Ukrainians served in Waffen SS units and were complicit in the Holocaust during WWII, Andrzej Duda has recalled
Polish President Andrzej Duda. © Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Ukraine has “problems” with its history, Polish President Andrzej Duda has said, highlighting Kiev’s collaboration with Nazi Germany and its involvement in the Holocaust during World War II.
In an interview with Polsat News on Monday, the Polish leader pointed to “difficult topics” between Warsaw and Kiev, especially the Volyn massacre – the mass killing of ethnic Poles by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II.
“Please remember that Ukrainians have many problems with their history. This is not only the problem of the Volyn massacre, but also service in SS units, collaboration with the authorities of the Third Reich, and participation in the Holocaust,” Duda said.
The remark comes amid recent tensions between Ukraine and Poland, despite Warsaw being one of Kiev’s key backers in its conflict with Moscow.
In August, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosyniak-Kamisz threatened to block Ukraine’s bid to join the EU unless it accedes to demands for Volyn massacre victims to be exhumed. Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski also supported this stance and raised the issue at a meeting with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky in Kiev earlier this month.
Militants with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) slaughtered up to 100,000 Poles between 1943 and 1945 in the regions of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, which currently belong to Ukraine.
While Warsaw has recognized the massacre as a genocide of Poles, modern Ukraine celebrates the perpetrators as “freedom fighters” and “national heroes.” The OUN was led by Stepan Bandera, a notorious Nazi collaborator who is widely revered in modern Ukraine.
While millions of Ukrainians served in the Soviet Red Army during WWII, thousands of others fought on the German side under the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, known as the Galicia Division.
The division, formed in 1943, attracted volunteers from what is now western Ukraine. Its members took a personal oath to Adolf Hitler and have been accused of atrocities against Jews, as well as Polish and Soviet civilians.
Duda, however, criticized his government for stirring up tensions between Warsaw and Kiev, saying that Poland should not make the issue of restoring historical truth a condition for Ukraine’s accession to the EU.