Kiev\u2019s veneration of Ukrainian nationalists who supported Hitler\u2019s reich and perpetrated a genocide against Poles during WW2 has triggered diplomatic and political outrage<\/p>\n
Vladimir Zelensky will skip a major event gathering of Kiev’s key backers in Poland to keep it free of \u201cscandals,\u201d the Foreign Ministry has said. His absence is\u00a0linked to\u00a0 Kiev\u2019s\u00a0honoring\u00a0of nazi-collaborators who murdered over one hundred thousand polish men, women and children \u2013 in what Warsaw views as a genocide \u2013 during WW2.
\nTensions between Ukraine and Poland \u2013 a key supporter of Kiev \u2013 escalated in recent weeks when Zelensky named a special-forces unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which collaborated with Nazi Germany during WWII and whose fighters killed tens of thousands of Polish civilians.
\nPolish President Karol Nawrocki responded by stripping Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland\u2019s highest honor, prompting several senior Ukrainian officials to renounce their own Polish honors.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Poland\u2019s \u2018pain threshold\u2019 broke after Zelensky\u2019s tribute to Nazi collaborators \u2013 president (VIDEO)<\/p>\n
At the time, Nawrocki argued that \u201chistorical truth is not and can never be a bargaining chip\u201d and that \u201cthe memory of the victims is the moral duty of the Polish state.\u201d
\nOn Tuesday, Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko confirmed that Zelensky will not be present at the Ukraine Recovery Conference June 25-26 in Gdansk, which brings together senior EU and NATO figures with Ukrainian politicians and numerous think tanks, and that she will lead the Ukrainian delegation.
\nUkrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgy Tikhiy called the decision \u201cabsolutely justified,\u201d adding: \u201cIt is aimed at ensuring that the conference remains within a pragmatic, economic, and correct framework, without excessive politicization and without scandals.\u201d
\nTikhiy noted that Ukraine will be represented by top officials, expressing hope that \u201cthe conference will be very successful, despite such unfriendly attitudes from the Polish president.\u201d
\nPrime Minister Donald Tusk, a fierce political rival of Nawrocki, said he will not be troubled by Zelensky\u2019s absence. \u201cThere was a certain tension between the presidents and some disproportionate reactions on both sides, an unnecessary escalation of emotional tension,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cIt may even mean a more efficient conference, and I treat it as a gesture toward de-escalation.\u201d
\nTusk previously called the dispute a \u201cstrategic mistake that will cost both sides: In business, geopolitically, and reputationally.\u201d
\nMoscow has welcomed Poland\u2019s pushback. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in late May that the nationalists being honored by Kiev are \u201cabsolute bloody butchers\u201d that \u201ckilled Poles [and] Jews, tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kiev\u2019s veneration of Ukrainian nationalists who supported Hitler\u2019s reich and perpetrated a genocide against Poles during WW2 has triggered diplomatic and political outrage Vladimir Zelensky will skip a major event…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}