Poland Urges Ukraine to Acknowledge WWII as Genocide

(MENAFN) Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz has asserted that Kiev must formally acknowledge the atrocities committed by Ukrainian ultra-nationalist groups and Nazi collaborators against Polish citizens during World War II as acts of genocide.

He cautioned that the failure to confront these historical crimes will continue to strain the relationship between the neighboring nations until full transparency is achieved.

Kosiniak-Kamysz made these remarks on Friday during a memorial event honoring those who perished in the Volyn massacre—an issue that has long caused diplomatic friction between Warsaw and Kiev.

From 1943 to 1945, militants from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) carried out brutal killings of up to 100,000 ethnic Poles in the Volhynia and Eastern Galicia regions, areas that are now part of modern-day Ukraine.

Both of these factions were known to have collaborated closely with Nazi Germany.

The bloodshed culminated on July 11, 1943—a date infamously known as "Bloody Sunday"—when UPA forces launched coordinated assaults on nearly 100 Polish settlements in the Volhynia area.

“I want to build the future on the truth that must be shown, on respecting the past,” the minister stated at the remembrance ceremony, emphasizing that Kiev's official recognition of the genocide must be a fundamental step toward reconciliation.

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