Several Polish officials were today reported in the international media to have made additional statements related to the commemoration in Poland of victims of an intense Polish-Ukrainian conflict in 1943, during World War II.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced a Wall of Remembrance is to be built in Warsaw to commemorate Polish victims of the massacres in the historic Volhynia region.
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Located primarily in today’s northwestern Ukraine, with smaller portions extending into southeastern Poland and southern Belarus, Volhynia was formerly under Polish rule, and at the time under Nazi German occupation. The memorial is to feature an eternal flame and the names of identified victims
The timing and framing invite a response from the Ukrainian perspective.
Acknowledging historical complexity
Ukraine acknowledges that mass killings by Ukrainians of Poles, and vice versa, occurred in the Volhynia region and other formerly Polish-controlled areas during World War II. Violence by both sides resulted in civilian deaths that no responsible historian or government official seeks to justify.
But from the Ukrainian point of view, to place the blame solely on one side is historically and morally unacceptable, as is the unsubstantiated speculation as to the number of victims on both sides.
The fact is that significant disagreement remains over scale, characterization, and causes.
Poland claims that between 70,000 and 100,000 Polish civilians were killed between 1943 and 1945, and uses the term “genocide,” with reprisals claiming up to 12,000 Ukrainian lives.
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Ukrainian historians argue that these figures – particularly the upper estimates – are substantially exaggerated and lack documentary support.
The actual number of victims on both sides has never been conclusively established through joint historical commission work, despite repeated Ukrainian calls for such collaboration.
The need for historical symmetry
Tusk said that “whoever wants to join this [European] community must be ready for this truth,” referring to Ukraine’s EU aspirations. But genuine historical reckoning works both ways.
Ukrainians have long been asking Poland to acknowledge its role in the structure breeding violence in the region. Polish state policies of Polonization and colonization in the interwar period – including land seizures, cultural suppression, and systematic discrimination against Ukrainian and other national minority populations – created conditions of profound resentment and instability.
These policies receive far less attention in Polish public discourse than the culminating violence of 1943-1945.
Poland’s Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said in Olyka that “friendship means telling each other the truth, even the difficult truth.” Ukraine agrees. But surely Poland must examine not only the violence committed against Poles but also the structural violence of colonization policies that preceded and contributed to ethnic conflict.
The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) is viewed by many Ukrainians primarily as a force that fought for independence against Soviet occupation into the 1950s – a perspective shaped by decades of Soviet oppression and the ongoing Russian invasion.
This does not excuse atrocities committed by individuals and units within these organizations, but it explains why the UPA holds different meanings in Ukrainian and Polish historical memory, just as Poland’s resistance force, the Armia Krajowa, does.
And yesterday’s demonstration by the Polish far-right at a commemoration of the Jewish victims at the site of the 1941 Jedwabne massacre also reminded us how sensitive issues of the past remain in a part of Europe that the historian Timothy Snyder has described as the “Bloodlands.”
Political timing and joining the EU
The announcement comes as Ukraine is looking to join the EU and defend its sovereignty against Russian aggression, an invasion during which Poland has backed Ukraine with Political, military and humanitarian aid.
The timing has raised speculation that old grievances are being weaponized for present-day politics. The Volhynia issue has been a recurring tool to rally domestic support for nationalist forces in Poland.
In Ukraine, President Karol Nawrocki’s decision to strip President Volodymyr Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle over the naming of a military unit after the UPA was widely seen as an overreaction driven by domestic calculations.
The suggestion that Ukraine must meet specific historical memory requirements as a condition for EU membership – requirements not applied to other candidate or member states with complex historical records – sets a worrying precedent that historical disputes can be weaponized to delay or derail accession.
A path forward
Mayor Jakub Banaszek of Chelm stated that commemorations are “not directed against today’s Ukraine or its citizens” but are “an expression of remembrance for the victims of historical events.” Ukraine respects Poland’s right to commemorate its dead.
But monuments alone do not constitute reconciliation. Germany and France reconciled through joint historical commissions, shared textbooks, and mutual recognition of responsibility. Poland and Ukraine have tried similar initiatives, but they have been repeatedly undermined by political interference and unilateral actions.
Prime Minister Tusk invoked “the Europe of peace and mutual respect, the Europe reconciled after World War II” as a model. That reconciliation was built on all parties accepting responsibility for their roles in historical violence. It was built on dialogue, not ultimatums.
Ukraine, its leaders say, stays committed to honest historical dialogue with Poland. But as Ukraine defends itself against Russian imperialism, it asks that Poland approach this dialogue as a partner, not as a gatekeeper to European integration.
In Ukraine, observers are aware that the issue of the Volhynia massacres is a convenient means for manipulating Polish political attitudes ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections. But they also suspect it might be used more cynically to stab Ukraine in the back by those who do not want to see Ukraine admitted to the EU.
The Wall of Remembrance can contribute to reconciliation – but only if accompanied by mutual accountability and recognition that historical truth is complex, contested, and cannot be reduced to political leverage.
The victims of the Volhynia atrocities, both Polish and Ukrainian, should not have their memory instrumentalized in contemporary geopolitical disputes. While learning from the lessons of the past, Ukraine and Poland should be united in facing the very real challenges of the present.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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