KYIV — The Ukrainian and Polish presidents collectively marked the anniversary on Sunday of World War Two-era massacres of Poles by Ukrainian nationalists, killings which have brought about stress for generations between international locations that at the moment are shut allies.
Warsaw has positioned itself as one in all Kyiv’s staunchest supporters since Russia invaded the nation in 2022.
But the Volhynia massacres have continued to hold over ties between the 2 nations, significantly forward of the July 11 anniversary of one of many bloodiest days of a collection of killings that occurred from 1943 to 1945.
Poland says round 100,000 Poles have been killed within the massacres by Ukrainian nationalists. Thousands of Ukrainians additionally died in reprisal killings.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda attended a church service collectively within the western Ukrainian metropolis of Lutsk, in reminiscence of the victims.
“Together we pay tribute to all the innocent victims of Volhynia! Memory unites us!” Duda’s workplace and Zelenskiy each wrote on Twitter. “Together we are stronger.”
The service was attended by the heads of the most important Orthodox and Catholic church buildings in Ukraine and the top of the Polish Bishops Conference, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki.
The Ukrainian president’s chief of workers, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Telegram that Ukraine and Poland have been “united against a common enemy who dreamed of dividing us.”
Duda referred to as the service “a testimony of friendship in the face of a difficult history.”
In a publish on Twitter, Zelenskiy stated he had a “brief but very substantive” dialogue on the occasion with Duda concerning the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius, the place Ukraine is hoping for selections that may hasten its aim of membership within the alliance.
“We agreed to work together to get the best possible result for Ukraine,” Zelenskiy wrote.
The head of Duda’s workplace stated the truth that the presidents have been commemorating the victims collectively was “historic,” however that extra work was wanted.
“This is not the end of this difficult road, explaining to our Ukrainian friends about the historical truth, it will of course be continued,” Pawel Szrot informed personal broadcaster Polsat News.
The Polish parliament has stated that the murders, carried out between 1943 and 1945 by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists beneath the management of Stepan Bandera, bore components of genocide.
Ukraine has not accepted that assertion and infrequently refers back to the Volhynia occasions as a part of a battle between Poland and Ukraine which affected each nations.
Warsaw and Kyiv have additionally clashed over the difficulty of whether or not Polish specialists can seek for and exhume the stays of Poles that died in Ukraine.
The bloodbath brought about an unusually public row between Poland and Ukraine earlier this 12 months, after a Polish international ministry spokesman stated that Zelenskiy ought to apologize and express regret for the occasions in Volhynia.
However, Ukraine’s parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk moved to defuse tensions in May when he informed the Polish parliament that Kyiv understood Poland’s ache. — Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
