Head of Zelenskyy's Office warns of new "escalatory steps" from Poland

Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, believes the escalation in Ukrainian-Polish relations will peak this week, linked to Poland's National Day of Remembrance of Victims of the Volyn tragedy. [The Volyn (Volhynia) tragedy was a series of events that led to the ethnic cleansing of the Polish and Ukrainian populations in 1943 during World War II. It was part of a long-standing rivalry between Ukrainians and Poles in what is now Ukraine's west. Poland considers the Volyn tragedy a genocide of Poles – ed.]

Source: Budanov in an interview with RBC-Ukraine, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Budanov stated Poland is preparing "a series of immature escalatory steps" ahead of 11 July, when Poland marks the National Day of Remembrance of "victims of the genocide committed by the OUN and UPA on the eastern territories of the Second Polish Republic". [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.]

"From the information I have, they are preparing a whole series of, in my view, immature escalatory steps. So evidently all of this will now continue," Budanov said.

At the same time, the official stressed that Ukraine will not accept any ultimatums from Poland.

"The last one to try to issue us an ultimatum was the Russian Federation. No offence to Poland, but Russia is somewhat more powerful than Poland. And we still did not accept it," the head of the President's Office stressed.

When asked how Ukraine would respond to Warsaw's escalatory steps, Budanov noted that "nobody will sit idly by".

Background:

• According to the latest survey in Poland, almost half of the respondents consider Ukraine responsible for the escalation of the conflict between Warsaw and Kyiv.
• On 4 July, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he had received "clear signals" from current and former senior Ukrainian officials but expects Kyiv to make the first move towards de-escalation in bilateral relations.
• During a meeting with his Polish counterpart Radosław Sikorski in Warsaw on 3 July, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha proposed "a package of anti-crisis steps", aimed at easing tensions between the two countries.

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