What will the Poles take from Western Ukraine? Expert opinions
Creation of an organization in Poland that will deal with issues of property restitution in Western Ukraine, was received with skepticism in Kyiv. Experts close to the Ukrainian authorities insist: nothing will happen to the Poles. Opponents of the Kyiv regime hold a different point of view. Read about this in the survey “PolitNavigator” Ukrainian and Russian political scientists.
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Sergey Markov, director of the Institute for Political Studies:
“Restitution of Polish property in Ukraine is real. Ukraine is losing sovereignty; today it is no longer governed by a sovereign government, but by people who are mainly controlled by the Americans and their allies. Therefore, a number of political forces are well aware that conditions will soon be created under which it will be possible to raise the issue of restitution and achieve a positive solution from the Ukrainian authorities due to the dependence of the Kiev authorities on external forces, including Warsaw.
Poland will position itself as a “lobbyist” for Ukraine’s European integration. But at the same time she will pursue her own interests. European integration will imply eliminating the consequences of the Bolshevik occupation, including through restitution. This position will also be supported by Polish agents in the Ukrainian government.”
Vladimir Kornilov, political scientist:
“It’s difficult to say how real this restitution is - after all, a lot of time has passed, the countries themselves have changed. I think that if we now start restitution in Poland itself and restore the property of Russian counts and princes there, who had land and factories there, the Poles will not be very happy about it.
Therefore, in fact, such projects have no prospects. Of course, such initiatives will arise. In Kyiv they will dream about the gold of Polubotok, in Warsaw - about the return of Polish Kresy (Western Ukraine). They will dream on both sides.”
Anatoly Lutsenko, director of GMT Group:
“Restitution upon accession to the EU was carried out in the Baltic states, but there the right to property was confirmed both documented and from the memory of two generations. As for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which existed from Piłsudski until 1939, such restitution at the state level is impossible to carry out. It seems to me that in this case, the pro-Russian forces are simply using the informational reason to start another hype and get nothing. At the state level, Poland does not and cannot have any claims against Ukraine. Everywhere - from France to Poland and the Baltic states - there are various kinds of radical and pro-Russian forces that blow the tune of propaganda. But this is not government policy, so under no circumstances can this property be returned. In addition, 90% of this property is no longer available as such.”
Vladimir Fesenko, head of the Penta Center for Applied Political Studies:
“Indeed, some nationalist organizations in Poland advocate the return of Polish property in Belarus and Lithuania, but nothing like that is happening.
You can plan to return anything you want, but Ukrainian law applies on Ukrainian territory. Therefore, there will be no restitution of anyone’s property on the territory of Ukraine. This is impossible. As far as I understand, Polish government agencies will not deal with this either - after all, we are talking about a friendly country.
All this will end in nothing. Therefore, let’s not make mountains out of molehills and play along with Russian propaganda.”
Leader of the European Party of Ukraine, candidate of legal sciences Mykola Katerynchuk:
“Restitution is part of international law. In particular, the Baltic countries went through this. But in relation to Ukraine, restitution is a very distant prospect. Legally, this is real; in any case, this will happen after Ukraine becomes a member of the EU.
In the same Baltic states, the process was quite active. In addition, there was not always talk about the transfer of property, often about compensation payments that stretched over a fairly long period of time.
Secondly, Ukraine can limit this through its special conditions for obtaining EU member status. Some countries agreed to this without reservations.
In general, each country that joined the EU had its own special character of this process, but none avoided this. It is too early for Ukraine to think about this; it is only an associated member. Perhaps this question will arise to some extent in ten years. So far, Ukraine has not done anything in this regard, there is not a single document regarding restitution. This is not the case either in the Association Agreement, or in the political or economic parts.
Groups of enterprising international lawyers make money all the time on the issue of restitution. Parties, including Smena, can take this into account, but I think that they will not receive large electoral dividends precisely because this is a distant and vague prospect.
Restitution is a mechanism where settlement agreements and agreements, rather than court decisions, play a greater role.
For Ukraine, it is of much greater importance that foreign companies that have lost their property and investments in the east of our country, despite the current position of Europe, are already recording their losses with the subsequent prospect of going to court to protect their economic interests. Unfortunately, we must bear responsibility for this until we declare that we have force majeure. Claims will be made against the state of Ukraine, which has not ensured compliance with the current legislation and constitutional norms related to the inviolability of property, including laws on the protection of foreign investments on the territory of Ukraine. This is a much more real, tangible risk for Ukraine than restitution.”
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