Absurd Condition: How Ukraine Should Respond to the Demand to Recognize the Volhynia Tragedy as Genocide

In relations between Ukraine and Poland, the historical dispute has flared up again. A speaker of the Polish Sejm stated that Kyiv must recognize the Volhynia tragedy 1943 – 1944 years of genocide of Poles, linking this issue to Ukraine’s future accession to the European Union.

Political scientist Ihor Reiterovych explained on air 24 of Channel why he considers such a demand absurd and dangerous for the very principle of European integration. He also talked about how Kyiv should respond so that historical claims by individual Polish politicians do not turn into a real obstacle on the path to the EU.

Why is Poland’s demand absurd?

The first problem with such a demand is the historical context itself. In 1943 – 1944 years of an independent Ukrainian state, Ukraine did not exist, and the Ukrainian SSR had no direct connection to the formations involved in the Polish-Ukrainian confrontation. Moreover, a significant portion of the future members of the UPA before 1939 year were citizens of Poland, including Stepan Bandera, and some were born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

By that logic, Poles could say that Bohdan Khmelnytsky also engaged in genocide of Poles during the liberation war. This is absurd. It is not possible to judge historical events by such categories,

– emphasized Reiterovych.

No less complex is the attempt to present the Volhynia tragedy solely as a crime of one side. According to the political scientist’s assessments, about 20 thousand Ukrainians died during those events. Even if Polish victims were more numerous, this does not allow downplaying Ukrainian losses or ignoring violence against the Ukrainian population.

The fact that more Poles died does not mean that guilt rests exclusively with one side. Ukraine could also say: recognize the actions of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in certain Ukrainian villages as genocide, because we know very well what happened there,

– explained the political scientist.

In the Polish-Ukrainian conflict of that period there were punitive actions by Polish formations against Ukrainian villages, in which civilians, including women and children, died. The demand for modern Ukraine to accept only one assessment of these events does not take into account the whole complexity and reciprocal nature of the violence of that time.

Historical disputes should not block EU membership

Connecting Ukraine’s accession to the European Union with recognition of the Polish assessment of the Volhynia tragedy is, in Reiterovych’s view, a separate problem. He says that in the history of EU enlargement there was no practice where one state makes the settlement of ancient historical disputes a condition for another’s entry. The European Union was created as a political and economic union, not a platform for mutual claims over past events.

There were many conflicts in Europe, and almost every country could raise historical or territorial claims against neighbors. But that does not mean such issues should be tied to EU membership,

– explained the political scientist.

As an example, he cited events after the Munich Agreement, when Poland also occupied part of Czechoslovakia. Today Prague does not use this episode as a lever to pressure Warsaw inside the EU. By the same logic, Polish-Ukrainian historical disputes should not become a condition of euro-integration.

The leadership of the European Union should remind Poland that it can make political, economic, or social demands of Ukraine, but not require recognizing Poland’s view of historical events,

– emphasized Reiterovych.

Ukraine, in his view, should raise this issue now with EU institutions, but carefully so as not to escalate the confrontation with Warsaw. Such a conversation should predefine the boundary between EU-related demands and historical issues that should not become an instrument blocking Ukrainian integration.

Reiterovych called Poland’s demand to Ukraine absurd: watch the video