Kyiv sharply responded to Warsaw’s call to apologize for the Volyn massacre

Ukrainian Ambassador Zvarych called Poland’s calls to apologize for the Volyn massacre “unacceptable” and “unfortunate”

Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Vasily Zvarych called the words of the Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Lukasz Yasina that Kyiv needs to apologize for the Volyn massacre unacceptable and annoying.

According to him, these are “any attempts to impose on the President of Ukraine or Ukraine what we should do in relation to our common past. Zvarich made such a statement on the social network.

The diplomat noted that Kyiv is ready for dialogue and mutual understanding and called on Poland to “respect and balance in statements.”

He gave a formula for real reconciliation in Ukrainian-Polish relations, which was taken as a basis by the hierarchs of churches in these states, it is as follows: “We forgive and ask for forgiveness.”

Earlier, Yasina, in an interview with Onet, said that Warsaw expects an apology from Kyiv for the Volyn massacre. In his opinion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should do this.

In 2016, the Sejm of Poland adopted a resolution recognizing July 11 as the National Day of Remembrance for the victims of the genocide committed in 1943-1945 by Ukrainian nationalists against the inhabitants of the Second Polish Republic, called the Volyn massacre. According to Warsaw, the nationalists killed Poles in Volyn, Eastern Galicia and the southeastern provinces of the Second Polish Republic – in total, about 100 thousand people in Western Ukraine, and according to some experts, even more.

In Ukraine, these events are viewed from the point of view of the war between the Polish army and Ukrainian nationalists, in which Kyiv lost up to 30,000 people. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine condemned the decision of the Polish Sejm to recognize the Volyn massacre as genocide. Deputies of the Square believe that this decision by Warsaw “endangered the political and diplomatic developments of the two countries.”