Poroshenko "sad" over Polish Volhynia act
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Friday said he was "sad" over the Polish Sejm's (lower house) passage of a declaration naming the 1943-44 Volhynia Massacre of Poles by Ukrainian nationalists as "genocide".
"I am sad over the Polish Sejm's decision", Poroshenko wrote on Facebook, adding that he was "sure many will want to use it for political ends".
According to the Ukrainian state head Ukrainian-Polish relations should be founded on Pope John Paul II's admonishment to "forgive and beg for forgiveness". "Only in jointly undertaken steps will we be able to reach Christian accord and reconcilement. Only together will we be able to clarify all the facts pertaining to the tragic pages of our common history", Poroshenko wrote.
Commenting Poroshenko's words, Michal Dworczyk from Poland's ruling party Law and Justice (PiS), head of a Polish-Ukrainian Parliamentary Group and rapporteur of the Volhynia act, told PAP that the act constituted "an important step towards building true and not only declarative understanding". Dworczyk stressed that the document was not directed against Ukraine or Ukrainians, but named known Ukrainian nationalist groups as responsible for the killings.
"(This act - PAP) is absolutely not aimed against Ukraine or Ukrainians. It points to known Ukrainian nationalist formations who planned and committed genocide on Poles. it is always worth reminding that most Ukrainians did not participate in this, and many tried to save their Polish neighbours", Dworczyk said.
On Friday the Polish Sejm passed a resolution honouring the victims of the Volhynia Massacre, in which Ukrainian nationalists killed over 100,000 Poles, mostly peasants. The resolution among others states that "the victims of the crimes committed in the 1940s by Ukrainian nationalists have so far not been commemorated in an appropriate way and the mass murders have not been denounced as genocide in keeping with the historical truth". (PAP)
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