Polish presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki's recent comments on Ukraine were "manipulative," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued Jan. 9.
The statement comes after Nawrocki said in a television interview on Jan. 8 that he does not currently see Ukraine becoming a member of the European Union or NATO.
"Today, I do not see Ukraine in any structure — neither in the European Union nor in NATO — until important... issues for Poles are resolved," Nawrocki said in an interview with Polsat News.
"A country that cannot answer for a very brutal crime against 120,000 of its neighbors cannot be part of international alliances."
Nawrocki's remarks refer to the 1943 Volyn massacre, during which tens of thousands of Poles were killed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in Nazi-occupied Ukraine and thousands of Ukrainians were killed in retaliation.
The legacy of the massacre remains an ongoing source of modern-day tensions between Poland and Ukraine.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry denounced Nawrocki's comments as "biased and manipulative."
"Such statements indicate that the Polish politician prioritizes short-term political considerations over the strategic security interests of his own country, the good-neighbourly relations between Ukraine and Poland, and the shared values of freedom, democracy, and justice."
Poland will hold presidential elections on May 18. Nawrocki is campaigning with the opposition Law and Justice Party (PiS), a right-wing political faction.
Nawrocki, currently the head of the Polish National Remembrance Institute, criticized a joint statement on the exhumation of Volyn massacre victims in Ukraine between Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha and his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski.
The agreement was an "unnecessary outburst by the head of Polish diplomacy," Nawrocki said, accusing the Sikorski of leveraging the agreement to launch his own presidential campaign.
In its response, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry emphasized the ongoing "constructive dialogue" between Kyiv and Warsaw.
Daria Svitlyk
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