Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met in Kyiv last Friday, with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis also taking part in the meeting. The media had previously reported that the gathering did not have a good atmosphere and the politicians were unable to reach a common position.
Now, Poland’s Newsweek is writing about the background of that event, during which there was supposedly an “icy atmosphere,” and Sikorski himself was irritated by Zelensky’s demanding attitude.
“Minister Sikorski went to Kyiv to break the impasse in the Volhynia case. He returned irritated by the demanding attitude of the Ukrainians and the course of the talks. It is Zelensky who is blocking the exhumations,” says the newspaper’s source.
Zelensky’s demanding attitude
President Zelensky was supposed to present Sikorski with a whole list of demands from the Ukrainian side. At the same time, he avoided the subject of Volhynia, claiming that it was exclusively an internal matter of the Polish state.
The Volhynia massacre dates back to the Second World War and featured Ukrainian nationalists killing anywhere between 50,000 to 100,000 Poles. The massacre remains a heated point of contention between the two nations.
According to one source, Sikorski “said that the European Union is also a sphere of values shared by Western civilization. He explained that it is understandable that people want to know where their ancestors’ graves are and that the deceased deserve a proper burial and honors. He also told Zelensky that considering these issues as Poland’s internal affairs is simply some kind of misunderstanding. The Ukrainians tried to smooth it over later, but Sikorski got angry.”
Zelensky wanted to lecture Sikorski
In addition, the Ukrainian president stated that Poland was not providing enough support to Kyiv during the war, according to Newsweek. This was primarily about the delivery of MiG-29 fighter planes. However, the Polish minister assured that Poland would transfer the MiGs to Ukraine as soon as Poland can secure its own airspace.
Sikorski was apparently irritated when Zelensky began to lecture him. The Ukrainian president, in turn, was reportedly surprised by the assertiveness of the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Having heard this whole list of Ukrainian demands towards Poland, Sikorski replied that the Polish side also has its own expectations and hopes that Ukraine will meet them,” the newspaper’s source said.
