Ukraine should reflect on Volhynia crime, says Polish FM spokesman

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Poland offers an opportunity to achieve reconciliation between the two countries over the massacre of Poles by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II, a spokesman for the Polish Foreign Ministry has said.

In the years 1943-44, around 100,000 Poles were slaughtered by Ukraine's ultranationalist organisation OUN in the Volhynia and Eastern Galicia regions of pre-war eastern Poland (today part of western Ukraine).

In a Thursday interview with the RMF FM radio broadcaster, Lukasz Jasina was asked whether, in his opinion, the topic of the Volhynia crime was not missing from Zelensky's Wednesday speech in the courtyard of the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

"Unfortunately, the 80th anniversary of the Volhynian-Galician genocide is approaching and it will not be possible to skip over this anniversary this year, as some people tried to do last year. Ukrainians understand this matter better than a year ago, but perhaps it is all going a bit too slowly as far as our desires are concerned," Jasina replied.

According to him, Ukrainians have come to realise that without some form of joint settlement over this crime, related to memory and commemoration, Polish-Ukrainian relations will not be resolved.

"President Zelensky was told about it directly yesterday during all talks," Jasina said. "We will see what the Ukrainian reaction will be."

Asked when it will be possible to investigate the Volhynia crime without any obstacles, Jasina said that "for several months it has been more possible than before."

"The commemoration is also better, but we still lack one simple thing, a simple statement by Ukrainian leaders: yes, our nation did it," he said.