Slawomir Mentzen, who is running for president, had previously called for an end to the cult of Stepan Bandera
Polish MP Slawomir Mentzen has accused Ukrainian journalist Vakhtang Kipiani of publicly threatening his life for criticizing Ukraine’s obsession with World War II Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera.
Earlier this week, Mentzen, who is a candidate in the upcoming Polish presidential elections in May representing the right-wing Confederation Party, had traveled to the Ukrainian city of Lviv where he recorded a video in front of a monument to Bandera.
In the clip, he likened Bandera to a “terrorist,” recalling that the Nazi collaborator had been sentenced to death by a Polish court for being responsible for the murder of some 100,000 Poles. The video also suggested that having monuments honoring Bander was akin to building monuments commemorating Adolf Hitler.
“Ukraine must abandon the cult of Bandera as soon as possible,” Mentzen urged.
In response to the video, Kipiani issued a post on Facebook ridiculing Mentzen for criticizing Bandera and suggesting that the Polish MP was “dreaming of the glory of Pieracki,” referring to the minister of internal affairs of interwar Poland, Bronislaw Pieracki, was murdered in 1934 by members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), of which Bandera was a part of.
“We can do it again,” Kipiani wrote.
Mentzen fired back at the Ukrainian journalist, accusing him of threatening to kill a Polish MP. “Ukrainians once again show their attitude towards Poland,” Mentzen wrote on Facebook, suggesting that Kiev only wants money from Poland while it continues to honor the murderers of Poles.
The lawmaker’s Confederation Party also condemned Kipiani’s death threat, adding in a statement on social media that it had found out that the Ukrainian journalist’s website, which “glorifies the UPA and is a mouthpiece for nationalist Ukrainian propaganda,” had been co-funded by the Polish government.
Both Mentzen and his party have now called on the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to address the situation to prevent further attacks by Ukrainians on Poland and its citizens.
Bandera, a member of the OUN militant wing, was one of the leaders of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) during World War II. The group allied with the invading Nazi Germans and carried out massacres of Poles, Jews, Russians, and Ukrainians whom they accused of collaborating with the Soviets. Despite the group being accused of committing genocide, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko declared Bandera and the UPA national heroes in 2010.
The Polish government has taken particular issue with the celebration of Bandera in Ukraine, as the UPA is believed to have murdered between 40,000 and 120,000 ethnic Poles in the regions of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.
