‘Anti-Polish’ Ukrainians may not be allowed to cross border: Polish FM

Speaking about Polish-Ukrainian relations, Waszczykowski told public broadcaster TVP1 that both countries "have a different notion of reconciliation."

"We are aware just how important Ukraine is to us for geopolitical reasons ... but the Ukrainians, aware of their country’s significance for our security, believe that issues that divide us, especially historical ones, should be relegated to the second or even third tier in terms of importance," he said.

He added that unless Ukraine changed its approach to issues important to Poland, it would face consequences. If no agreement is reached, he told TVP1, authorities in Poland will “launch procedures that will not allow people who hold extreme anti-Polish positions to come to Poland.”

He named “people who dress up in SS Galizien uniforms” and also suggested the ban would apply to Ukrainian officials who do not allow Polish experts to continue their search and exhumation work in Ukraine and who are preventing continued work to renovate sites in that country of significance to Poland.

“Individuals who use administrative instruments against Poland will also bear consequences," Waszczykowski said.

In late October, a Polish expert said that authorities in Ukraine were blocking work by a team of Poles searching for the remains of Polish victims of wartime crimes in that country.

This includes problems that Polish researchers are encountering as they search for the burial sites of Polish victims of the so-called Volhynia Massacre in Ukraine, Prof. Krzysztof Szwagrzyk, deputy head of Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), said.

(gs/pk)

Source: PAP, IAR