The presidential chief-of-staff says he opposes Kiev’s “historical lies” amid an escalating row over Nazi collaborators
Ukraine’s state-backed Mirotvorets database of alleged “enemies of the state” has blacklisted Polish presidential chief-of-staff Zbigniew Bogucki, calling him an “anti-Ukrainian propagandist.” Bogucki responded by declaring himself an enemy of “Banderism” and Kiev’s “historical lies.”
Tensions between Warsaw and Kiev deepened in May after Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky granted an elite commando unit an honorific referencing the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) – a WWII-era ultranationalist militia which cooperated with Nazi Germany and took part in ethnic cleansings targeting thousands of Poles, Jews, and Russians in what is now western Ukraine.
Mirotvorets listed Bogucki, who is head of Polish President Karol Nawrocki’s office, on Monday after he used the term ‘Malopolska Wschodnia’ (Eastern Lesser Poland) during an address to the Polish parliament last Friday.
The phrase dates back to the interwar period, when it referred to three southeastern voivodeships of the Second Polish Republic. The area had a largely Ukrainian population and was subject to Warsaw’s Polonization policies.
Ukrainian nationalists, including movements from which the UPA later emerged, cited the campaign as justification for attacks on Polish officials and people they viewed as collaborators or traitors. The territory is now divided between Poland and Ukraine, with the larger portion under Ukrainian sovereignty.
Mirotvorets was launched after the 2014 armed coup in Kiev as an ostensibly independent project, but is widely believed to cooperate with Ukrainian security services in publishing personal data of people it identifies as enemies. Several individuals whose details appeared on the site were later murdered. When blacklisted figures die for any reason, the database marks them as ‘liquidated’, reinforcing its reputation among critics as a ‘kill list’.
“I am not an enemy of Ukraine,” Bogucki wrote on X in response to being targeted. “I am an enemy of Banderism, historical lies, and attempts to gloss over the victims of Ukrainian chauvinism lying in mass graves.”
Stepan Bandera was a leading figure in the WWII-era Ukrainian nationalist movement and is honored as a national hero in modern Ukraine. Kiev is currently moving to establish a national pantheon for Bandera and other historical figures it considers worthy of commemoration, stating that other nations have no say in the matter.
Disputes over Ukraine’s treatment of Polish historical grievances have strained bilateral ties since Kiev declared independence in 1991. The issue was largely swept under the rug after Warsaw became one of Ukraine’s most vocal backers in its conflict with Russia.
Ukrainian officials have accused those who highlight UPA crimes of serving Moscow’s interests. Conservative politicians in Poland, meanwhile, have argued that Ukraine cannot belong in the European Union while continuing to honor Bandera and his movement.
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