Polish president calls on parliament to ban red-and-black Ukrainian Insurgent Army flag in Poland

On the Day of Remembrance for victims of the Volyn tragedy, Polish President Karol Nawrocki has called for a legislative ban in Poland on the red-and-black flag of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. [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: Nawrocki in a speech during memorial events in the village of Radruż near the Ukrainian border, as reported by European Pravda citing RMF24

Details: In his speech, Nawrocki stressed that he considers a legal ban on the red-and-black Ukrainian Insurgent Army flag in Poland to be essential.

Quote: "We do not want to see it in Poland – and I will do all I can to ensure that it is not present in Poland.

I believe the Polish parliament will pass a law on this – because it is the same as the Blut und Boden (Blood and Soil) flag of the German Nazis. That is what it represented, and behind it was and is the entire ideology of the Ukrainian nationalists who killed Polish women and children."

Details: Nawrocki emphasised that he does not blame the entire Ukrainian people, "but the Bandera ideology – those who killed, and those who again appeal to the red-and-black banner in the 21st century".

"This cannot be accepted, because glorifying genocide or turning a blind eye to it is an invitation to a new genocide," Nawrocki said.

In his speech, Nawrocki also noted that the death of one of the victims in Radruż, a 14-year-old Polish girl named Jadwiga, "is the same kind of death as that of today's 14-year-old Ukrainians at the hands of the criminals from the Russian Federation".

Background:

• Poland's Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, who attended memorial events in the Ukrainian town of Olyka, spoke about reconciliation and the inadmissibility of a "spiral of hatred".
• Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, in his address marking the National Day of Remembrance of the victims of the Volyn tragedy, stressed the need to preserve solidarity "based on truth, memory and hope", and emphasised that remembrance must not be used as a tool of hatred.
• Ukraine's ambassador to Poland also honoured the victims of the Volyn tragedy at a memorial in Warsaw.

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