An intensifying row over the return of a medal bestowed upon Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has highlighted the complicated history between Poland and Ukraine and the potential for Warsaw to impede Kyiv’s push to join the European Union.<\/p>\n
President Karol Nawrocki decided last week to strip Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland\u2019s highest state honor, because the Ukrainian leader named a military unit after the controversial World War II Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).<\/p>\n
Poland says the group participated in what it calls the genocide of Poles in what today is northwestern Ukraine but during the war was territory occupied by Nazi Germany. Ukraine has pushed back against Polish definitions of the 1940s violence as genocide, noting the forces were fighting both Nazis and Soviet forces and faced hatred from Poles as well.<\/p>\n
Warsaw calls what happened the Volhynian Massacre, while Kyiv refers to it as the Volyn Tragedy.<\/p>\n
Either way, the killings have long cast a shadow over relations between the neighboring countries and the latest flareup of tensions threatens to sour Warsaw\u2019s support for Kyiv as it tries to join the EU while at the same time repelling Moscow\u2019s full-scale invasion, now in its fifth year.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven before Russia\u2019s attack, Poland was among the countries actively supporting Ukraine\u2019s European aspirations,\u201d Nawrocki said while explaining his decision on revoking the medal, adding that Poland \u201cremains ready\u201d to cooperate with Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cUkraine\u2019s path toward European structures also requires a willingness to honestly confront the difficult chapters of its own history. A united Europe was built on the rejection of totalitarianism and the cult of violence. These principles must apply to everyone. For those who do not understand this, there can be no place in the European Union, and Poland will certainly not allow it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kyiv’s Biggest EU Hurdle<\/p>\n
European diplomats have warned for years that it will be Ukraine\u2019s immediate EU neighbors who pose the biggest hurdle to Kyiv\u2019s bid to join the bloc.<\/p>\n
For years, this was true for Hungary under the previous Moscow-friendly government led by populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban that, among other things, blocked the start of Ukraine\u2019s accession talks for two years. With Orban\u2019s defeat at the polls this spring, many in Brussels had hoped Ukraine\u2019s accession path would now be clear.<\/p>\n
But behind Orban, evidence of the economic argument against Ukraine\u2019s increasing proximity to the EU has been lurking for some time.<\/p>\n