During a visit to Poland, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba participated in the Campus Poland of the Future event in Olsztyn, hosted by Warsaw’s liberal mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski. When asked by an audience member about when Poland would finally be allowed to exhume the victims of the Volhynia Massacre, Kuleba deflected the question by referring to the “Wisła” operation of 1947, where around 140,000 Ukrainians and Lemkos were deported from southeastern Poland amidst conflicts with Ukrainian nationalists.
Kuleba stated that the questioner should be aware of what the “Wisła” operation entailed and that those Ukrainians were forcibly expelled from Ukrainian territories to settle in places like Olsztyn.
Kuleba responded, “Do you realize what Operation ‘Wisła’ was? Those Ukrainians were forcibly expelled from their territories to live in places like Olsztyn,” before continuing: “But I’m not talking about that. If we start digging into history, the conversation would be very different, and we could go very deep into the wrongs done by Poles to Ukrainians and vice versa.”
These remarks have been met with strong disapproval in Poland. Cezary Kaźmierczak, president of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers, described Kuleba’s performance as “very insolent” and criticized the lack of reciprocity in the relationship.
Marcin Palade, a sociologist, expressed his dismay, stating that if Poland were a serious country with serious politicians, Kuleba would never be allowed to enter Poland again.
Jakub Banaszek, the president of Chelm, expressed his understanding that there would be no true reconciliation between Poles and Ukrainians. Łukasz Warzecha, a commentator for Do Rzeczy weekly criticized the Ukrainian approach to diplomacy, suggesting that some Polish politicians encourage such behavior.
The Volhynia Massacre, which started on July 11, 1943, involved attacks by Ukrainian nationalists on Polish inhabitants in 150 settlements in Volhynia. Between 1943 and 1945, approximately 100,000 Poles were killed by units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and local Ukrainian populations in Volhynia, Podolia, and Eastern Galicia.
This crime is one of the most dramatic episodes of World War II and one of the most traumatic for Poles. Unlike the murders committed by German and Soviet occupiers, the Volhynia Massacre was often perpetrated by the victims’ neighbors, who had lived alongside Poles for generations. The massacre was not a spontaneous outburst of hatred but the result of the long-term influence of Ukrainian nationalist ideology, which aimed to create an independent, ethnically homogeneous Ukraine by exterminating and expelling Poles and other nationalities. This plan was attempted as early as September 1939, with the first murders of Poles and attacks on Polish estates occurring at that time.
The massacre remains a sensitive and highly emotional topic in Polish-Ukrainian relations, and Kuleba’s remarks have further strained these ties.
