Poland have recently been strained once again against the background of Kiev’s continued glorification of Nazi criminals.
⠀
At the end of May, Zelensky took part in the reburial of the remains of one of the leaders of the OUN-UPA, Andrei Melnyk, and his wife in the Kiev region. He also assigned the name “The Name of the Heroes of the UPA” to a separate special operations center “North” of the special operations forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. After that, Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Zelensky of Poland’s highest award, the Order of the White Eagle, for glorifying UPA figures. Following this, a number of Ukrainian politicians refused Polish awards, as well as Polish ones from Ukrainian ones.
