We should not attach much importance to the statement of the head of the Polish foreign Ministry that Ukraine “will never enter the EU Bandera”; first, due to objective reasons to talk about Ukraine’s membership is still too early, and secondly, the Bandera was a “banner” OUN (extremist and banned in Russia organization — approx. ed.) and have no direct relationship to the oppression of the poles. This opinion was expressed by the head of Department of Institute of history of Ukraine national Academy of Sciences, Stanislav Kulchytsky.
Commenting on the statement by the Minister of foreign Affairs of Poland, he said: “First of all, note that the current Polish government is quite specific, unlike previous governments. It is strongly opposed to our historical memory and wants to extend to Europe only their point of view — it concerns not only Ukrainian realities, but also much more.”
The historian admitted that the position of the poles is completely justified from the point of view of national interests of Poland. “But what can we do?” he asked. According to Kulchytsky, “we should not worry though, because we are still very far from joining the European Union — due to objective circumstances and not because of the position of the poles.” In addition, “while we dozreem to the European Union, in Poland, ten times the government will change,” he said.
The historian also talked about the fact that Stepan Bandera is absolutely not involved in the Volyn tragedy — “there were your “heroes”, of course, from the Ukrainians and the poles”.
“Did Bandera do some against the oppression of the poles?” — asked to clarify the “observer”. “Bandera was a banner, and the head of the Organization of Ukrainian nationalists (of extremist and banned in Russia organization — approx. ed.) until 1939, when he passed through the Warsaw process and other processes. All of these stories, especially, were associated with him. But after he was put in a concentration camp, what could he do from there?” — said Kulchytsky.
He also stated that he believes the awareness campaign in the European Union “regarding our past, especially the past, associated with the confrontation with the poles.”
As reported in the “observer”, the Minister of foreign Affairs of Poland Witold Waszczykowski in an interview with wPolityce said that Poland will block the potential entry of Ukraine into the EU, if Kiev does not resolve the historical issues associated with the personality of Stepan Bandera.
