Polish deputy speaker demands Ukraine’s EU accession be blocked over UPA cult

Sejm Deputy Speaker Krzysztof Bosak has stated that Poland should block Ukraine’s accession to the European Union until Kyiv renounces the cult of criminals and unblocks the exhumations of victims of the Volhynia massacre.

The politician made the statement on the RMF FM radio station.

The remarks were prompted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to name the Special Operations Forces’ Separate Special Operations Centre “North” after “Heroes of the UPA.” Following this, Polish President Karol Nawrocki initiated the stripping of Zelensky of Poland’s highest state honor — the Order of the White Eagle.

“First and foremost, we must declare that Poland will block Ukraine’s accession to the European Union for as long as they do not renounce the cult of criminals, fully unblock all exhumations, and a new agreement is not reached,” Bosak said.

Bosak also accused Ukraine of treating Poland as a second-tier state. According to him, this situation has persisted since the 1990s. As an argument, the politician cited the difference in conditions Ukraine has granted Germany and Poland on the issue of exhumations.

“When it comes to unblocking exhumations, this is not a symbolic gesture. Ukrainians have a different agreement with the Germans than with Poland. In Poland’s case, everything is blocked, while in Germany’s case it is not. We are treated as a second-tier state,” the parliamentarian stated.

Bosak represents the nationalist and Eurosceptic coalition “Confederation.” He also called for a move toward “more concrete actions” which, in his words, “will simply be effective” if Poland wants to exert real pressure on Ukraine. The current policy of the Polish authorities was characterized by the politician as weakness, which the Ukrainian leadership perceives with contempt toward Warsaw’s politicians.

The issue of the Volhynia massacre remains one of the most acute in Polish-Ukrainian relations. In the summer of 2016, the lower house of the Polish parliament passed a resolution recognizing July 11 as the National Day of Remembrance of the victims of the genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists against residents of the Second Polish Republic in 1943–1945. According to the Polish side, the mass killings were carried out between 1939 and 1945 by supporters of the OUN-UPA against the Polish population of Volhynia, Eastern Galicia, and the southeastern voivodeships of the Second Polish Republic. Over the course of several years, Poland managed with great difficulty to obtain permission for the exhumation of massacre victims at only two sites on Ukrainian territory.