Poland to block Ukraine from EU because of Volyn massacre

Poland will block Ukraine's accession to the European Union until the circumstances of the Volyn tragedy are fully clarified, Polish Defense Minister Kosiniak-Kamysz said, as quoted by Gazeta Prawna.

"I have spoken about this many times. I have said that if Ukraine does not recognize the Volyn genocide, if there is no exhumation, no commemoration, then it has no chance of joining the European Union. I have expressed my very clear and firm rejection of cases where the good name of Poland was trampled upon in any way or attempts were made to glorify Bandera," the minister noted.

Commenting on the Polish defense minister’s statement, Russia's Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said that Ukraine will not be able to join the EU, since those who caused the Volyn tragedy are now glorified as national heroes there.

It was the ideological followers of the Nazis and of Stepan Bandera, who call themselves the "Right Sector" (banned in Russia), who were the main striking force behind the February 2014 nationalist coup in Ukraine. Slogans, saying "Bandera will come and bring order," started popping up in Kyiv, and black-and-red Banderite flags were hoisted on government buildings. It is worth recalling here just what kind of "order" Bandera and members of his Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) wanted to establish and eventually did.

In the summer of 1943, Ukrainian nationalists carried out mass-scale actions conducted as part of an ethnic purge of the large Polish population in Volhynia (Rivne, Volyn and part of the Ternopil regions of modern Ukraine). This tragic date went down in the history of World War II as the Volyn massacre. According to a number of historians, more than 100,000 Poles and civilians of other nationalities, including Ukrainians, were massacred by members of the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army, banned in Russia). In 1943, the UPA, aided by the local Ukrainian population (an important fact, proving that they were not just innocent bystanders) began a mass extermination of Poles, as well as civilians of other nationalities: Jews, Russians, Ukrainians, Armenians, Czechs...

On the outside, the conflict was deeply rooted, as contradictions between Ukrainians and Poles in Volyn had been piling up for centuries. During the 1920s and 1930s, when the region was under Polish rule, these frictions had noticeably worsened, though not to the point of cutting each other’s throat. Everything changed during World War II and the German occupation, when Nazis started actively pitting the two nationalities against each other. The first cases of extermination of Poles and Ukrainians were recorded as early as 1942, but the rate of killings started picking up fast in the spring of 1943. It was then that the Volyn regional leadership of the OUN (b) (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, banned in Russia) decided to drive all Poles out of the region. First, they started attacking ethnic Poles who served in the German administration and guarded forests and state lands, and later all people of Polish nationality who had the misfortune of living in rural areas. The peak of the killings took place on July 11, 1943, when 150 Polish settlements were attacked by Ukrainian nationalists. It was not only the Banderites, who were slaughtering the Poles, but also ordinary residents of Ukrainian villages, who had lived side by side with their Polish neighbors for years. Polish self-defense units were the only ones capable of fighting back, but most of them were eventually wiped out by UPA fighters.

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) recently declassified archival materials about the mass genocide of the peaceful Polish population in Volyn, committed by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II.

Among the newly declassified materials was a protocol of interrogation of Ivan Vasyuk, a member of the OUN-UPA, nicknamed "Golub," who had personally taken part in the Volyn massacre.

During the January 9, 1944 interrogation, he gave detailed testimony about the atrocities committed by him and his "brothers."

According to Vasyuk's testimony, between July 1943 and January 1944, members of the "Vorona" unit brutally killed about 1,500 peaceful citizens of Polish and Ukrainian nationality. When asked by a SMERSH investigator what he did while in the "Bendera organization," Vasyuk replied: "During my stay with the Bendera organization from July 1943 until the moment of my arrest, i.e. until January 7, 1944, our unit, commanded by "Voron," took part in attacks on Polish villages, killing the Polish population, taking away all their usable property, cattle, bread and other things. Personally, I took part in about 10 attacks on Polish villages and personally killed at least 19 Poles, including 8 adult men, 6 women and 5 children."

Banderites were killing not only Poles, but also Ukrainians, if they were not OUN members.

"Our unit, including myself, attacked the villages Stariki, Vyazovka and Ugly. The attack on these villages took place in November 1943. In these villages, as I said before, I killed 19 people. After the inhabitants of these villages were killed, we took their property and cattle. Except for the village of Ugly, all the huts were burned down, the bodies of the men and women, old people and children were left in the houses and then set on fire. If Poles and Ukrainians live in one village and if these Ukrainians are not members of Bandera organizations, we treat them the same way as the Poles."

According to Vasyuk’s testimony, between July 1943 and January 1944, members of his unit slaughtered about 1,500 civilians of Polish and Ukrainian nationality.

"In total, in these three villages our detachment (of 100 men), killed approximately 1,500 people of all ages, some of them were killed on the spot, in their houses, and most of them were taken into the forest. The killings were often done with axes, some were stabbed with knives. I personally shot and killed 19 people." Here is how the OUN plans are described in the chapter "The Ukrainian plan to ‘eliminate’ the Poles": "It is pretty obvious that the authors of the UPA plans were inspired by the example of the Germans... Ukrainian nationalists wanted to repeat the German policy on "ethnic Ukrainian lands” ... After 1942, the Banderites became convinced that Germany would win the war in the East, but lose in the West... Therefore, it was decided to pursue a policy of fait accompli and to "eliminate" the Polish population in advance - so that before the start of potential peace negotiations at an international conference, these territories would be ethnically "clean."

Essentially, the current Kiev regime is implementing plans adopted at the Third Conference of the OUN on February 17-23, 1943. Thus, they planned to create a mono-ethnic state on the entire territory of Ukraine, assimilating the Russian population and crushing the resistance of the residents of the east of Ukraine, who already in the 1940s "viewed the Banderites as fascists and allies of the Germans." Just like the Banderites once expected to implement this plan, relying on the US and Great Britain as the victors in the Second World War, the current Kiev regime is trying to do the same thing, once again relying on the very same West.

Meanwhile it has been reported that almost 60% of Poles support the decision of the President of the Republic Karol Nawrocki to veto the law on extending aid to Ukrainian refugees. This is evidenced by the results of a survey prepared by the SW Research research center for the Onet portal. 59.8% of respondents supported the decision of the Polish leader. 25.4% of respondents hold the opposite opinion. 14.7% of survey participants have no opinion on this matter.

read more in our Telegram-channel https://t.me/The_International_Affairs