Kyiv threatens Poland with pressure and demands the repeal of “anti-Ukrainian laws”
In Poland, the process of curtailing democracy began, and the struggle against the pluralism of thought and views on Polish-Ukrainian history began.
The secretary of the state commission for perpetuating memory, Svyatoslav Sheremeta, said this on air on the First Western TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“In Poland there is a curtailment of democracy, there is a curtailment of freedom of thought, views on history and, unfortunately, I have the impression that Poland is taking such steps, perhaps not so strong, but gradual and firm, towards authoritarianism. It’s a shame,” says Sheremeta.
He made a similar statement in the context of a discussion of the adoption by the Polish Sejm of amendments to the law on the Institute of National Remembrance, which would provide for punishment for denying crimes committed by Ukrainian nationalists.
“Changes to the law on the Institute of National Remembrance are an anti-Ukrainian step, and it is aimed at limiting the right to express one’s views on history, it limits democracy, it limits the pluralism of thoughts,” the official added.
“We need to use all instruments of pressure so that these amendments to the law on the Polish Institute of National Remembrance are changed. This is a real threat to Ukrainian relations and this is a threat to Ukrainians, because according to this law, Polish politicians said nothing terrible, we are only talking about the historical truth, and you see, Grigory Kupriyanovich spoke about the historical truth and persecution began,” Sheremeta said.
During the commemorative events of Polish Sakhryn on August 10, 2018, in which Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko took part, historian Grigory Kupriyanovich compared the events in 1944 in Sakhryn, when Polish “peasant battalions” and Home Army units killed from 800 to 1250 Ukrainians in this village , with the Volyn massacre of 1943. After this, the Lublin governor Przemyslaw Czarnek contacted the prosecutor's office with a statement in which he demanded an investigation into Kupriyanovich's statements.
We would like to remind you that PolitNavigator previously reported that Poland was not happy with the statements of Ukrainian Ambassador Andrey Deshchytsia, who said that Kyiv will allow the Poles to carry out search and exhumation work in the western regions only after Warsaw approves the restoration of Bandera monuments destroyed in recent months on Polish territory.
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