The leader of Polandʼs main opposition party, Law and Justice, and former Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, wrote a letter to party members regarding the partyʼs position on Ukraine.
He called for using all available means today to block the actions of Donald Tuskʼs government aimed at Ukraineʼs integration with the European Union "on privileged terms".
This is reported by Polsat News, whose journalists have reviewed the letter.
Kaczynski writes that Ukraine “with its cult of Bandera and other criminals, with its glorification of the UPA and the OUN, will not join the European Union”. He emphasizes that if Law and Justice wins the parliamentary elections, he will not allow this to happen.
The politician also writes that from the moment Russia started the war against Ukraine, Poland and Poles "stood on the side of truth, on the side of the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine", and the Law and Justice government in 2022 made a huge contribution to saving Ukraine from collapse.
He also notes that since 1991, Poland has done a lot to ensure that the burden of the past does not burden Polish-Ukrainian relations.
However, according to Kaczynski, since 2023, when Donald Tuskʼs government came to power, bilateral relations have been dominated by a model of "subordination of Poland to the interests, or even the whims, of Ukraine", which "dictate Tusk from Berlin".
The Polish opposition leader states that Poland does not intend to hinder Ukraine in building its own identity, but also "in its own interests, but also in the interests of European countries, and moreover, in the interests of the entire Christian civilization, it cannot allow Banderism into this community — one of the most criminal and inhuman ideologies, which today [...] should build the consciousness of the Ukrainian nation".
Deterioration of relations between Ukraine and Poland
On May 26, Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree awarding the Separate Special Operations Center "North" of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine the honorary title "named after the Heroes of UPA". The document states that this was done "to restore the historical traditions of the national army".
This decision by the Ukrainian president caused outrage among Poles. And on June 19, incumbent President Karol Nawrocki stripped Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Polandʼs highest state award, which he had been awarded by former Polish President Andrzej Duda. Zelensky later sent his order to Poland via “Nova Post”.
After that, three former Ukrainian presidents: Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko, and Petro Poroshenko, as well as other Ukrainian high-ranking officials, refused the order. In addition, former deputy of the Polish Sejm Piotr Vogler refused the Golden Cross of Merit.
At the same time, Polish politicians began to refuse Ukrainian state awards. In particular, this decision was announced by former Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak and former Polish Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński. And former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki “as a sign of protest” transferred the Ukrainian Order of Yaroslav the Wise to the Museum of Memory of the Victims of the Volyn Tragedy in Chelm, Poland.
On July 3, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha, at a meeting with his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski, proposed to Poland a "package of anti-crisis steps" to regulate relations between the countries.
These include consultations between the foreign ministries, a meeting of historians studying World War II, and the involvement of religious leaders of the countries in the dialogue.
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