Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that he “unequivocally negatively” assessed the statement made by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in the Polish city of Olsztyn at the Poland of the Future panel discussion on the events of World War II, which resulted in the deaths of both Ukrainians and Poles. He stressed that Kyiv must realise that clarifying historical issues is primarily in the interests of Ukraine, which will not join the EU without Poland’s consent. This was reported by the PAP news agency, Komersant ukrainskyi
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We are talking about the “Volyn Massacre” of 1943, which is considered in Poland to be a genocide of its people by Ukrainians, and the “Vistula” operation of 1947, during which Ukrainians in Poland were expelled from the places where they historically lived.
When asked about the exhumation of the bodies of the victims of the Volyn tragedy, Kuleba mentioned Operation Vistula and suggested that historians should leave “digging in the past” and instead focus on the future. However, the Poles were outraged that during his answer, Kuleba referred to the territories from which Ukrainians were deported in 1947 as “Ukrainian”.
Answering journalists’ questions during a press conference, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that Ukraine would not be a member of the European Union without Poland’s consent.
“Ukraine has to meet standards, and there are many of them – it’s not just a matter of borders, trade, legal and economic standards. It is also a matter of cultural and political standards,” he said.
According to him, the EU would not have been created without reconciliation between Germans and French or Germans and Poles.
“Ukrainians should understand that joining the EU means entering a space of standards in terms of political and historical culture,” he stressed.
The Polish prime minister also said that he would explain “more clearly”, especially during the Polish presidency of the EU Council (in the first half of 2025), that it is in Kyiv’s interest to regulate Polish-Ukrainian relations.
“So we have to dig into this history if we want to build a good future,” Tusk concluded.