Poland threatens to block Ukraine's EU accession: "With Bandera, Ukraine will not join the EU"

Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence, has said that Poland will not agree to Ukraine joining the European Union unless Kyiv stops honouring members of the OUN and UPA, including Stepan Bandera. [The OUN (Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists) was a Ukrainian nationalist political group, the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) was its military wing, involved in armed resistance, and Stepan Bandera was a Ukrainian nationalist leader often criticised in Poland for extremist actions during WWII – ed.]

Source: Kosiniak-Kamysz on the Gość Wydarzeń programme on Polsat News

Details: Kosiniak-Kamysz claimed Ukraine will face significant obstacles to European integration if it continues to use the OUN and UPA as national symbolic entities. He stressed that Poland will take a firm position and demand that Ukraine stop honouring leaders of the Ukrainian nationalist movement.

He said that every country seeking EU membership must meet strict requirements, including those relating to historical memory. In his view, it is unacceptable to build European cooperation on respect for individuals or movements that cause pain, provoke opposition or spread falsehoods about neighbouring EU member states.

Quote: "In the EU, we cannot place on a pedestal those who undermine European cooperation. With Bandera, Ukraine will not join the European Union."

Details: Kosiniak-Kamysz also said that Poland will make its own decision on EU enlargement and that no one will dictate how it should vote on the issue.

"No one will tell us how we should vote on the accession of any country to the EU," he stresses.

The deputy prime minister also agreed with the interviewer's suggestion that there are allegedly political forces in Kyiv that do not actually want Ukraine to join the EU.

Background:

• On the evening of 19 June, Polish President Karol Nawrocki took the decision to strip Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle in connection with the naming of a Ukrainian military unit after the Heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. He said Poland would not allow EU accession for those who do not understand the need to renounce the "cult of totalitarianism and violence".
• Following the decision, a number of current and former Ukrainian officials announced that they would be returning their Polish honours.
• Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of Poland's opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, said Poland should begin blocking new rounds of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union.
• On 28 June, Constitution Day, Zelenskyy announced that he had submitted a draft law to the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) on the establishment of a National Pantheon to honour distinguished Ukrainians.
• "No one will ever dictate how we live, how we speak, who we love, who we should be grateful to, or which heroes we should honour," he emphasised.

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