Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba did not express territorial claims against Poland; referring to the communist expulsions of Ukrainians in Poland, he said they were deported from the territories where they lived in a close-knit community, the Foreign Ministry in Kiev said.
In response to a question from one of the participants at the youth forum in Olsztyn, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine spoke about the thousands of Ukrainians who, as a result of the crimes of the communist regime – Operation Wisła – were forcibly relocated from areas of Poland, where they lived in a close-knit community.
– explained the spokesperson for Ukrainian diplomacy, Heorhiy Tychyy, in a statement sent to the PAP on Thursday.
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It is in this spirit that his words about “Ukrainian territories” (in the original English +Ukrainian territories+) should be understood – that is, the territories of Poland where Ukrainians historically lived in a close-knit community.
– emphasized the spokesperson.
Scandalous words
On Wednesday, Kułeba and Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski participated together in the Poland of the Future Campus in Olsztyn. The Ukrainian diplomat was asked, among other things, about difficult historical issues that divide our countries. One of the participants asked when Poland would be able to exhume the victims of the Volhynian massacre, especially since Poland strongly supports Ukraine in the war with Russia that has been going on for more than two years.
Kułeba highlighted that Campus participants gather in Olsztyn, where the Ukrainian population was resettled in 1947 as part of Operation Wisła.
You know what Operation Vistula was and you know that all these Ukrainians were forcibly expelled from Ukrainian territories to live, among others, in Olsztyn
– said Kuleba.
But I’m not talking about that. If we started to investigate history today, the quality of the conversation would be completely different and we could delve deeper into history and remember the bad things that Poles did to Ukrainians and that Ukrainians did to Poles.
– he added.
Translations from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Foreign Ministry in Kiev assured that Minister Kuleba never expressed territorial claims against Poland.
We regret that some forces that are not interested in friendly relations between Ukraine and Poland are trying to place the minister’s words in the context of alleged territorial claims that the Ukrainian Foreign Minister never expressed and could not express.
– he said in the statement.
Ukrainian diplomacy noted that the rest of the minister’s answer concerned the need to look for a common present and leave history to historians.
The Foreign Minister also stressed Ukraine’s gratitude to its Polish friends for all the help provided and the need to unite in confronting a common enemy.
— we read in a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
gah/PAP
