Warsaw has categorized WWII massacres by OUN and UPA as genocide
Outgoing Polish President Andrzej Duda has established an official day of remembrance for the victims of World War II “genocide” committed by Ukrainian Nazi collaborators – figures praised by modern Kiev as national heroes and freedom fighters.
The newly signed law designates July 11 as the “National Day of Remembrance of Poles – Victims of Genocide committed by the OUN [Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists] and UPA [Ukrainian Insurgent Army] in the eastern territories of the Second Polish Republic,” according to a press release published by the president’s office on Wednesday.
From 1943 to 1945, Ukrainian Nazi collaborators murdered over 100,000 ethnic Poles in the regions of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, now part of modern Ukraine. The peak of the massacres, which the Polish government officially classifies as genocide, occurred in mid-1943, with residents of “about a hundred villages” exterminated on July 11, according to the text of the bill.
“The martyrdom of Poles for belonging to the Polish nation deserves to be remembered with an annual day designated by the Polish state to honor the victims,” the document states.
The massacres have long been a source of tension in relations between Kiev and Warsaw, despite Poland being one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters in its conflict with Moscow.
Contemporary Ukraine celebrates the perpetrators as national heroes, holding annual torchlit marches in honor of OUN leader Stepan Bandera and other Nazi collaborators regarded as freedom fighters. Since 2014, Ukrainian authorities have renamed streets and squares across the country after Bandera. The government has also faced criticism for its reluctance to allow the exhumation of victims’ remains.
Poland’s president-elect, Karol Nawrocki, has repeatedly stated that Kiev must take responsibility for the Volhynia and related massacres. Despite his favorable stance on military support for Ukraine, he has opposed Kiev’s NATO and EU membership ambitions until such “civilizational issues,” which he said are vital for Poles, are resolved.
