Poland Commemorates WWII Victims of Ukrainian Massacres Amidst Tensions

Poland held a commemoration event in Radruz, near the Ukrainian border, to remember the victims of brutal massacres carried out by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II. President Andrzej Duda asserted that approximately 120,000 Poles, including civilians, women, and children, were killed.

“

We refuse to let the 120,000 Poles – civilians, women, and children, brutally murdered by Ukrainian nationalists – be forgotten.

The events being remembered peaked on "Bloody Sunday," July 11, 1943, when the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) attacked over 100 Polish villages in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. These massacres resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Poles and Jews by 1945.

Recent diplomatic friction has emerged because figures associated with the UPA are now revered in Ukraine as national heroes for their later fight against the Soviet Union. This veneration has caused significant discord between the two allied nations. Earlier in June, Polish President Duda rescinded Poland's highest state honor from his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after Zelenskyy's administration bestowed the title "Heroes of the UPA" upon a military unit.

“

The murdered must not remain nameless. The Republic of Poland will not forget any of them.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who advocates for better relations with Ukraine, announced plans to erect a memorial wall with an "eternal flame." This wall will bear the names of all identified victims of 20th-century wars in Ukraine. Tusk emphasized that the murdered should not remain nameless and pledged that Poland would not forget them. However, he also cautioned that "memory must not serve hatred."

“

Memory must not serve hatred.