“This is something the US, the West as a whole and also Poland should bear in mind and stop talking about ‘Moscow’s hand’ in all this. The coup was inspired by the US, with Polish support. The Ukrainian side has its own share of responsibility for what is going on of course, because it shows no political will for a compromise,” Bohdan Piętka told Sputnik Poland.
Meanwhile, in an open letter to President Andrzej Duda representatives of activist groups in eastern Poland complained about local authorities establishing “brotherly” ties with Ukrainian cities where members of ultranationalist and pro-Nazi organizations, like OUN-UPA who killed thousands of innocent Poles during WWII, are being lionized as heroes.
Bohdan Piętka said that people living in areas bordering Ukraine have every reason to feel unhappy about the glorification, especially in western Ukraine, of the atrocities committed by the Ukrainian nationalists.
“Suffice it to mention the recent desecration of memorials to Polish victims of Nazism in Bykovnya and in the village of Huta Penyatskaya near Kiev. Things have gone too far and I fully support the decision to write this letter to President Duda,” Bohdan Piętka told Sputnik Poland.
He added that he was surprised by the lack of any official condemnation by Warsaw of the acts of vandalism committed against the Polish monuments in Ukraine.
“Apart from muted criticism expressed by our Foreign Ministry, we did not hear anything from either President Duda or Prime Minister Beata Szydło.”
In a televised interview in Rzeszów [a city in southeastern Poland] Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of the Law and Justice Party, said that Poland would have to end its support for Ukraine if the ultranationalists there are not reined in.
“Ukraine has been following in the footsteps of OUN-UPA ever since the 'Orange Revolution’ of 2004, the West and Poland welcomed so much. This process speeded up after the ouster of Ukraine’s legitimately elected president in 2014 and once again with Western and Polish support, including by Kaczyński and his Law and Justice Party,” Bohdan Piętka said.
Director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance (UINR) Volodymyr Vyatrovych then lashed out against Kaczyński saying that no one can demand that a country forsake part of its historical heritage, and that his statement was ‘ill-placed and rude.’”
Kiev launched a military operation in Donbass in April 2014 after local residents of Donetsk and Lugansk regions refused to recognize new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power after the February 2014 coup.
In February 2015, Kiev and two breakaway regions reached a ceasefire deal after talks brokered by the leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine – the so-called Normandy Format — in the Belarusian capital Minsk.
Never miss a story again — sign up to our Telegram channel and we'll keep you up to speed!
