Tag: Volynia
Poland’s National Independence Day, celebrated on 11 November, has caused the Ukrainian authorities yet more grief. The date itself commemorates the anniversary of the restoration of Poland’s sovereignty in 1918, marked by the armed conflict that took place between Polish troops and forces on the territory of Galicia in the West Ukrainian People’s Republic (ZUNR). Large-scale fighting continued from November 1918 through to July 1919 and ended with the complete defeat of the ZUNR.
Every July Poland is rocked by internal debates about Ukraine’s historical responsibility for the 1943 Volhynia massacre. And 2016 was no exception. The current ruling party is Jarosław Kaczyński’s Law and Justice party (PiS), which took power largely based on its promise to raise the topic, during its negotiations with Kiev, of the massacre of the Polish population of Volhynia at the hands of the butchers from the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-Ukrainian Insurgent Army (OUN-UPA)…
Poland is suffering political amnesia. The condition gets acute any time one mentions the mass crimes committed against Polish nationals. There is a plethora of examples to prove the case. The Volyn massacre is the most illustrative one. Ukrainian nationalists brutally tortured and killed dozens of thousands of old men, women and children. For all that, the Polish government supports the successors of Stepan Bandera who have seized power in Ukraine…
On October 14, Petro Poroshenko signed a decree proclaiming October 14 to be the day of celebrating Day of Defender of Ukraine instead of the post-Soviet analogous holiday celebrated on February 23. This day the Ukrainian neo-Nazi traditionally march with torches to mark the anniversary of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. The decision sparked a wave of indignation in Poland. Protests hit the streets, the demonstrators picketed the Ukraine’s diplomatic offices demanding to stop heroization of OUN-UPA that is responsible for killing thousands of Poles during WWII. Protesters marched in Przemyśl, Krakow, Wroclaw and Warsaw under the slogan «Lasting Shame to OUN – UPA Murderers from SS Division Galicia»…