Polish Foreign Ministry: Act on the Institute of National Remembrance doesn’t pose a threat to Ukrainians
Ukraine’s glorification of people that Poland considers criminals has been contributing to national enmity between the two countries and it continues to poison Ukrainian-Polish relations, as stated by the Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland, Bartosz Cichocki in an interview with Evropeiska Pravda.
As an example, the diplomat spoke of the incident when a Polish nurse tore up a Ukrainian document after seeing that the place of registration was Stepan Bandera Street.
The diplomat emphasized, "This is an unfortunate incident, but I want to stand up [for her]: we know nothing of girl’s family history. Perhaps her relatives were killed by followers of Bandera” Cichocki went on to say that the Ukrainian girl was in no way to blame for it because a document specifying a place of registration tells nothing incriminating about a person.
“But it shows that the glorification of Ukrainian people that we consider criminals continues to poison our relations," he said. At the same time, he made assurances that Poland does not claim that it should decide after whom the streets of Ukrainian cities have to be named."
Cichocki also emphasized that the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance does not pose a threat to Ukrainian citizens in Poland. "The law’s purpose is to throw light upon the dark pages of UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) history. After all, Ukraine has a law prohibiting criticism of the UPA's glorification. Poles are afraid to travel to Ukraine because of the law. It restricts the freedom of scientific research on the criminal aspects of UPA history."