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EU membership bid at risk as Poland-Ukraine tensions simmer as border dispute flares up
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  • EU membership bid at risk as Poland-Ukraine tensions simmer as border dispute flares up

EU membership bid at risk as Poland-Ukraine tensions simmer as border dispute flares up

agence france-presse • October 15, 2024, 13:32:27 IST
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The row follows a prolonged spat over an embargo Poland imposed on Ukrainian grain imports and blockages at the border by disgruntled Polish truckers and farmers over what they said was ‘unfair competition’ from Ukraine

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EU membership bid at risk as Poland-Ukraine tensions simmer as border dispute flares up
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Reuters File

Just months after Poland and Ukraine defused tensions over Kyiv’s grain exports and border blockages, another diplomatic spat is straining ties between the otherwise staunch allies.

It is centred around a decades-long dispute over the Volyn killings during World War II that prompted Warsaw to harden its tone, threatening to hamper Kyiv’s bid for EU membership.

The 1943-1945 Volyn massacre saw around 100,000 Polish civilians killed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), in what is now western Ukraine, according to Warsaw.

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Poland says it amounted to genocide and has long campaigned for resuming the exhumation of the victims, suspended by Ukraine in 2017.

The row follows a prolonged spat over an embargo Poland imposed on Ukrainian grain imports and blockages at the border by disgruntled Polish truckers and farmers over what they said was “unfair competition” from Ukraine.

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Regardless of the disputes, Warsaw has said its military and humanitarian support for Ukraine will not waver.

But as Poland readies for its rotating European Union presidency in January, the row has spiked tensions and stoked fears in Ukraine that Warsaw could use the dispute as leverage.

‘Christian duty’

A meeting between Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv in mid-September seemed to confirm the rumoured crisis.

The talks were described as difficult and tense by the media in both countries, with the two capitals trading blame.

Ukrainian officials, quoted anonymously by the EuroPravda website, accused Sikorski of having “deliberately provoked” Zelensky by stating that “Ukraine should not expect to join the EU quickly”, and that it was “a matter of at least 10 years.”

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“His key message was: ‘Don’t count on joining the EU quickly, you will have to go through all the procedures’,” said a source at the Ukrainian president’s office.

Polish website Onet meanwhile cited its own sources in Warsaw claiming the Ukrainian president accused Poland of no longer giving sufficient support.

Zelensky reportedly opposed the Volyn exhumations and urged the simultaneous opening of all negotiating chapters with the EU on Ukraine’s future membership in the bloc – demands Warsaw deemed “unrealistic”.

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In August, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned that until the issue of exhumations was resolved, Ukraine “will not be a member of the European Union”.

A flurry of statements ensued.

“We will not give way on this issue because we believe that, first, it’s not a political issue, it should not be the subject of bargaining, but it is simply a Christian duty,” Sikorski said on Thursday.

‘Right direction’

According to experts, such statements are heavily influenced by Polish domestic politics, with all parties, particularly the nationalist opposition, calling for the resumption of exhumations.

“It’s not something Poland can ignore… It’s absolutely not a subject that any government can neglect, especially before an election,” Marcin Zaborowski, an analyst with the Globsec think tank, told AFP.

Poland will next year hold an election to choose a successor to conservative president Andrzej Duda, a close ally of the former nationalist government.

According to Kyiv, the statements made by Polish officials are already influenced by the election run-up.

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Following pressure from Warsaw, Ukraine decided this month to pave the way for individual exhumations of the Volyn victims, a move that Warsaw hailed as “a step in the right direction” but said it awaited “tangible” results.

‘Romantic period’

According to Wojciech Przybylski, an analyst with the Res Publica foundation, the tone marks a shift from the “romantic period” in Polish-Ukrainian ties.

“Warsaw is only now beginning to articulate its interests and Kyiv is a bit surprised, because until now the support has been unconditional,” Przybylski told AFP.

“This kind of dynamic is neither understood nor accepted by Kyiv, which also expresses its interests in a way that is sometimes very emotional or difficult to accept” by Warsaw, he said.

For Zaborowski, the crises have only just begun, but they are a normal feature of relations between neighbours, with the tensions between Warsaw and Kyiv resembling those between Poland and Germany before Warsaw joined the EU.

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“With no other country did Poland have as many economic and historical conflicts as with Germany, but it was Berlin that was the biggest advocate of Warsaw joining the EU,” he said.

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