During his speech at Campus Polska Przyszłości, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba mentioned the Operation Vistula and "Ukrainian territories," which caused a negative reaction from Poles, including Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who called for the settlement of historical issues, UNN reports with reference to Do rzeczy.
Context
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba visited Campus Polska Przyszlosci on Wednesday, where he met with young people along with the head of Polish diplomacy Radoslaw Sikorski.
When the audience raised a question about the resumption of the exhumation of the victims of the Volyn tragedy, Kuleba drew attention to the fact that the Campus meeting was taking place in Olsztyn, where the Ukrainian population was resettled in 1947 as part of Operation Vistula.
"You know what Operation Vistula was like, and you know that all these Ukrainians were forcibly expelled from Ukrainian territories to live, in particular, in Olsztyn," Kuleba said.
How did Poland react?
Such words caused outrage among Poles, in particular, Prime Minister Donald Tusk reacted to Dmytro Kuleba's words by saying that it was "unequivocally negative".
According to his words, quoted by RAD , Kyiv should realize that clarification of historical issues is primarily in the interests of Ukraine, which will not join the EU without Polish consent.
When asked about this statement during Friday's conference, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that he would like to see "controversial issues in Polish-Ukrainian relations" not used as an excuse for those who promote "pro-Russian sentiment," although it is "marginal" in Poland.
He also stated that he had a "definitely negative assessment" of the Ukrainian minister's words. According to him, Ukraine will still have to "meet Polish expectations, which is not about digging into history, but about building relations based on the truth about this history.
"Because I know that this truth is not black and white, that there are only angels on the Polish side and crime on the Ukrainian side, but all the more reason why the truth, exhumation and honest assessment of what happened during and after World War II are necessary - these are the elements necessary to establish good Polish-Ukrainian relations," Tusk said.
Asked about Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Vladyslav Kosinyak-Kamysh's statement in July that Ukraine cannot become a member of the European Union until Warsaw and Kyiv resolve the Volyn tragedy, Tusk said he was right, but "did not say anything new.
"Ukraine will not be a member of the European Union without Polish consent. Ukraine must meet the standards, and they are diverse - it's not just a matter of border, trade, legal and economic standards. It is also a matter of standards, I would say, of cultural and political standards," Tusk emphasized.
Tusk noted that the European Union would not have been created without reconciliation between countries such as Germany and France or Germany and Poland. He emphasized that "Ukrainians should understand that joining the EU means joining standards related to political and historical culture."
The head of the Polish government said that during Poland's presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2025, he will explain "more and more clearly" that the settlement of Polish-Ukrainian relations is in Kyiv's interests.
"Therefore, we need to settle this history if we want to build a common future," Tusk concluded.
What does the Foreign Ministry say?
At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine responded to the Polish side's outrage and clarified Kuleba's statement.
"We regret that some forces that are not interested in friendly Ukrainian-Polish relations are trying to put the minister's words in the context of alleged territorial claims that the Ukrainian foreign minister has never expressed and could not express," the ministry said.
The statement reads that "in response to a question from one of the participants of the youth forum in Olsztyn, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine spoke about thousands of Ukrainians who, as a result of the crime of the communist regime - the Vistula Action - were forcibly resettled from the territory of Poland, where they lived in a compact community.
"It is in this spirit that his words about 'Ukrainian territories' should be understood - that is, the territories of Poland where Ukrainians have historically lived in a compact community," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.
Recall
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski expressed hope that Ukraine will resolve historical issues with Poland "in a spirit of gratitude" for the assistance provided by the latter.