Andrzej Szeptycki, a deputy minister for science and higher education, has drawn criticism from both the governing coalition and the opposition after comments about the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), whose World War II role remains one of the most sensitive issues in Polish-Ukrainian relations.
UPA, a nationalist insurgent army, fought for Ukrainian independence during the war and after it, but in Poland it is chiefly associated with the massacres of Poles in the Volhynia and eastern Galicia regions in 1943 and 1944.
Under Nazi and Soviet occupation at the time, the regions were borderlands of Poland and Ukraine. Polish historians and state institutions describe those killings as genocide.
Szeptycki, a member of the co-governing Poland 2050 party, said in a radio interview that the UPA was a formation that fought for Ukrainian independence and, in the Ukrainian imagination, fought mainly against the Soviets.
He described the struggle as hopeless and said the fighters were, "with all the positive and negative connotations of the word," somewhat like Ukrainian "steadfast soldiers."
The phrase was widely read as a comparison with Poland’s so-called Enduring Soldiers, the anti-communist underground fighters who resisted Soviet-backed rule after World War II and are honoured by Poland's right as national heroes.
The comments followed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision on May 27 to give one Ukrainian military unit the name "Heroes of the UPA." The move triggered criticism in Poland, where memory of the Volhynia massacres remains politically and emotionally charged.
Government ministers have distanced themselves from Szeptycki’s remarks, although his dismissal is not considered certain.
Finance and Economy Minister Andrzej Domański said on Monday that the statement was "inappropriate," but added that decisions rested with the prime minister.
Interior and Administration Minister Marcin Kierwiński said he disliked the remarks and that they "should not have happened."
He also pushed back against calls from the opposition right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS), saying that "if every foolish statement by PiS politicians had led to a resignation, there would be nobody left in it.”
One government member said Prime Minister Donald Tusk was unlikely to dismiss ministers under pressure from what he described as vociferous opposition demands.
Another said removing Szeptycki could disturb the balance inside the governing coalition.
Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, minister for funds and regional policy and one of the leaders of Poland 2050, was expected to speak with Szeptycki. A politician from the party said she would remind him that "one must speak the truth about history."
Opposition politicians have demanded Szeptycki’s removal. Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote on social media that "relativizing the genocide committed by the UPA is a disgrace" and said Szeptycki should be dismissed immediately.
Przemysław Czarnek, a senior PiS politician and the party’s candidate for prime minister in the next elections, said "comparing the Home Army and figures such as Witold Pilecki to the UPA" showed "a lack of historical knowledge" and was "spitting on one's own nation."
The Home Army was the main Polish resistance force under Nazi German occupation, while Pilecki was a Polish officer who volunteered to be imprisoned in Auschwitz to gather intelligence.
The Presidential Palace also criticized Szeptycki. Presidential aide Marcin Przydacz asked why he remained in government after comparing the UPA to Polish anti-communist fighters.
The dispute has become part of a broader political confrontation over Polish memory, Ukraine and the government's handling of relations with Kyiv.
(rt/gs)
Source: wiadomosci.wp.pl