We are united in support of Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion. We measure the scale of the fight of the Ukrainian people, we measure the sacrifices made, we know all the moral and historical resources necessary for this vital fight for the Ukrainian nation. We know that for more than four years Ukrainian youth have been dying to preserve the borders of our common values. This is precisely why certain recent decisions by President Zelensky concern us.
Presiding over the reburial of Andri Melnyk, and attributing the name “Hero of the UPA” (in reference to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, a nationalist armed group responsible for the massacre of Poles during the Second World War) to a unit of the Ukrainian special forces aroused deep emotion in Poland, and in many European countries, while in Ukraine these references are often perceived as part of the national memory of the struggle for independence. The same historical figures can be associated, according to national memories, with profoundly different experiences. This is precisely why open and honest dialogue is essential.
Living wound in Poland
Even if these decisions were the result of numerous domestic constraints, an unqualified mobilization of this part of Ukrainian national memory to confront the propaganda and historical revisions made by Russia unfortunately runs the risk of alienating, if only partially, a partner as essential for the security of Europe as Poland is today, this same memory still being a living wound for the Poles.
As evidenced by the reaction of Lech Walesa who removed from his official clothes the Ukrainian flag which he had systematically displayed since February 2022, even though his historic fight for freedom and solidarity had in recent years been a fight alongside the Ukrainians. This decision should be the subject of a dialogue between European neighbors.
For years, Ukraine and Poland have had different assessments of the UPA’s action in the 20th century. In Polish society, the perception of the UPA remains closely associated with the massacres of tens of thousands of civilians perpetrated in Volhynia in 1943. As for Ukrainians, for some, these movements remain associated with tragic episodes of violence and collaboration; for others, they embody above all the struggle for the independence of a Ukrainian state which could not see the light of day either in 1918 or after the Second World War.
A demanding work of truth about the crimes committed
Since the large-scale Russian invasion of 2022, this second reading has been reinforced in Ukrainian society, where the UPA now appears as a symbol of national resistance in the face of repeated attempts to negate the very existence of Ukraine as a sovereign nation.
All European nations have the right to a founding myth of the struggle for sovereignty. However, recognizing the role played by certain actors in the struggle for national independence does not exempt us from a lucid examination of the violence with which they may have been associated. The challenge consists precisely in accepting that neighboring nations can honor different historical figures while continuing the demanding work of truth-telling about the crimes committed during the 20th century.
Ukrainian memory cannot be defined in Warsaw, any more than Polish memory can be defined in kyiv. Like what European nations have done and continue to do, friendship between Poland and Ukraine cannot be built on the denial of Polish suffering, nor on the delegitimization of the Ukrainian national narrative.
Resume the thread of the dialogue
The shared memory of European nations was built on a historical work of uncompromising recognition of the tragedies caused by the authoritarian and totalitarian movements of the terrible period of the 1930s and 1940s, which justified violence against entire groups of populations in the name of national, racial or class utopias. European nations have learned, often at the cost of immense tragedy, that no national narrative can sustainably be built on the erasure of the suffering inflicted on other peoples.
We support the prospect of the integration of Ukraine within the European Union, which is also and first of all an effort of the peoples engaged in this unparalleled adventure of reconciling a continent, through appeasement, dialogue and the progressive recognition of traumatized memories. It is for having taken up this historic challenge that the European Union received the Nobel Peace Prize.
President Zelensky’s decision would require words of understanding and a gesture of appeasement from him. This involves continuing the thread of a dialogue already initiated by the agreement of January 15, 2025 with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on the exhumation of the victims of the Volhynia massacres – the first operations of which created new links between the Polish and Ukrainian populations concerned – and by the joint Polish-Ukrainian congress of historians last May. The latter opened the way to a process of dialogue of memories and search for the writing of a common history.
Remember the depth of links
At the same time, it is also up to the Polish authorities, in particular President Karol Nawrocki, not to use this controversy for political purposes. If the UPA has regularly provoked massive reactions in Poland, they have until now not prevented the two countries from building an unprecedented strategic partnership in the face of the threats weighing on Europe. Even the strong tensions caused in 2015 by the attribution to UPA fighters of the official status of fighters for the independence of Ukraine in the 20th century had not stood in the way of this partnership.
None of our European nations has emerged innocent from our long histories. Poland and Ukraine have some of the most painful memories on our continent. The lands of Volhynia saw year after year the blood of so many innocent Poles and Ukrainians mingling. This controversy, which touches on memory, sovereignty and the suffering of the past, cannot be ignored and calls for dialogue and responsibility.
In this context, it is essential to recall the depth of the ties between the two countries and the extent of the support provided by the Polish people to Ukraine over the past four years, in particular through the reception of more than 1.5 million refugees and the constant aid to the Ukrainian resistance.
For years, European nations have been experiencing processes of division and extreme polarization. Their institutions, their democratic and liberal culture, are weakened. Russia’s war targets us all. French, Ukrainian and Polish citizens, we want to reaffirm that preserving the union of European peoples, more vital than ever, is the responsibility of all of us.
(1) Philippe Quéré (Fr), editor of the Cahiers Personne magazine. s ; Dariia Rudenko (Ukr), communications manager for the Notre Espoir association for Ukraine; Adrianna Zukowska (Pl and Fr) associate editor of Cahiers Personne. s ; Patrick Puges (Fr) – polytechnician and activist for the defense of Ukraine; Wladyslaw Jacenko (Ukr), Ukrainian journalist; Karol Grabias (Pl) – philosopher, editor of the Polish magazine Wiez. This text is published identically in France, in Ukraine in Ukrainska Pravda and in Poland in the journal Wiez.
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