PiS politicians accuse Ukraine of ‘Soviet-style diplomacy’ as Wołyń anniversary sparks diplomatic row

83rd anniversary ceremonies on two sides of the border

On 11 July, Poland and Ukraine marked 83 years since the “Bloody Sunday” that climaxed the Volhynia massacre, in which Ukrainian nationalists from the OUN-UPA killed an estimated 100,000 to 120,000 Polish civilians. In Ołyka, present-day Ukraine, Poland’s chargé d’affaires Piotr Łukasiewicz attended a service and read a speech that quickly became the focus of the day’s political storm. In Radruż, southeastern Poland, President Karol Nawrocki laid wreaths and recalled the 120,000 victims, saying “we refuse to forget” the brutal killings of women and children. Deputy Marshal of the Sejm Piotr Zgorzelski (Polish People’s Party) told TVP Info that Poland must avoid euphemisms: “It was genocide with particular cruelty, planned by the criminal organization OUN-UPA.”

Roman Szuchewycz in February 1944 issued a clear order defining the scope of this crime. The order read: exterminate the Poles and burn down purely Polish villages.

Zgorzelski added that in the 20th century Poland suffered three genocides: German (3 million victims), Russian (1.5 million) and Ukrainian (nearly 150,000).

Łukasiewicz’s “symmetry” draws calls for dismissal

While bowing to Polish victims, Łukasiewicz also said he could not fail to mention “Ukrainian victims of violence by the Polish state in the territories of the former Second Republic before and during the war.” He stressed he was not drawing a symmetry, but the remarks ignited immediate backlash. Former Polish ambassador to Kyiv Jan Piekło called the statement “unacceptable” and a case of “symmetrism” that treats the Volhynia genocide on par with retaliatory actions by the Home Army.

This should lead to the dismissal of Łukasiewicz. The effect of this speech is harmful to the Polish raison d’état and harmful to Polish-Ukrainian relations.

Piekło questioned whether the text had been cleared with the foreign ministry, noting that Łukasiewicz read it from a page. Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski publicly defended the diplomat, while Ordo Iuris president Jerzy Kwaśniewski demanded his removal if he had acted without authorization.

PiS politicians decry Zelensky’s statement as “Soviet-style”

President Volodymyr Zelensky marked the day on X, stating that Poland and Ukraine jointly honour the memory of civilians killed in Volhynia and that Ukraine is committed to establishing facts. He announced that exhumations would begin “in two days” in the villages of Ostrówki and Wola Ostrowiecka. But lawmakers from the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party were scathing. MP Radosław Fogiel called the message “far from sufficient, not to say pathetic” and said it omitted who was victim and who was perpetrator.

Ukraine escalates and at the same time warns Poland against escalation. This is unfortunately a Soviet-style, impudent style of diplomacy that must be firmly opposed.

PiS vice-chairman Przemysław Czarnek, speaking in Lublin, demanded an end to the “rebirth of Nazi ideology in Ukraine.” Party leader Jarosław Kaczyński, at a separate gathering in Chełm, declared that “Ukraine with the baggage of Banderism will not enter the European Union” – a sharp shift from his 2013 appearance in Kyiv where he shouted “Slava Ukraini” at a pro-European rally.

Left-wing minister attacks President Nawrocki’s rhetoric

President Nawrocki’s address in Radruż also stirred controversy, but from the opposite flank. Deputy science minister Andrzej Szeptycki (Poland 2050) slammed the president for suggesting that the Second Polish Republic had only “normal tensions” with its Ukrainian minority, which Nawrocki called “normal in the scale of national minorities.” Szeptycki argued that this whitewashed pre-war discrimination, citing the pacification of Eastern Malopolska, destruction of Orthodox churches in the Chełm region, and the OUN’s terrorism.

Neither today nor in the future can Poland or its neighbours afford such a policy towards minorities.

The exchange underlined the cross-party sensitivity of the historical narrative, with different camps using the anniversary to challenge both Ukrainian and domestic opponents.

Zelensky pledges exhumations, points to Russian threat

In his X thread, Zelensky stressed that Ukraine is “engaged in speeding up the process” of searches and exhumations and that “full truth and Christian commemoration of the victims” are needed. He also pivoted to the present: “We must also remember that today Ukraine and Poland face one, common threat – Russia.” Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk separately announced the creation of a “Wall of Memory” in Warsaw, where an eternal flame would burn and the names of identified victims would be inscribed.

Speaking of the past, we must not cast doubt on the future of our nations – the future of Ukraine, Poland and all of Europe.

The exhumations in Ostrówki and Wola Ostrowiecka are now the most concrete step in a long-stalled process that, according to Zgorzelski, has seen only five to ten searches per year out of 1,500 possible sites.

Timeline of the crisis