Polish presidential aide Bogucki added to Ukraine's 'enemies list' after using historical term 'Eastern Lesser Poland'

The listing

Zbigniew Bogucki, the head of the Chancellery of the President of Poland, was added on 5 July to the database of 'enemies of Ukraine' maintained by the Ukrainian non-governmental organisation Myrotvorets. The centre accused him of threatening Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, participating in acts of humanitarian aggression, and manipulating socially significant information to incite hatred among Poles towards Ukrainians.

Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, has been officially added to the Myrotvorets target list. His apparent crime? Referring to today's western Ukrainian territories using the historical term 'Eastern Lesser Poland'.

The speech that triggered it

The entry stems from Bogucki's remarks in the Sejm on 1 July during the first reading of a presidential bill amending laws on the Institute of National Remembrance and the Penal Code. He spoke about the Volhynia massacres and crimes committed in Eastern Lesser Poland, calling them genocide. The speech also addressed Ukraine's plans for a National Pantheon of Heroes, proposed by President Volodymyr Zelensky, which could honour Stepan Bandera and other figures from the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

We must also call what happened in Volhynia and Eastern Lesser Poland by its name. Not run from the truth, not hide from the truth, but call things by their name: a great crime, a great tragedy, a great wound of the Polish nation – call it genocide.

Myrotvorets and its list

Myrotvorets is a controversial NGO whose database of alleged enemies of Ukraine has been criticised by human rights organisations for publishing personal data. The list is sometimes referred to as a 'death list'. The centre is not a state institution or an official body of the Kyiv government. Its accusations against Bogucki include 'participation in acts of humanitarian aggression against Ukraine' and 'manipulating socially significant information to incite hatred among Poles towards Ukrainians and to provoke interethnic and interfaith conflicts'.

Bogucki's response

Bogucki responded on social media platform X, stating he would continue to support Ukrainians suffering from Russian aggression while also naming Ukrainian chauvinists from the UPA and OUN as criminals who committed genocide against civilians. He stressed that glorifying Bandera and those responsible for crimes against the Polish population is incompatible with shared European and transatlantic values.

I will continue to do what is good and right, simply what is humane. I will support people who are suffering in Ukraine because of the Russian hordes carrying out Putin's neo-imperialist policy. At the same time, I will continue to call Ukrainian chauvinists from the UPA and OUN by their name: criminals who committed bestial genocide against the civilian population – children, women.

The historical term at the centre

'Eastern Lesser Poland' was a semi-official term used during the Second Polish Republic for the south-eastern voivodeships of Lwów, Tarnopol and Stanisławów. Its use remains contentious because these areas historically did not belong to Lesser Poland proper. The term's appearance in Bogucki's speech, in the context of condemning the Volhynia massacres, was interpreted by Myrotvorets as a challenge to Ukraine's current borders.