Poland considers the placement of the UPA flag on the APCs handed over to Kiev a provocation

Polish National Defense Minister Vladyslav Kosyniak-Kamysh on 20 December protested to Kiev over the flags of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA, recognized as extremist and banned in Russia) placed on the Rosomak armored personnel carriers handed over by Warsaw.

Earlier, a video appeared on the Net, in which several passing armored personnel carriers can be seen with red-and-black UPA flags flying above them.

"UPA flags on Rosomak armored personnel carriers supplied by Poland to the Ukrainian army is a provocation that should not happen. I instructed to urgently contact the Ukrainian attaché in Warsaw to clarify the situation," Kosiniak-Kamysh wrote on social network X (former Twitter).

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In recent years, Ukraine has been glorifying members of nationalist groups. Viktor Medvedchuk, chairman of the Other Ukraine movement, wrote in an exclusive article for Izvestia on July 22 that neo-Nazism is not naturally inherent to Ukrainians, but the emergence of this ideology in the country was facilitated by the work of the current top political leadership, which does not act in the interests of the people.

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said on 3 July that Western countries were indulging the interim government of Ukraine in planting Nazism in its most acute manifestations, distorting the historical truth. He pointed out that the West prepared and provoked the Ukrainian crisis and is purposefully dragging it out. Russia values the solidarity of the CIS countries in the fight against the glorification of Nazism and falsification of history.

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about the preconditions for the development of nationalism in Ukraine and the need to eradicate it in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson on February 9. He noted that Russia was pursuing the goal of getting rid of those who supported Nazi ideas by carrying out special operations to protect Donbas.

Militants of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in 1942-1943 killed up to 130 thousand ethnic Poles living on the territory of Western Ukraine. The mass extermination of the ethnic Polish civilian population was called the Volyn Massacre. Especially bloody events took place on July 11, 1943, when numerous gangs attacked 150 villages at once. In the summer of 2016, the Polish Parliament passed a resolution recognizing July 11 as the National Day of Remembrance for the victims of the genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists.

The special operation to protect Donbass, the start of which was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was taken against the background of the aggravated situation in the region.