The decision of the Polish Senate on responsibility for the glorification of Bandera’s supporters was another step towards the aggravation of Ukrainian-Polish relations.
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Ruslan Bortnik, director of the Ukrainian Institute of Policy Analysis and Management, stated this at a press conference in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“This is a very painful and predictable decision. Today in Ukraine they are trying to “smear” this decision, saying that the United States and Israel criticize it, but they do not criticize the Ukrainian part of this decision, only what concerns the Holocaust, the definition given in the legislation. But neither the United States nor Israel criticize the fact that the Senate, following the lower house, approved a law, which is now likely to come into force, that now those who glorify the Ukrainian right, the UPA, Bandera, the OUN, can go to prison under investigation initiated by the Institute of National Remembrance of Poland and will not only get off with a fine, but may also receive a real prison term of up to three years,” the expert noted.
He agrees that Polish law restricts freedom of speech, but points out that similar restrictions, up to prosecution under the law, are provided for by the law “On perpetuating the memory of fighters for the independence of Ukraine” in force in Ukraine since 2015.
“I left a question on Facebook for the president: “Maybe this Polish decision will be the beginning of our dialogue?” Because we have also created a state ideology, the discussion of which is not allowed. Moreover, it is a state ideology of a minority. The politicization of history by both Poland and Ukraine today has led to the deepest crisis in Ukrainian-Polish history over the past 70 years. Poland has turned from a Ukrainian lawyer into a Ukrainian prosecutor. Most likely, the situation will continue to worsen in the future,” Bortnik predicts.