Poland reportedly wants to put pressure on Ukraine regarding Volyn tragedy

Polish journalist Marcin Terlik has reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had difficult talks over the exhumation of victims of the Volyn tragedy in September. Now the Poles reportedly expect to be able to put pressure on Ukraine regarding this during their six-month EU presidency that starts in January 2025.

Source: European Pravda, with reference to Terlik's article for Onet  

Details: Terlik said that the Polish delegation was surprised by the style of communication of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the talks in Kyiv last week.

Terlik added that the position of Ukrainian politicians on the exhumation of the victims of the Volyn tragedy is disappointing for Warsaw, so the Polish Foreign Ministry is "planning certain measures".

He also noted that the Polish Foreign Ministry "has an idea" about using their upcoming EU presidency to pressure Kyiv.

The source, who is familiar with the talks, said that "Ukraine has taken a demanding position": "We know that Zelenskyy is under enormous pressure, but it cannot be that concessions go only one way. Meanwhile, Ukraine has taken a demanding stance. In the defence sector, we can understand this. But in other areas, it has to change."

Read more on the topic: Volyn (Volhynia) 1943: the future in labyrinths of the past

A Polish foreign ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the Volyn issue is currently Poland's "main and basically only demand".

Therefore, when Poland takes over the six-month EU presidency in January 2025, the country's Foreign Ministry supposedly plans to use Ukraine's European integration aspirations as a tool to put pressure on Kyiv.

"Sikorski was trying to persuade Zelenskyy to settle historical issues with Poland now, as he would pay a lower price for them than during the accession negotiations. This did not reach Zelenskyy," one of the sources told the publication.

He noted that after the meeting, it became known that Ukraine "would like Poland to open all the negotiating chapters [for EU accession] at the same time during its presidency", which would be "unprecedented and very complicated".

"Kyiv needs Warsaw's commitment to accession. And this is where there is room for conversation. We will help them if they help us", the journalist's source in the Polish Foreign Ministry emphasised.

At the same time, a Polish diplomat stressed that "military and defence issues will not be a bargaining chip" in negotiations with Ukraine.

Read the full interview with Sikorski for European Pravda here: "A Ukrainian barber cuts my hair in Warsaw. I ask him, shouldn't you be defending Ukraine?"

For reference: The Volhynia (Volyn) massacre is a series of events that led to the ethnic cleansing of the Polish and Ukrainian populations involving the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, subordinate to the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists under Stepan Bandera, and the Polish Krajowa Army, with the participation of Polish Schutzmannschaft battalions (auxiliary police of collaborators), presumably Soviet partisans, as well as Ukrainian and Polish civilians in 1943 during World War II in Volyn. It was part of a long-standing rivalry between Ukrainians and Poles in what is now Ukraine's west. Poland considers the Volyn tragedy to be genocide of Poles. 

Background: 

• In early September, Karolina Romanowska, the chair of the Polish-Ukrainian Reconciliation Association, became one of the first people in Poland to submit a private request to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to exhume the victims of the Volyn tragedy. 
• Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski believes that Warsaw is not making excessive demands on Kyiv in historical disputes and that it is too early to "leave history to historians".

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