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Ukraine's EU entry 'not an existential matter,' Warsaw can name conditions, Polish minister says on Volyn massacre

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Ukraine's EU entry 'not an existential matter,' Warsaw can name conditions, Polish minister says on Volyn massacre
Polish Minister of National Defense and Deputy Prime Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, pitcured on May 18, 2024. (Klaudia Radecka/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Poland can make Ukraine's accession to the EU contingent on the resolution of the Volyn massacre as joining the bloc is not a matter of the country's survival, a Polish minister said in a media interview published on Oct. 15.

Speaking to the Interia outlet, Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz stressed that Warsaw continues supporting Kyiv through military and humanitarian aid regardless of historical issues.

Kosiniak-Kamysz said in June that Ukraine would not enter the EU without resolving the Volyn massacre, a tragic episode in Polish-Ukrainian history in 1943 when members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) massacred tens of thousands of Poles in Nazi-occupied Volyn, a region that used to be part of Poland and is now part of Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainians were killed in retaliation.

"Joining the EU is not an existential matter for Ukraine; it is an opportunity for development, higher GDP growth," Kosiniak-Kamysz told Interia.

"Together with the conditions set by the EU, we can put forward our ethical and historical conditions regarding Volyn."

Ukraine launched membership talks with the EU earlier this year, but the final decision will require consensus among all 27 members.

The matter of the Volyn massacre was raised again by Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski last month, reportedly leading to a tense exchange with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Despite several attempts at reconciliation between modern-day Poland and Ukraine, the remaining tensions relate to Warsaw's request for the exhumation of massacred Poles buried in modern-day Ukraine.

Ukraine blocked the exhumation in 2017 after Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) memorials in Poland were vandalized.

In early October, the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance promised to begin searches and exhumations next year.

The matter has also sparked tensions inside the Polish leadership. President Andrzej Duda said that blocking Ukraine's EU accession is in line with "Vladimir Putin's policy."

Duda made the comment even though objections to Ukraine's entry over the Volyn issue were also raised by the previous conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government, which was allied with the president.

"This may come as a surprise, but this government is taking the issue of exhumation of the Volyn massacre victims and their commemoration much more seriously than the previous government," Kosiniak-Kamysz claimed in the interview.

Poland-Ukraine relations deteriorate as historical grievances resurface, threatening to stall Kyiv’s EU accession
The meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski on Sept. 13 in Kyiv did not exactly go as planned. Sikorski demanded Ukraine finally allow the exhumation of the victims of the Volyn massacre in World War II and warned against expecting a quick EU acces…
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Martin Fornusek

Senior News Editor

Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.

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