Ukrainian Nationalists Let Down by Poland With Passage of New Law Banning Banderite Ideology
Bandera's ideology was banned in Poland. The law on this was adopted today by the Senate. Now, one can go to prison for the propaganda of the Ukrainian nationalists’ ideas. Criminal responsibility was introduced for denying the Volhynia massacre, one of the most terrible pages in the history of Poland.
Marina Naumova will report from Poland about why this topic eclipsed all the rest in the relations of the two states.
The Polish senators reviewed the amendments to the new bill at night. They were ready to work extra hours just not to postpone the adoption of the document, which caused resentment and annoyance of the Ukrainian side. Official Kiev is convinced that such lawmaking will cause an aggravation of Polish-Ukrainian relations.
The Polish Senate supported the updated bill on the National Memory Institute of Poland by a majority vote. The document provides, in particular, for criminal responsibility for the propaganda of the ideology of Ukrainian nationalists, denial of the Volhynia massacre, and public accusations of Poland in the complicity with Nazi Germany. Any citizen of Poland, as well as a foreigner, can go to jail for up to three years or pay a fine for participation in processions with red-black flags, portraits of Bandera and Shukhevych, and screaming out Nazi slogans. The deputies of three parliamentary parties voted for these amendments, including the ruling Right and Justice. They refused to remove the wording inconvenient for the Ukrainian side, "the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists".
Robert Vinnytsky, the National Movement party member: "Migrants from Ukraine who today massively come to Poland can critically evaluate the new law. But one can’t heroize those who’re responsible for mass killings, such people as Bandera and all who served in the OUN-UPA. We aren’t going to forget history."
Sigmund Maguza learned with excitement about the new law adopted on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the bloody events, which he’d like to forget but he couldn’t. At the age of 15, he nearly died at the hands of the OUN-UPA punishers who came to a small village in Volhynia, in which the majority of the Poles lived.
Sigmund Maguza: "They opened my grandmother's belly with an ax, they cut my grandfather’s head off, and then he was buried without his head. They killed the entire uncle's family, even his 11-year-old daughter was shot. We can't forget this".
Sigmund is outraged because of the fact that recently the monuments to Poles who died at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists were repeatedly destroyed in Ukraine. In Poland itself, he also heard nationalist slogans of the OUN-UPA.
The law will come into force after the country's president signs it.
Marina Naumova, Yevgeny Begish, Alexander Naumov, and Pavel Timofeyev, Vesti, Poland