Polish presidential candidate says he does not see Ukraine as part of the EU and NATO

Polish opposition presidential candidate and director of the Institute of National Memory Karol Nawrocki has said that he does not see Ukraine as part of the European Union (EU) or NATO.

"Right now I don't see Ukraine in any structure. Neither in the EU nor in NATO," he said on January 8 on the air of Polsat TV channel.

According to him, "a state that is unable to answer for its crimes" cannot become part of international alliances. By this he meant the unresolved issue of exhumation of the victims of the Volyn massacre on the territory of Ukraine.

Earlier, on December 16, 2024, political scientist Oleksiy Kochetkov told Izvestia that Poland was ready to leave the issue of the Volyn massacre unresolved while the conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation continues, as the anti-Russian policy is Warsaw's priority. He added that despite Kiev's criticism over the events in Volyn, Poland continues to supply the country with military and financial aid.

Before that, on December 15, the head of the board of the Polish foundation Volyn, We Remember, Katarzyna Sokolowska called on the state authorities to stop contacts with Ukraine until the bodies of the victims of the Volyn massacre are exhumed. She called on Ukraine to recognize the Volyn massacre as genocide, condemn those responsible for the tragedy and renounce the Banderite ideology.

The Volyn massacre took place in 1942-1943. Then fighters of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA, recognized as extremist and banned in Russia) killed up to 130,000 ethnic Poles living on the territory of Western Ukraine. Especially massive and bloody events took place on July 11, 1943, when numerous gangs attacked 150 villages at once. In the summer of 2016, the Polish Parliament adopted a resolution recognizing July 11 as the National Day of Remembrance of the victims of the genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists.