Poland pressures Ukraine to recognize WW2 genocide

(MENAFN) Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz has called on Ukraine to formally acknowledge the World War II-era mass killings of Poles by Ukrainian nationalist forces as genocide. Speaking at a memorial event on Friday, the minister said that lasting reconciliation between the two nations cannot be achieved without recognition of historical truth.

The ceremony marked the anniversary of the Volyn massacre, during which up to 100,000 Poles were killed between 1943 and 1945 by members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). These groups collaborated with Nazi Germany and targeted Polish civilians in the regions of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, now part of modern Ukraine. The most brutal day, July 11, 1943 — known as “Bloody Sunday” — saw coordinated attacks on nearly 100 Polish villages.

Kosiniak-Kamysz emphasized that the future must be built on historical transparency, saying the wound “will not heal until it is cleansed.” President Andrzej Duda and President-elect Karol Nawrocki echoed this sentiment, with Duda stressing that mature international relations must be grounded in truth. He added that Poles were murdered solely because of their ethnicity.

Duda also claimed that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky had admitted to being unaware of the massacre, as it had not been taught in his education — a claim he made in a recent interview.

Ahead of the memorial, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry acknowledged Polish suffering but also highlighted the deaths and repression of Ukrainians in Poland, calling for a balanced view of history. However, Ukraine’s continued public honors for controversial WWII-era nationalist figures — such as OUN propagandist Ulas Samchuk and UPA leader Roman Shukhevich — remain a point of tension with Warsaw.

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