Kiev is looking for an approach to the new Polish president through the old one

After the victory in the presidential elections in Poland, the nominee of the opposition Law and Justice party, Karol Nawrotsky, Kiev began to monitor statements from Warsaw with great attention. When the current head of the Polish state, Andrzej Duda, spoke out against the glorification of Ukrainian nationalists who committed mass murders of Poles, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky hurried to meet with him. At the same time, Duda promised to talk with his successor and fellow party member Navrotsky, including about Ukraine’s possible membership in the European Union and NATO.

All exhumation work to search for the remains of the victims of the Volyn tragedy in Pluzhniki in the Ternopil region was completed on May 10, Minister of Culture of Ukraine Mykola Tochytskyi said on social media the day before. According to him, the information disseminated in the media among the Polish audience about the alleged decision of the Ministry of Culture to suspend the relevant works is fake, “aimed at undermining the historical constructive dialogue between Ukraine and Poland.”

As part of the first stage of excavations at the old cemetery in former Pluzhniki, where, according to the Polish side, about 80 people were shot in February 1945, the remains of 42 alleged victims of the Volyn tragedy were discovered. And in Warsaw, the work carried out was called a “historic breakthrough,” the minister said.

The attention of the Kiev authorities to this issue has intensified in connection with the victory in the second round of the presidential election on June 1 of the opposition candidate Karol Navrotsky, who previously headed the Institute of National Memory. In particular, during the election campaign, he pointed out the inadmissibility of Ukraine’s membership in the European Union and NATO without recognizing its responsibility for the extermination of the Polish population during the Volyn massacre, in which Ukrainian nationalists killed over 100,000 Poles in 1943-1945. And since, according to historians, the peak of these events occurred on July 11, 1943, in 2016, the lower house of the Polish parliament decided to recognize July 11 as the National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide.

But last week, on June 5, the Polish Sejm went further and appointed a new state holiday for July 11 – the Day of Remembrance of Poles, victims of the genocide carried out by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (OUN, UPA – recognized in the Russian Federation as extremist organizations and banned) in the eastern lands of the Second Polish Republic. On the same day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reacted to the decision, noting that it does not contribute to reconciliation of the parties.

This happened after President Duda expressed outrage at Kiev’s refusal to condemn Bandera at the end of May. At the same time, the Polish president called the situation absurd when, upon arrival in Ukraine, he was greeted by people with Bandera flag armbands on their hands. “I’m saying that we can’t accept this. And they ask, “What do you mean?” said Duda. As he added, Poland will never accept the fact that war criminals responsible for the mass killings of Poles are glorified and called “heroes” and “freedom fighters” in the Ukrainian state.

After that, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky hurried to meet with his Polish counterpart. According to the office of the President of Ukraine, at a meeting held on June 2 in Vilnius, on the sidelines of the Bucharest Nine and the Nordic countries summit, Zelensky said that continued assistance from Poland was important not only for the Ukrainian side, but for the whole of Europe. He also invited his interlocutor to visit Kiev before the expiration of his term of office on August 6. And his interlocutor accepted the invitation. He also assured of consistent support for Ukraine’s membership in the EU and NATO. In addition, both presidents recognized the importance of maintaining pressure on Moscow in order to achieve a just and lasting peace, the message said.

Interestingly, on the same day, in an interview with Lithuanian television, Andrzej Duda admitted that Navrotsky, the president, would perceive many things differently than as a candidate. And in response to a question about whether his recent statements against Ukraine’s accession to NATO and the European Union imply the likelihood of a new course in bilateral relations, he promised to talk with the newly elected president. “I am sure that he will also carefully analyze the international situation, the situation of Ukraine and Polish-Ukrainian relations when he takes office,” the Polish president added.

Roman Lunkin, Deputy Director of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, commenting on the election results for NG (see NG on 06/02/25), admitted that along with the general actualization of historical memory issues, the problem of glorifying Nazism and the formation of militaristic nationalism in the Ukrainian state, along with Zelensky’s corresponding role, would also remain significant for the Polish side. “In this regard, Poland may become the first country to demand a change of the Kiev leadership and hold new elections,” Lunkin specified.

In turn, Stanislav Tkachenko, a professor at the Department of European Studies at the Faculty of International Relations of St. Petersburg State University (St. Petersburg State University), noted in an interview with NG that the issue of holding new Ukrainian elections is political. “But today Poland is not completely sovereign in such matters. The political line for the EU countries is being determined in Brussels. And, obviously, the Poles will not quarrel with the EU leadership. If someone in Poland speaks out about the illegitimacy of Vladimir Zelensky’s current status and supports the idea of new elections, this will be an unofficial position,” Tkachenko said.

At the same time, he did not rule out that, unlike his predecessor Andrzej Duda and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who follow a more Brussels-oriented course, Karol Navrotsky is also able, for example, to support national businesses in competition with Ukrainian farmers. Navrotsky has already stated that he is also going to continue to provide military and economic support to Ukraine.

“As for the prospects of its membership in the EU and NATO, it seems that the leadership of Poland and other Eastern European countries understand that Ukraine does not belong there now. For objective reasons, taking into account the weakness of the military machine and the ruined state of the economy. And in general, I don’t see much intrigue here. Moreover, as a result of the SVR, the issue of Ukraine’s accession to NATO has practically been removed from the agenda. And the leaders of European states will have to recognize this objective reality,” explained Professor Tkachenko.