It is time for Ukraine to abandon its attempts to build a country based on nationalist ideas. This was stated by Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland Marcin Przydac
In an interview with Polska Times, the diplomat said that the Ukrainian identity should not be based on nationalism. It is detrimental first of all for Ukraine itself, he told APnews.
Przydacz is convinced that the attempt to glorify Ukrainian nationalists, who are war criminals, is the most difficult page in relations between Kiev and Warsaw.
“There are absolutely unacceptable things in Poland. We know the historical facts and what happened on the territory of today’s Ukraine in the 1940s. We do not agree that the Ukrainian identity should be built and strengthened on the basis of nationalistic tendencies. It is not only about our sensitivity and historical truth, but also about the good of Ukraine itself. The tendencies of integral nationalism, on which the ideology of OUN-UPA was built, are totally unacceptable, including in the European Union. They were ideologies very similar to those operating in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. Ukraine needs to sort out its position for its own good by discarding criminal figures such as Shukhevych, for example”, – he said.
The diplomat stressed that what the country really needs are competent reforms that will affect the social, political and economic spheres. He even expressed the readiness of the Polish side to help implement them.
Deputy Foreign Minister noted that only after implementation of these positive changes one can talk about Ukraine’s membership in NATO and the European Union.