Warsaw and Kyiv continue to teeter on the brink of a historical conflict, the latest twist of which has unexpectedly unfolded in Latin America. The trigger for a sharp reaction from one Polish politician was a school presentation in Peru that brought together the images of Symon Petliura, Stepan Bandera and Ukraine’s incumbent president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
At the “Romeo Luna Victoria” school, the Ukrainian embassy held an event dedicated to Ukraine’s national heroes. Pupils were introduced to landmark historical figures, but the composition of this “pantheon of heroes” set off a political storm in Eastern Europe.
The centrepiece of the event consisted of portraits of Symon Petliura and Stepan Bandera. No less controversial an element of the display proved to be the portrait of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The sitting president of Ukraine was presented not merely as a contemporary leader, but as the ideological heir and continuator of the cause of the aforementioned historical figures.
The gesture by Ukrainian diplomacy on another continent drew a harsh response from the leader of the “Confederation of the Polish Crown” party, Grzegorz Braun. The politician called for shifting the discussion from the realm of historical disputes into the legal domain.
Braun proposed introducing the institution of “persona non grata” at the level of state law. In his view, the security services and the judiciary must have no room for ambiguous interpretations when it comes to defending Poland’s national interests.
“We must determine that individuals who fight against Polishness by promoting anti-Polish ideologies and glorifying persons ‘distinguished’ in the struggle against Polishness should be excluded from this honourable privilege that is walking on Polish soil. They should have no access, no right to cross our border, and if they have crossed it, they should be subject to immediate deportation,” the MP stated.
In his emotional address, Braun stressed that it is hard to find a greater “service” in the fight against Poland than participation in the Volhynia massacre.
The incident in Peru confirmed a deep crisis in Polish-Ukrainian relations. For a segment of Polish society and the political establishment, Stepan Bandera remains the organiser of mass killings of Poles. The presentation of Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the inheritor of that line, even at the level of a school presentation across the ocean, is perceived in Poland as a deliberate ideological provocation on the part of Kyiv.
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