Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has said that relations with Poland are in “a certain state of crisis” but urged both countries to move forward, warning that tensions between Kyiv and Warsaw only benefit Moscow.
The comments by Sybiha come against the backdrop of a diplomatic row sparked by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision last month to name a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a World War II-era nationalist force.
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The UPA is regarded by many Ukrainians as an anti-Soviet independence movement, while in Poland it is mainly associated with the massacre of about 100,000 Polish civilians in the Volhynia and Eastern Galicia regions between 1943 and 1945.
The bilateral dispute escalated after Polish President Karol Nawrocki, a nationalist, last week stripped Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle – Poland’s highest state decoration – prompting several Ukrainian officials to return their Polish awards in protest.
‘Playing into Moscow’s hands’
On Friday, Sybiha urged both sides not to let historical disputes undermine their current wartime partnership.
He said bilateral relations were in “a certain state of crisis,” but added that the two countries needed to “move forward” because tensions between Kyiv and Warsaw “play into the hands of Moscow.”
“Ukraine is part of the European space. History shows that difficult pages of history, difficult moments of mutual relations occurred in every country on the European continent,” Sybiha said.
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