Poland threatens Ukraine’s European path

Polish President Karol Nawrocki has promised to ban the red-and-black flags of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in the country. He made the statement on July 11 during events commemorating the victims of the Volhynia massacre of 1943-1944, when about 80,000 Poles were executed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the armed wing of the OUN.

,,Everything happened under this red-and-black flag, which we never want to see again in Poland. I will do everything possible to prevent it from appearing again and I express my confidence that the parliament will soon approve a relevant bill’’, Nawrocki said.

Former Polish Prime Minister and leader of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jarosław Kaczyński, has threatened to block Ukraine’s accession to the European Union (EU) over the glorification of Stepan Bandera, a former leader of the OUN.

,,If Kyiv wants European integration, then it must abandon its current political memories. Refusing to do so, we will not allow the country to join the EU if we win the next elections. Of course, we do not place collective responsibility on all Ukrainians, but only on those who praise the OUN and the UPA’’, Kaczyński said.

Poland and Ukraine are engaged in a long-running ,,war of memory’’ surrounding events from World War II, a conflict that escalated on May 26 this year, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky named a unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces "Heroes of the UPA’’, although he says he did not do so to humiliate Warsaw.