"I hope for a breakthrough, not blackmail": Duda speaks about resolving historical issues with Ukraine

Poland seeks to resolve painful issues in the history of relations with Ukraine, first of all, it wants to dot the i's and cross the t's regarding the Volyn tragedy. At the same time, official Warsaw prefers to resolve these issues through negotiations rather than by blackmailing Ukraine with EU membership.

At least, this was stated by Polish President Andrzej Duda in an interview with the Polish TV channel Polsat News. He said that he hopes to achieve a diplomatic "breakthrough" in the exhumation of Polish victims of the Volyn tragedy by the end of his presidential term.

Duda said that during his last meeting with Zelenskyy in the United States, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, he did not raise the issue of the Volyn tragedy: instead of controversial historical events, the two presidents focused on the present, which united Poland and Ukraine.

"We met at the UN headquarters. We exchanged a few words. We talked about frontline issues and how the situation looks today," Duda said.

However, the topic of the Volyn tragedy comes up regularly in contacts between Kyiv and Poland, and Duda has discussed it with Zelenskyy more than once.

"The result of these talks and my slow progress on this issue, because these are delicate and difficult issues, was the presence of Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Lutsk Cathedral, where we gathered together on the anniversary of the Volyn massacre. It was an important symbol," the President of Poland is convinced.

In particular, Duda raised the issue of exhumation of the Poles killed in Volyn during those tragic events during his visit to Ukraine on August 24 this year, on Ukraine's Independence Day. And, according to the Polish president, the two countries will eventually be able to reach an understanding, but only through diplomacy.

"I hope that by the end of my presidency there will be some kind of breakthrough in this matter. But I would not want this to be done through scandalous blackmail, which, in my opinion, will not bring good results," Duda emphasized.

This opinion seems to be shared by not all representatives of the Polish government. A number of Polish politicians, including National Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, have indeed made statements resembling blackmail: they insist that without clarifying the past, Ukraine's accession to the European Union is "out of the question."

However, Duda, according to him, opposes this position. He is convinced that "this issue needs to be resolved in a different way, not by threatening to block Ukraine's integration with the West."

"Blocking Ukraine's integration with the West is one of the reasons why Putin attacked Ukraine. Therefore, to enter into relations with Ukraine in this way is to follow Putin's path," the Polish president emphasized.

As a reminder, during his visit to Ukraine on Independence Day, Duda spoke out against the intention to block Ukraine's accession to the EU because of the Volyn tragedy. At that time, he also compared the actions of politicians who advocate such a way of resolving controversial issues to the actions of the Kremlin dictator.

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