Deputy and Vice-Speaker of the Polish Sejm Piotr Zgorzelski became a participant in the television program " In it, the politician commented on Polish-Ukrainian relations, the Volyn tragedy and Ukraine’s possibilities for joining the European Union. Expressing his own opinion, Zgorzelski called the Ukrainian historian and ex-head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory Vladimir Vyatrovich a “liar”, and the Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky a “hostage of Bandera’s ideology.”. Such statements were made on Polish television on Sunday, January 19, as reported by PolsatNews..

During the conversation, the politician came to the conclusion that Ukraine’s support was “in the interests of Poland,” and also one of the components of the possibility of exhumation and burial of the Poles killed during the Volyn tragedy. Zgorzelski is skeptical about allowing Ukraine to exhume and bury bodies.

“If Vladimir Zelensky had not been a hostage to Bandera’s ideology, he would have hundreds of opportunities in Poland to say one magic word that opens up space for further actions. I am convinced that all their stories about the exhumation of the victims of the Volyn massacre are for naive people,” the politician said during the broadcast.

According to him, the information available so far that Ukraine will carry out exhumations and reburials does not indicate anything and is “scandalous.”. At the same time, the politician also criticizes Polish President Andrzej Duda, claiming that he is ineffective in resolving issues of the Volyn tragedy.

“Neither the president nor everyone who tried to raise this issue with him lives up to the hopes of the Volyn families,” Zgorzelsky claims.

Also during the conversation, the vice-speaker of the Polish Sejm criticized the former head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory and the famous historian Vladimir Vyatrovich.

“The famous Vyatrovich is a Volyn liar, he insulted Volyn families,” the politician said.

At the same time, Zgorzelsky did not share details about how exactly Vladimir Vyatrovich “insulted Volyn families.”. He only added that the Polish and Ukrainian Institutes of National Remembrance are “absolutely two different institutions”, because the Ukrainian one “employs less than 60 people”.

Also, by the way, Piotr Zgorzelski spoke about Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. In his opinion, this is only possible after the end of the war with the Russian Federation..

Disputes have been ongoing between the capitals of Ukraine and Poland for several years regarding permission to search for and exhume the remains of Polish victims of historical wars and conflicts on the territory of Ukraine. The events in question took place during the Second World War, the participants were detachments of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the Polish Home Army, which fought mainly on the territory of Ukrainian Volyn.

Both sides of the conflicts carried out massive ethnic “cleansings” of the population. This usually happened for reasons of revenge for crimes of previous years, historians say. However, estimates regarding losses on the Polish and Ukrainian sides differ: Poland claims that at least 35 thousand people died, and Ukrainians - only up to several thousand. But the project of the Ukrainian Catholic University confirms the death of 9 to 10 thousand people on the Ukrainian side.

We remind you that Poland previously demanded that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba be declared “persona non grata”. Then the Ukrainian minister called the territories of Lublin, Subcarpathia and Lesser Poland Voivodeship “Ukrainian territories,” which provoked a scandal at the end of August 2024.

Also earlier, the Polish Ministry of Defense announced that Ukraine would not join the European Union until it resolves the issue of the Volyn tragedy. Such statements were made in July 2024.