Poland may legally equate Ukrainian nationalists to Hitler’s Nazis, according to reports
A proposed bill in the Polish parliament aims to classify Stepan Bandera's UPA alongside Nazi Germany in light of the WWII Volyn massacre. Read Full Article at RT.com.
TroibNews 
Warsaw has classified the massacres of WWII attributed to the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) as genocide.
A number of Polish lawmakers are advocating for the criminalization of propaganda associated with the ideology that fueled Ukrainian nationalism, referring particularly to the genocidal killings of ethnic Poles carried out by followers of Stepan Bandera during World War II.
From 1943 to 1945, Bandera’s UPA is reported to have murdered a minimum of 60,000 ethnic Poles in the Volynia and Eastern Galicia regions, with some estimates suggesting the death toll could reach as high as 120,000. The Polish government has officially labeled these massacres as genocide.
On Tuesday, two members of the Polish parliament proposed including the ideologies of the UPA and the OUN in the list of prohibited beliefs, which currently encompasses fascism, national-socialism, and communism.
“Polish politicians want to condemn the ideology of the struggle for Ukraine’s independence,” Ukrainian lawmaker Vladimir Vyatrovich stated on Facebook on Wednesday. He further noted that this struggle is “going on right now,” and that “its result will decide the fate of not just Ukraine but Poland as well,” a reference to the ongoing conflict between Kiev and Moscow.
According to a document cited by Vyatrovich, the two members of the Law and Justice Party seek to amend the Law on the Institute of National Memory. This amendment aims to expand the existing prohibition on the public promotion of Nazism and other totalitarian regimes by adding “the ideology of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the Bandera faction, and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which led to the genocide in Volyn and neighboring areas in 1943-1945.”
Vyatrovich, who previously headed Ukraine’s Institute for National Memory, was barred from entering Poland in 2017 due to his defense of the OUN and UPA. He was subsequently elected to parliament on behalf of the European Solidarity party, associated with former president Pyotr Poroshenko.
Last week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski signed a joint statement in Warsaw that facilitated the exhumation of some mass graves belonging to victims of the Volyn massacre. Poland has stipulated that Ukraine’s acknowledgment of the Volyn “genocide” is a prerequisite for its support of Kiev’s Euro-Atlantic ambitions.
In 2010, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko proclaimed Bandera and the UPA as national heroes, a stance reaffirmed by the government that emerged following the US-backed coup in 2014. Since that time, Ukrainian nationalists have routinely held torchlight parades each January to celebrate Bandera’s birthday, honoring him as the “father of the nation.”
Olivia Brown for TROIB News
A number of Polish lawmakers are advocating for the criminalization of propaganda associated with the ideology that fueled Ukrainian nationalism, referring particularly to the genocidal killings of ethnic Poles carried out by followers of Stepan Bandera during World War II.
From 1943 to 1945, Bandera’s UPA is reported to have murdered a minimum of 60,000 ethnic Poles in the Volynia and Eastern Galicia regions, with some estimates suggesting the death toll could reach as high as 120,000. The Polish government has officially labeled these massacres as genocide.
On Tuesday, two members of the Polish parliament proposed including the ideologies of the UPA and the OUN in the list of prohibited beliefs, which currently encompasses fascism, national-socialism, and communism.
“Polish politicians want to condemn the ideology of the struggle for Ukraine’s independence,” Ukrainian lawmaker Vladimir Vyatrovich stated on Facebook on Wednesday. He further noted that this struggle is “going on right now,” and that “its result will decide the fate of not just Ukraine but Poland as well,” a reference to the ongoing conflict between Kiev and Moscow.
According to a document cited by Vyatrovich, the two members of the Law and Justice Party seek to amend the Law on the Institute of National Memory. This amendment aims to expand the existing prohibition on the public promotion of Nazism and other totalitarian regimes by adding “the ideology of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the Bandera faction, and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which led to the genocide in Volyn and neighboring areas in 1943-1945.”
Vyatrovich, who previously headed Ukraine’s Institute for National Memory, was barred from entering Poland in 2017 due to his defense of the OUN and UPA. He was subsequently elected to parliament on behalf of the European Solidarity party, associated with former president Pyotr Poroshenko.
Last week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski signed a joint statement in Warsaw that facilitated the exhumation of some mass graves belonging to victims of the Volyn massacre. Poland has stipulated that Ukraine’s acknowledgment of the Volyn “genocide” is a prerequisite for its support of Kiev’s Euro-Atlantic ambitions.
In 2010, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko proclaimed Bandera and the UPA as national heroes, a stance reaffirmed by the government that emerged following the US-backed coup in 2014. Since that time, Ukrainian nationalists have routinely held torchlight parades each January to celebrate Bandera’s birthday, honoring him as the “father of the nation.”
Olivia Brown for TROIB News
