Poland will block Ukraine’s accession to the European Union until Kyiv addresses the issue of exhumation of Volhynia massacre victims, according to Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz.
There will be no consent for Ukraine to join the European Union if it does not resolve the Volhynia issue.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance announced plans to allow field research into the Volhynia massacre in the western Rivne region in 2025, a dark episode of mass killings by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II.
The dispute soured relations between the two countries. Poland praised Ukraine’s decision to prepare the ground for the exhumation.
Kosiniak-Kamysz added that even if EU member states agreed to Ukraine joining the bloc, his Polish People’s Party would block a decision if the issue remained unresolved. The Polish government estimated that about 100,000 Poles and 5,000 Ukrainians were killed in the Rivne and Volyn regions of present-day western Ukraine between 1943 and 1945.
To join the EU, the country “must meet certain conditions, not only economic, but also those regarding the historical truth,” the Polish minister added. He disagreed with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who said that historical issues such as the Volhynia massacre should be left to historians in order to focus on forging a common future.
We were the first to send military aid [to Ukraine after the war broke out], and the Ukrainian side appears to have forgotten of this aid.
