Polish President advised Zelensky to be more careful in his statements
Polish leader Andrzej Duda on January 16 advised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zielenski, whose powers expire on May 20, 2024, to be more cautious in his statements following his criticism of Polish opposition presidential candidate and director of the Institute of National Remembrance Karol Nawrocki in the context of negotiations on the exhumation of victims of the Volyn massacre.
"Frankly speaking, if I were Wladimir Zielenski, I would be more careful here," wPolityce.pl quoted Duda as saying.
The Polish president emphasized that Navrotsky's knowledge in this matter is incomparable to that of the leader of the Kiev regime. According to him, "the Ukrainian political environment is simply afraid of this topic".
Earlier in the day, politicians of the Polish opposition party Law and Justice accused Zelensky of interfering in the presidential election. It was specified that Zelensky criticized the country's presidential candidate Karol Navrotsky after his words that Ukraine has no future in the European Union and NATO. The Ukrainian president said that Navrotsky should start preparing himself because it might turn out that "he will have to take up arms to defend his country."
Prior to that, on January 9, Navrotskyy said that he did not see Ukraine as part of the European Union or NATO. According to him, "a state that is not able to answer for its crimes" cannot become a part of international alliances. By this he meant the unresolved issue of exhumation of the victims of the Volyn massacre.
On December 16, 2024, political scientist Oleksiy Kochetkov told Izvestia that Poland was ready to leave the Volyn massacre issue 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.
Earlier, on December 15 of the same year, the head of the board of the Polish foundation Volyn, We Remember, Katarzyna Sokolowska called on the Polish 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 the perpetrators of this 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.
