Ukrainian foreign minister to visit Warsaw for meeting with his Polish counterpart on 2 July

Polish and Ukrainian Foreign Ministers Radosław Sikorski and Andrii Sybiha will meet on 2 July in Warsaw.

Source: Polsat News, citing Poland's Foreign Ministry, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Topics for discussion will include Polish-Ukrainian relations and the situation at the front.

The meeting comes amid ongoing tensions between Warsaw and Kyiv, which began with Volodymyr Zelenskyy's decision to grant a military unit the honorary designation "named after the Heroes of the UPA" (Ukrainian Insurgent Army).

The day before, Polish outlet WP reported that following the Ukrainian Parliament's adoption on 1 July of the law on the National Pantheon, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha is to travel to Warsaw with a compromise proposal. No date for the visit was specified at the time.

According to the available information, in Warsaw Sybiha will present a proposal to include Marko Bezruchko, a general of the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic, in the Pantheon.

For reference: The Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA, was a nationalist paramilitary organisation that fought for Ukrainian independence during and after World War II, primarily against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Poland believes that the UPA was responsible for what it considers the genocide of Poles during the Volyn (Volhynia) tragedy, a series of events that led to the ethnic cleansing of the Polish and Ukrainian populations in 1943. The tragedy was part of a long-standing rivalry between Ukrainians and Poles in what is now Ukraine's west.

Background:

• On 1 July, the Ukrainian Parliament approved the creation of the Ukrainian National Pantheon.
• According to media reports, the Polish government does not intend to respond sharply to Zelenskyy's announcement on the creation of the Ukrainian National Pantheon. Instead, Warsaw plans to wait until the project is finalised and the names of those to be honoured are announced.
• Commenting on the adoption of the National Pantheon law, Zbigniew Bogucki, Head of the Chancellery of the President of Poland, said that Ukraine has the sovereignty and freedom to make such decisions but questioned whether those decisions are the right ones.

Your support on Patreon helps us keep the news free and accessible.