Ukraine cannot join EU before resolving historical issues with Poland — Tusk
Polish PM Donald Tusk suggested that Poland would impede Ukraine’s EU membership until the two countries resolve their differences regarding some contentious historical events, Polish news agency PAP reported on Aug. 30.
He made the statement in response to recent comments by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba that were poorly taken by Polish politicians.
Tusk emphasized that he hopes disputes in Polish-Ukrainian relations won’t serve as an “cover for those with pro-Russian tendencies.”
He added that Ukraine, in any case, “will have to meet Polish expectations not so much by burying history but by building our relations on the truth about this history.”
“I know this truth isn’t black and white,” said Tusk.
“It’s not that there are only angels on the Polish side and only crimes on the Ukrainian side. Ensuring good Polish-Ukrainian relations requires addressing this truth, including exhumation and an accurate assessment of what happened during and after WWII.”
He also stated that Ukraine will not become a member of the European Union without Poland’s consent and must meet all standards.
“This isn’t just about borders, trade, legal, and economic standards; it’s also a matter of, I would say, cultural and political standards,” the PM noted.
On Aug. 29, during the Campus Polska Przyszłości event, Kuleba was asked when Ukraine would resume exhumations of Poles who died during the Volhynia Massacre of 1943. In response, Kuleba mentioned the 1947 Operation Vistula.
“Do you know that all these Ukrainians were forcibly resettled from Ukrainian territories to different parts of Poland?” said the minister.
This statement sparked outrage among some Polish politicians who misinterpreted Kuleba’s words as territorial claims, according to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.
The ministry emphasized that Kuleba “was referring to the thousands of Ukrainians who, as a result of the [Polish] communist regime’s crime — Operation Vistula — were forcibly relocated from areas in Poland where they lived as a tight-knit community.”
In 1947, the Soviet-installed communist government in Poland ordered forced relocation of 150,000 Ukrainians living in eastern Poland to the “recovered territories” in the west. This way, Operation Vistula aimed to remove the support base for the anti-Soviet Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
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