Thursday, October 12, 2023
Why have relations between Poland and Ukraine deteriorated so much?
Berlin newspaper
Why have relations between Poland and Ukraine deteriorated so much?
Article by BLZ/kuri •
8 hours
Poland's Culture Minister Piotr Glinski (PiS) is considered a close confidant of Jaroslaw Kaczynski and one of the most influential politicians in Mateusz Morawiecki's cabinet. If the PiS party wins again and forms the government in the upcoming parliamentary elections on October 15, 2023, Piotr Glinski could - according to rumors - even be appointed prime minister.
Piotr Glinski gave the Berliner Zeitung an extensive interview. In it he criticizes Germany's Culture Minister Claudia Roth for her unwillingness to work with Poland's government. He also criticizes the federal government, saying it would interfere in the Polish elections by supporting the opposition.
In the interview, which was published on the Berliner Zeitung website and excerpts appear in the Friday edition of the Berliner Zeitung (October 13, 2023), Piotr Glinski also speaks about the slowly deteriorating relations between Ukraine and Poland.
When asked whether Poland would like to continue to support Ukraine militarily, Glinski replied: “It is in Poland's interest to support Ukraine militarily, because the further Putin is from Poland's borders, the better it is for all of us. And that's how we did it from the beginning. But in fact, Ukraine is changing the vector of relations with Poland. We will not accept any measures that violate Polish interests regarding market issues, grain issues or unresolved issues from our past. Furthermore, Ukraine has never agreed to unconditionally allow the search for and exhumation of those Polish victims killed by the Ukrainians in the Volhynia massacre. We're talking about 100,000 people here, and it's not even known where they are buried. If a country aspires to Europe, it must accept the fundamental values of our civilization, including the right to find victims and bury them with dignity. As for current relations, I fear that Ukraine is making a mistake. And I also fear that the Germans, who have suddenly become very actively involved in Ukrainian affairs after a year and a half of war, are playing an active role in this change. They probably expect to benefit economically from the reconstruction of Ukraine.”