&w=1024&resize=1024,0&ssl=1 "Ukraine's difficult past with Poland continues to haunt Zelensky amid escalating war world news")
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was furious after a meeting with Poland's top diplomat last month, who made a point of slamming the brakes on Ukraine's ambitions to accelerate membership of the European Union.
During their exchange in Kiev, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski also highlighted Warsaw's demand that victims of World War II ethnic pogroms be expelled from lands that now belong to Ukraine – and linked it to talks on EU membership, according to participants.
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The rupture coincided with the exhaustion of the war between Kiev's western allies, with Russian troops making overwhelming advances in the east of the country. Zelensky's pressure on Ukraine, a country larger than France and an agricultural powerhouse, to quickly join the EU suggests a growing rift with his most important supporters.
This comes at a time when Kiev is also struggling to gain support for its NATO bid – and faces a shortage of weapons and money ahead of the November 5 US presidential elections, in which competitors offer widely divergent views on the end of the war game.
Renewed tensions with Ukraine's EU neighbor, which also strained relations during Russia's invasion, study Kiev's difficult path towards Western integration during the war.
“Ukraine is in a very complicated situation, and not just because of the war,” said Judy Dempsey, a nonresident fellow at Carnegie Europe in Berlin. “It’s kind of unfinished business about the past.”
A year ago things looked more promising. When Donald Tusk returned as Prime Minister of Poland, he promised to improve relations that had suffered under the previous nationalist government. That administration imposed an embargo on Ukrainian grain imports in response to farmers who said prices had fallen due to a glut of wheat coming from the east.
Polish farmers protest against Ukrainian grain imports
A tank made of agricultural materials during a demonstration by Polish farmers against Ukrainian grain imports in Warsaw on 27 February.
Officials in Kiev have also expressed hope that Tusk, a former president of the European Council, could be an ally in guiding Kiev's path to EU membership, a labyrinthine process that could take decades.
But Tusk also had to navigate Polish politics. Promising to rally support for Kiev in his first speech to parliament last December, the prime minister confirmed that he would show “cordial and friendly firmness” on issues that could threaten Poland's national interests.
Memories of Volhynia
If EU membership can be discussed in political forums, the 1943 massacre of Poles by Ukrainian nationalists in the Volhynia region is becoming more than a matter of debate among historians. An estimated 100,000 people, including women and children, died in the slaughterhouse.
Deputy Prime Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, who leads one of the ruling coalition's junior parties, said Ukraine's EU membership was out of the question until the dead were treated with respect. Tusk said the same.
“If we want to build a better future, we have to unearth this history,” he said at a press conference in Warsaw at the end of August. “As long as there is no respect for these values on the part of Ukraine, Ukraine will definitely not become part of the European family.”
It is true that Poland has always called for greater military support for Ukraine, for tougher sanctions against Russia, and has welcomed almost 2 million refugees since the start of the war. But both countries have painful historical chapters to resolve.
The division of Ukrainian lands between Poland and the Soviet Union after World War I fueled ethnic resentment as Warsaw introduced repressive policies to assimilate the new population. The escalation of hostilities culminated in the massacre of Poles in Volhynia from 1943 to 1945 and the subsequent forced resettlement of around 150,000 Ukrainians.
Although Kiev acknowledged the atrocity of Volhynia, it urged Poland not to politicize the issue – and to seek a peaceful solution. But Sikorsky's focus on the meeting with Zelenskiy, which was also attended by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielias Landsbergis, showed that any intention to leave the matter to historians was a failure in Warsaw.
Sikorsky frequently withdrew from diplomatic activities. Asked about the meeting, the minister said in a radio interview that he knew “how to say things firmly” – and was certain that a solution would be found. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiha met his Polish counterpart and President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw this month and said the talks were “constructive” and “pragmatic.”
'Skills of a Psychotherapist'
And although the Ukrainians have expressed confidence that they have resolved the issue – Zelensky attended a religious service in the region with Duda in 2023 – the Poles say they will stick to their demands. Leaving the issue unresolved creates an opening for extremists and erodes support for Kiev, a Polish government official said.
Oleksandr Kwasniewski, who served as Poland's president from 1995 to 2005, said he worked with Ukraine to resolve the conflict during his time as head of state, including a reconciliation agreement, academic working groups and commemorations.
The former president, whose father survived the genocide, said he warned Sikorsky that mistakes in addressing the problem would only fuel extremists – and encouraged him to adopt a more balanced approach.
“It is necessary to be a strong representative of Polish, European and Western interests – but also a very sensitive defender of Ukraine's expectations,” Kwasniewski said in an interview. The effort “requires the skills of a psychotherapist who understands the sensitivity of the entire situation,” he said.
