Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said Tuesday that the Lviv Regional Council’s decision to make 2027 the year of the UPA and Roman Shukhevych is unacceptable. He added that Ukraine’s authorities must distance themselves from this position.
The Lviv Regional Council has declared 2027 the year of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), its commander Roman Shukhevych and Oleh Olzhych, an activist of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). The decision was made Tuesday at a plenary session of the council, which is the equivalent of a Polish voivodeship sejmik, or regional assembly. The resolution was announced on the council’s official website.
In a post on the social media platform X, Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote that “the decision of the Lviv Regional Council to make 2027 the year of the UPA and Shukhevych is unacceptable.”
“Such a decision does not build mutual trust between nations; it reinforces divisions. Ukraine’s authorities must distance themselves from this position,” the deputy prime minister and defense minister added.
The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) remains one of the most contentious issues in Polish-Ukrainian relations. According to Polish historians, in July 1943 UPA units carried out coordinated attacks on about 150 localities inhabited by Poles in Volhynia, which became the culmination of the crimes referred to in Poland as the Volhynia genocide. The perpetrators are considered to be members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists faction led by Stepan Bandera and the UPA, which was subordinate to it.
Poland recognizes the crimes committed against the Polish population as genocide, while many Ukrainian historians and politicians interpret them as part of a broader Polish-Ukrainian conflict for which both sides bore responsibility.
At the same time, in Ukrainian historical memory, the OUN and UPA are often seen as symbols of the struggle for independence and of postwar resistance to the Soviet Union.
A Ukrainian document on the National Pantheon allows, among other things, for commemorating figures associated with these organizations.
At the end of May, by decision of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, one military unit was given the name “heroes of the UPA,” which led to a escalation of tensions between Kyiv and Warsaw. (PAP)
