'Shameful and immoral' — Ukraine reacts to far-right Polish politician vandalizing UPA monument
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Ukraine's Foreign Ministry on Sept. 11 sharply criticized Polish far-right politician Grzegorz Braun after he published a video of himself damaging a memorial of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in eastern Poland.
"This is a shameful and immoral behavior that can elicit nothing but shame and condemnation from any normal human being," the ministry said.
Braun, head of the ultranationalist Confederation of the Polish Crown (KKP) party, known for his anti-Ukrainian views, released a video on Sept. 10 of himself and another party member smashing the monument with a hammer.
The memorial, lying in Poland's Lublin province, just a few kilometers from the Polish-Ukrainian border, commemorates UPA fighters killed during a battle with the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, in 1946. Polish media reported that the monument has also been recently vandalized by other unidentified perpetrators.
The UPA stood at the center of a diplomatic spat earlier this year between Kyiv and Warsaw, triggered when President Volodymyr Zelensky named a military unit after the World War II group.
In Ukraine, the underground resistance organization is remembered primarily for its fight against Soviet rule during and after World War II.
In Poland, the group is mainly remembered due to its role in the Volyn massacres, a mass killing of tens of thousands of Poles in what is today western Ukraine, then under Nazi occupation. Thousands of Ukrainians were killed in retaliatory attacks.
The UPA monument is "offending the (Polish) victims" of the Volyn massacres and "must be dismantled," Braun said in a post on social media.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, in turn, denounced Braun for turning "remembrance and respect for the dead into a circus show to score political goals."
"Fringe political figures in Poland can think of nothing better than waging war on graves while a real war is underway," one that threatens both Ukraine and Poland, the ministry said.
Ukrainian authorities urged their Polish counterparts to assess the legality of Braun's actions, restore the memorial, and prevent similar incidents in the future.
Ukraine's reaction came just as Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski was visiting Kyiv.
Braun, representing Poland in the European Parliament, is known for ultranationalist, antisemitic positions and provocative political stunts, as well as sharp criticism of the current Polish government. Braun's party polls around 8% ahead of Poland's parliamentary elections next year.
