Zelenskyy broke the tacit Polish–Ukrainian truce on Volhynia | Robert Pszczel & Stuart Dowell
The relations between Warsaw and Kyiv are still reeling from the fallout caused by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s decision to name an elite military unit after a nationalist formation responsible for killing some 100,000 Polish civilians during World War II. The issue had been a bone of contention between the two neighbors for a long time. So what caused it to explode with such ferocity?
“…this decision broke in a major way a kind of gentleman’s agreement, for lack of a better term, which sort of existed for many years between Warsaw and Kyiv,” Robert Pszczel, Senior Fellow at Center for Eastern Studies, told TVP World, explaining the nature of the tacit truce as follows:
“You will not take decisions on certain national level with a great sort of ‘oomph’ which we will find impossible – the Polish society will not accept them. And we will not bring up this question, which Poles cannot simply forget and just say, ‘this is a minor thing, it’s just the past.’”
“And that deal was broken,” he adds
Pszczel believes that what motivated Zelenskyy was an attempt at currying favor with right-wing voters, as well as military veterans and serving soldiers, but he underestimated the outrage it would cause in Poland. TVP World’s Political Editor, Stuart Dowell, concurs.
“I think Zelenskyy may have seen how the issue raises emotions in Poland, provokes a response, but then the issue dies down,” he said. But what’s going on now, particularly since the presidential election, is that the right in Poland (…) really is starting to fragment. And the splinters are fighting ferociously over nationalist voters. And the Volhynia UPA issue is simply excellent material for persuading those voters to vote for them.”
Join TVP World’s Benjamin Lee and his guests as they explore how domestic politics shape, and how they are impacted by, a troubled joint history, to see if the spat impacts Ukraine’s EU and NATO accession process, and what measures are being taken to de-escalate the tensions.
Chapters:
00:00 – Poland and Ukraine’s strained relationship in context
01:20 – The Roots of the rift: Historical memory & domestic politics
05:02 – Zelenskyy’s calculations & Poland’s fractured right
07:47 – Public opinion, historical grievances & their impact on Kyiv’s EU and NATO prospects
11:57 – The path to repairing relations
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