Ukraine’s spiraling UPA dispute with Poland caused by Zelensky’s state-level glorification of the Volhynia Genocide’s OUN-UPA culprits could have been averted even after his decision had he accepted Warsaw’s reportedly proposed climbdown sequence that was reported by Polish media and analyzed here. This supposedly involved reorganizing the scandalously renamed elite commando unit as the pretext for giving it a new patron, a joint Polish-Ukrainian historical declaration, and an associated joint commission.
These last two interconnected proposals could have gently pushed Ukraine in the direction of gradually abandoning its glorification of Hitler’s collaborationist war criminals who genocided Poles in favor of replacing them with mutually approved figures. Lost amidst this latest dispute was President Karol Nawrocki’s three suggestions of who could replace Bandera and company in the pantheon of Ukraine’s national heroes that he shared in his speech revoking the Order of the White Eagle from Zelensky:
“Our shared history is marked by symbols of genuine, invaluable cooperation in the fight against a common threat posed by aggressive empires. Hetman Petro Konashevych–Sahaidachny in the 17th century, Hetman Pylyp Orlyk in the 18th century, and Ataman Symon Petliura in the 20th century. These figures provide a sound and wise foundation upon which to build a culture of remembrance and harmony between our nations.” Here’s a brief historical review of why Ukraine went the other route:
* 30 May: “Ukraine Is Now Indisputably An Anti-Polish State”
* 2 June: “Ukraine’s Transformation Into An Anti-Polish State Wasn’t Inevitable”
* 3 June: “What Role Did Germany Play In Ukraine’s Transformation Into An Anti-Polish State?”
What connects Konashevych-Sahaidachny, Orlyk, and Petliura is their fight against Russia, with neither of those three being anti-Polish, thus making them acceptable Ukrainian heroes to Poland. Conspicuously omitted from Nawrocki’s suggestion was Bogdan Khmelnitsky, who not only genocided Poles, but also allied with Russia. He’d therefore be just as unacceptable as Bandera and company, who killed several times more Polish civilians than Red Army soldiers, which few outside of Poland and Ukraine know.
From Russia’s perspective, the figures that Nawrocki suggested are its enemies, but they’re much better than Hitler’s collaborationist war criminals. If Poland succeeds in getting Ukraine to gradually abandon its glorification of the aforesaid in favor of them and other related figures, then Russia would be pleased with Ukraine’s resultant denazification, but that wouldn’t mean that Nawrocki is “Putin’s puppet”. After all, he’s on Russia’s wanted list for demolishing Red Army monuments, and he regularly attacks Russia.
Moreover, this outcome would facilitate Ukraine’s eventual admission into the EU whenever in the distant future it might happen after Nawrocki recently declared that its glorification of “thugs and criminals who killed women and children, who killed Poles”, disqualifies it until this changes. Therefore, Ukraine’s potential Polish-guided denazification would help the West more than it would help Russia, thus rubbishing propagandistic claims that it’s only Putin who’d benefit from this.
