To Europe without Bandera

Warsaw calls on Kyiv for the sake of the future membership of Ukraine to resolve historical disputes, refusing, in particular, to the heroization of the leader of the organization of Ukrainian nationalists (OUN) Stepan Bandera. These and other statements of the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry led to a diplomatic scandal between the two countries. As part of the decommunization, the name of Stepan Bandera is now bearing Kyiv Avenue, which was previously called Moscow. Many streets and squares are named after the OUN guide, not only in the western regions of the country. Ukrainian nationalists are wondering: "Will they demand in Poland after Bandera to abandon the Ukrainian hetmans and Cossacks, who at one time successfully shake the foundations of the Polish -Lithuanian Commonwealth?"

Against the background of the ongoing preparation of the visit of Polish President Andrzej Duda to the Ukrainian capital, the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry of the Polish Foreign Department Vitold Vashchikovsky in the WSieCI weekly published on July 3, said Ukraine will not be part of the European Union if historical disagreements between Kiev and Warsaw will not be resolved. "Our message is very clear: you will not enter Europe. We talk about it loudly and quietly. We will not repeat the mistakes of the 90s when certain things were not completed in relations with Germany and Lithuania. I mean the status of the Polish minority in these countries," Vashchikovsky said. In the same interview, he noted that “Ukrainians have a naive belief that the Europeans, Germans, the French will win for them in conflict with Russia. Today we see that this will not happen, that Paris and Berlin are not trying to return to the situation that was before the start of aggression [in the Donbass]. In my opinion, if the old negotiation formats do not work, you must think about something new, with the participation of the United States and others, with the participation of the US European countries. "

On July 5, the Polish ambassador of Jan Peklo was called to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, where they told him that official Kyiv with disappointment took the words of the chief diplomat of Poland regarding Ukraine, and called for Warsaw to be restrained to approach sensitive historical issues. In the course of the meeting, according to the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in particular, it was said that “Ukraine and Poland, jointly, should build a common European future,“ and not set the conditions for each other. ”In addition, attention was drawn to the incorrect statements of the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry about the situation in the east of Ukraine.“ It is the Ukrainian people who pays a very high price-the price of hundreds of their best representatives-for independence, for independence, for independence, for independence, for independence, for independence, for independence, for independence, for independence, for independence. The civilizational choice of development, as well as for preventing the Russian troops to the territory of Poland and other EU countries, ”emphasized in the foreign policy of Ukraine. More recently, Poland was often called the main lawyer of Ukraine in Europe, it is still its strategic partner, however, the tonality of the latest statements by Polish politicians, including Vitold Vishchikovsky, gives a rejuvenation for concern, the head fulfills, the head concludes. The reign of the public association "European movement of Ukraine" Vadim Trukhan:

- Ukraine and Poland are two strategic partners. And Poland is probably the only country in Europe that believes that without a prosperous, independent Ukraine will not be independent, prosperous Poland, and for many years, until now, Poland was considered a Ukrainian lawyer in the European Union. Nevertheless, this does not mean that in the most neighboring state, certain foreign policy events do not occur, which can lead to certain friction in our bilateral relations. Now the party, which is located in Poland in power ( the Party "Law and Justice" by Yaroslav Kachinsky. - approx. ), Is preparing for local elections, and it mainly focuses on the conservative electorate. The statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Vitold Vashchikovsky really looked somewhat unexpected for Ukraine, because it sounded from the mouth of the chief diplomat of our strategic partner. Nevertheless, it seems to me, it will not affect either the relations of Ukraine with Poland or the movement of Ukraine on the way to the EU. The fact is that in the next 15-20, and maybe 25 years, the question of Ukrainian membership in the European Union will not be on the agenda of the relationship between Kyiv and Brussels. And now talk about some conditions [membership in the European Union] prematurely. And the question of who is a hero for a particular country is its exclusively internal business.

-In the publication "On Bandering of Ukrainian-Polish Relations", you claim that recently Poles and Ukrainians have been trying to quench purposefully and cynically. Who? And why?

- always, when certain provocations are carried out, when certain sensitive historical issues regarding the relations of the two countries are addressed, you need to look for who is beneficial. Is this profitable to Ukraine now? Of course, no. Is it beneficial to Poland? Of course, no. Therefore, in this particular case, it is still necessary to look for the country, the side that would like to quarrel Ukrainian and Polish peoples. If we abstract from this statement by the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry, it should be said that over the past few months there have been several provocations, including more than ten monuments to the Ukrainian heroes who died in Poland in Poland, and in Ukraine, the monuments of Polish heroes were also destroyed. Moreover, a terrorist attack was carried out using a rocket in Lutsk.

On the night of March 29 this year, on Dubenskaya Street in Lutsk, unknown people from a grenade launcher fired at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Ukraine. Fortunately, no one was injured. On the same day in the morning in the Lviv region, about 100 demonstrators tried to block the route to the international checkpoint of Rava-Russian on the border with Poland under the slogans "There are no Poles genocide", "Volyn in the hearts." The Security Service of Ukraine called the links of the same chain a promotion near the Polish border and the shelling of the consulate in Lutsk, which law enforcement agencies qualified as a terrorist attack. Vadim Trukhan continues:

- He is investigating, but we do not know the results yet. But it is already known that the organizers of the action [in the Lviv region] to block the route on the day when this attack occurred, received funding from the Russian Federation. They had the task of attracting the attention of the public in Poland that, they say, the Poles rights in Ukraine are infringed, but when law enforcement officers began to detain participants in the action, it turned out that these were not Poles, but Ukrainians who went out for money with some banners manufactured by provocateurs, which were hired by Russian agents. Therefore, no matter how Russia tries to quarrel Poland and Ukraine, carrying out terrorist attacks and custom -made payments, she will not succeed.

- Vitold Vashchikovsky in the mentioned interview with the Polish publication also said: "Ukrainians have a naive conviction that Europeans are Germans, the French will win for them in conflict with Russia." How do you regard these words of the leader of the Foreign Ministry of Poland?

- These words, of course, are offensive to us, since Ukraine protects not only itself, but also Europe, and primarily Poland, from the aggression of the Russian Federation. And the practical assistance of Europeans, unfortunately, is currently minimal. Only Lithuania delivered ammunition to small arms. No one else. And in Ukraine, the understanding that we can protect ourselves is more and more ripening only with our own hands. Nevertheless, Ukraine has acted, acts and will always advocate the consolidation of the efforts of the entire world community, including Europeans aimed at stopping the aggression of the Russian Federation and returning it to the framework of international law and respect for universal and European democratic values.

Meanwhile, the statements of the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, in particular, his appeal to Ukraine to go to the European Union without Bandera criticized the Liberty right -dressing party. According to the leader of the deputy faction "Freedom" in the Kyiv City Council Yuri Syrevyuk, if you follow the current logic of Warsaw, then after Bandera it may require Kiev to abandon the Ukrainian hetmans and Cossacks, who at one time successfully shake the foundations of the Commonwealth:

- Leader of OUN, Stepan Bandera, like the Commander -in -Chief of the UPA Roman Shukhevich, were officially recognized in 2008 by the heroes of Ukraine, but then they were deprived of these titles by raider (during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, in August 2011 the Higher Admin Court of Ukraine supported the decision of the previous courts, which recognized the title of Hero of Ukraine to the leader of the Ukrainian nationalists Stepan Bandera and commander in chief of the Ukrainian rebel army Roman Shukhevich - approx. The statement of the Polish minister is a challenge to Ukrainian public opinion, and this will not improve our relationship with Poland. Ukraine will go to Europe with all the baggage of the past that it has. It is impossible to cross out and forget it. Europe is a continent of nations with its history. Therefore, we will go [in the EU] not only with Bandera and Shukhevich, but also with the hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky, Ivan Gonta and Maxim Zaliznyak (leaders of the Gaidamatsky uprising of 1768 in the right -bank Ukraine. - approx. RS). This is part of our history, we figured out who our heroes, who are enemies, what are good, and what is evil, so we do not want our foreign partners to intervene in our internal affairs. I do not think that this is a collective demand of the European Union for Ukraine [go to the EU without Bandera]. Today in Poland, unfortunately, politicians came to power, which revive the so -called Jagellian concept of Polish statehood as an empire from sea to sea. And the Poles have claims not only to Ukraine, but also to Lithuania, Germany. Obviously, the Bandera was also struck on this Polish concept at one time. The leader of OUN Stepan Bandera was not a criminal criminal, did not commit any criminal crimes, he was sitting in the Polish and German concentration camps. Therefore, for us this is some kind of children's, inadequate reaction of the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry. But Poland, as well as any other country of Europe, must understand that Ukrainians will go to the EU as Ukrainians with all their historical baggage.

Yuri Sitryuk doubts that Vitold Vashchikovsky and other Polish politicians acting with anti -Ukrainian statements act under the Dictation of the Kremlin:

- Obviously, the Minister of Foreign Affairs in a normal country expresses the opinion of the ruling majority. In this case, there is the Polish party "Law and Justice", and Veschikovsky was the same statement by its leader Jaroslav Kachinsky, so I think that this is a joint party position. Unfortunately, this position does not help improve relations between Kyiv and Warsaw. And of course, the anti -Ukrainian statements of Polish politicians will be maximally used by Moscow. I would not like to say that Polish leaders are dancing under the Kremlin’s tune. It's funny. They protect their Polish national interests. But in this case, it seems to me that the statements of the Polish politicians against Ukraine will ultimately reflect on Poland itself. Today, when there is a common threat to Russian imperialism to the entire European continent, first of all, the countries of the Baltic, Ukraine, Moldova, these blows of Poland in the back of Ukraine will undoubtedly be used by Russia. Our foreign policy should not allow anyone to touch the memory of our ancestors. Yes, the Poles do not like the Kiev Prince Vladimir, who at the time of the land at one time, but the Poles because of this do not require the baptist of Kievan Rus-Prince Vladimir. The Poles may not like the hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky, who, in their opinion, destroyed their empire, but this is our national hero, and we will not refuse him. We do not tell the Poles: forbid and delete from your history the Polish marshal of Jozef Pilsudski, who was a friend of Adolf Hitler. Poland has their own heroes, and we have our own. For me, the hero is Stepan Bandera, and no one has the right to dictate to me - to love him or not to love.

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- Poland Foreign Minister Vitold Vashchikovsky in an interview with WsieCi weekly also stated an unresolved issue of the rights of the Polish minority in Ukraine. Didn't this surprise you?

- This is the first such statement. Earlier, we heard only about the problems in Ukraine, first of the Russian and then the Russian -speaking minority. We would like to hear the facts. The Polish minority has all rights in Ukraine, their churches, Sunday schools, and there are educational institutions. I do not know a single example of discrimination and pursuit of the Poles in Ukraine. At the same time, there is a massive wave of anti -Ukrainian hysteria in Poland - beating, threats, the destruction of our monuments, cemeteries. We saw Xenophobic anti -Ukrainian performances in Przemysl. Therefore, we want the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs to not allow such unreasonable and hysterical statements that damage our relations with the fraternal Polish people.

As reported on the eve of the Polish Radio, the Polish prosecutor’s office charged to twenty citizens of the country who in June 2016 tried to interfere with the processions of Ukrainian Greek Catholics and Orthodox in Przemysl. They face up to three years in prison. Another activist who, in December last year, in the same Polish city during the march, Orlyas shouted “death to Ukrainians”, threatens from three months to five years in prison.

About why recently in Poland there are increasingly sounding unfriendly statements to Ukraine, the Kiev historian and political scientist Alexander Pali reasoned:

- In Poland, today there are some marginal groups that inflate hysteria against Ukraine for Russian money. There are even arrested in these cases. They organized anti -Ukrainian provocations in Poland, including abuse of monuments. At the same time, there is an objective desire for the Polish elite to impose its opinion and its approaches to Ukraine, that is, to take advantage of the fact that Poland is under the protection of NATO and the European Union, and to impose on Ukraine its own vision of history. Using as an occasion to search for a common future of Ukraine and Europe, they want to impose on us a Polish vision of the past. Of course, this is an immodest desire from the leadership of Poland, because each nation has the right to their vision and its own reference point and each nation has the right to determine who is a hero for him and who is not a hero. And Ukrainians would also be unreasonable to indicate to the Poles who they have the right hero and who is not.

14 years ago, in July 2003, the then President of Ukraine and Poland Leonid Kuchma and Alexander Kvasinevsky called for mutual forgiveness for tragic historical events: the Volyn tragedy in 1943-the destruction of the Ukrainian rebel army of ethnic Poles and the Visla campaign in 1947-the violent resettlement of ethnic Ukrainians from some regions to others to others. Then, in the village of Pavlivka, Volyn region, the leaders of the two states opened the memorial to the Ukrainian-Polish reconciliation "Memory-sorrow-unity." Nevertheless, almost a year ago, the Polish Sejm approved the resolution on recognition on July 11 by the day of memory of the victims of the genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists in Volyn against the Poles during the Second World War. This is how the reluctance of Polish politicians explains to turn the tragic pages of joint history with Ukrainians Alexander Pali:

-In the past years, there were many mutual apologies between our countries, including from the Poles, in particular, for the Operation “Visla”-the deportation of Ukrainians from the territories of southeastern Poland, and these actions, according to international law, are actually considered genocide. Such actions were carried out not by some partisan movement or political group, but by the state structures of Poland. And at that time [2003], the Poles ask for an apology for the "Vistula", and Kuchma - for the events in Volyn. There are three reasons because of which Warsaw again turns to the past. Firstly, Poland has become strong, and many of its politicians think that they should appeal to the past. Secondly, stormy [economic] growth in Poland, which was celebrated in the last decade, has changed to more moderate, and society needs new goals. And everyone understands that in order to achieve the level of Western Europe it is necessary to make much greater efforts, and in order to amuse national ambitions, you do not need to work, you just need to make a loud statement. And in Poland now there are a lot of young people who more like different radical calls than specific affairs. However, in Poland there is a large and active layer of the intelligentsia, which accepts Christian values not just as a slogan, but really very close, and Ukrainians try to speak with these smart Poles, ”says Alexander Pali.

В 2001 году во Львове святой Иоанн Павел II (в миру поляк Кароль Йозеф Войтыла) сказал, что "благодаря очищению исторической памяти все будут готовы ставить выше то, что объединяет, а не то, что разделяет, чтобы вместе строить будущее, основанное на взаимном уважении, на братском сотрудничестве и истинной солидарности".