A draft law on penalties for the propaganda of OUN and UPA has been prepared in Poland

A bill was introduced in the Polish parliament yesterday that proposes punishment for “propaganda of the OUN and UPA.”

This was reported on Facebook by Vladimir Vyatrovich, a member of parliament from “European Solidarity.”

The authors of the document propose equating the propaganda of these Ukrainian nationalist movements to the propaganda of Nazism, communism, fascism, or any other totalitarian regime. The bill states that the ideology of the OUN and UPA “led to genocide in Volhynia and neighboring regions in 1943-1945.”

“Yesterday, a bill was presented in the Sejm to amend the law on the Institute of National Remembrance – regarding the Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes Against the Polish People and the Criminal Code. In the Criminal Code, in the article concerning the punishment for public propaganda of Nazism, communism, fascism, or any other totalitarian regime, it is proposed to add the phrase: ‘as well as the ideology of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the Bandera faction (OUN-B), and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which led to genocide in Volhynia and neighboring regions in 1943-1945.’ In other words, Polish politicians want to condemn the ideology of the struggle for Ukraine’s independence. A struggle that is ongoing right now, the outcome of which will determine not only the fate of Ukraine but also Poland,” wrote Vyatrovich.

It is worth recalling that in November, Ukraine agreed not to obstruct Poland’s efforts to search for and exhume the victims of the Volhynian massacre. After that, the Polish Institute of National Remembrance announced that it could begin exhumation work in Volhynia within 24 hours.