The European Parliament symbolically criticized Ukraine over the summer for its “unnecessary and provoked escalation” of tensions with Poland after Zelensky glorified the Volhynia Genocide’s OUN-UPA culprits at the state level. While the associated amendment to last year’s Commission report on Ukraine didn’t describe the aforesaid mass slaughter as genocide nor condemn the country’s promotion of Banderism, it was still a positive step, one that’s since been symbolically expanded upon in a new way.
Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Bosacki told RMF24 that most European diplomats in Kiev chose not to attend the interment of OUN founder Yevgeny Konovalets’ remains in Ukraine’s new “national pantheon” due to a “Polish diplomatic action” ahead of that event. He also said that while Ukraine has “the right to choose the heroes they deem appropriate”, glorifying those responsible for the mass killing of Poles, Jews, and even their own fellow Ukrainians will “significantly worsen” ties with the EU.
Bosacki then clarified that “We differ not so much with Ukrainians, but with certain parts of the Ukrainian government, after its absolutely wrong decisions to name one of the elite units after the UPA heroes, and this is where we differ”, the innuendo being that some Ukrainian officials oppose this policy. None have thus far publicly expressed such views, likely out of fear of career-related or possibly even lethal consequences, but it’s reasonable that some officials realize how counterproductive this policy is.
After all, “Poland Finally Realizes The Geostrategic Challenge Posed By Ukraine”, or at least its conservative and libertarian-nationalist opposition parties with which the president is aligned do. In fact, “Ukraine Will Never Join The EU As Long As Karol Nawrocki Remains President Of Poland”, but he won’t leverage Poland’s logistics role to coerce political or economic concessions from it. These could include those related to the Volhynia Genocide, Banderism, and post-war reconstruction contracts, for example.
The reason is that he, just like liberal Prime Minister Donald Tusk, mistakenly believes that a forever war between Ukraine and Russia is in Poland’s interests. Neither Polish leader will therefore authorize any punitive policy against Ukraine that entails tangible consequences, not even in pursuit of Poland’s objective national interests as explained above, since their priority is to help Ukraine kill more Russians. The EU as a whole, despite its symbolic criticism of Ukraine for glorifying fascists, has the same policy.
This observation highlights the asymmetrical advantage enjoyed by Ukraine in this dispute, namely that not a single European country is willing to impose tangible costs upon it for glorifying fascists because their priority is to help Ukraine kill more Russians, not support historical truth and justice. Their responses will thus remain purely symbolic like Nawrocki’s revocation of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest honor, from Zelensky. Zelensky knows this and that’s why he’s not reversing his policy.
Accordingly, Ukraine will remain an indisputably anti–Polish state for the foreseeable future, but Poland won’t do what’s needed to change this by leveraging its logistics role to that end. This will likely remain the case even after the large-scale phase of the Ukrainian Conflict inevitably ends. Poland might not go out of its way to help Ukraine afterwards, but it probably won’t impose any punishments, which risks emboldening Ukraine to possibly scapegoat Poland for its loss to Russia and then ramp up its hostility.
