Poland banned entry to several Ukrainians
Several Ukrainians have been placed on an entry ban list composed by Poland, as stated by the Foreign Minister of Poland, Witold Waszczykowski, at a press conference in Warsaw, Ukrinform reports.
“The list is short, there are just a few names on it,” Waszczykowski said and stressed that Poland intended to work towards a resolution to all issues with Ukraine.
Waszczykowski also said he was looking forward to an upcoming meeting between representatives of the Consultative Committee of the Presidents of Ukraine and Poland, Kostiantyn Yelisieiev and Krzysztof Schersky to be held soon in Krakow (Poland).
According to Waszczykowski, the list of controversial issues between Ukraine and Poland that need to be addressed, is not long.
“Mostly there are issues concerning our history, the cultural heritage that we have left in Ukraine, and the question of exhuming victims of various events that took place during the war and after it,” Waszczykowski said.
The top diplomat also said that settling those issues, from Poland’s perspective, would also require returning Roman Catholic churches that are unable to function properly in Ukraine and addressing the matters of education to guarantee studying, at least partially, in the Polish language.
“I think those issues are not profoundly large, and they can be resolved in a single move,” the minister said.
Waszczykowski also said that Poland expects the cooperation to gain progress, though he is slightly cautious due to the fate that befell the earlier negotiations about the exhumations that eventually got bogged down.
As it was earlier reported, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Witold Waszczykowski, threatened to start an entry ban list of Ukrainians with an “anti-Polish position,” including Ukrainian officials who “at the administrative level, for political reasons, have obstructed the process of exhumation and the restoration of places that bear historic significance to Poland.”
Later, the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, urged the Ukrainian authorities to refrain from appointing to official positions people that harbor anti-Polish views, which prompted President Petro Poroshenko to invite Poland to an open dialogue to discuss contentious matters.
Polish media reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland has banned the Director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, Volodymyr Viatrovych, from entering Poland. At the same time, Ukrainian diplomats have not received an official notification concerning the ban on Viatrovych.