During his recent visit to the USA, Poland's defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz appeared to make Ukraine's EU accession conditional on "resolving" disputes with Poland concerning the Volyn Massacre in which tens of thousands of Poles (mostly women and children) were brutally murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army with the collaboration of some Ukrainian civilians.
"I believe that without respecting and commemorating the victims of Volyn and their exhumation, there can be no talk of Ukraine's entry into the European Union":
Once again, this places Kosiniak-Kamysz firmly on the right of the current coalition. Other issues which have also led to rebukes from other coaltion leaders and even Kosiniak-Kamysz's isolation in the colation are abortion (in which his party PSL blocked liberalisation of the law) and "patriotic education". Kosiniak-Kamysz wanted to see affirming of national identity as an integral part of the curriculum and was diplomatically rebuked by the education minister Barbara Nowacka.
Now Poland's speaker, Szymon Hołownia, speaking at a press conference in Prague, has said that in his view Polish-Ukrainian agreement on wartime crimes against humanity should not be a condition for Ukraine's EU accession.
His response was quickly picked up by the Ukrainian press.
Sources: Kyiv independent, X, PAP
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