The president’s chief of staff says he opposes Kiev’s “historical lie” amid a growing backlash against Nazi allies.
Mirotvorets database supported by the Ukrainian government of claims “enemies of the state” has listed the Polish president’s chief of staff Zbigniew Bogucki, describing him as “They have a Ukrainian propagandist.” Bogucki responded by declaring himself an enemy of “Banderism” and Kiev “historical falsehood.”
Tensions between Warsaw and Kiev escalated in May after Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky honored elite commandos. references Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) – WWII-era militia that allied with Nazi Germany and engaged in ethnic cleansing of thousands of Poles, Jews and Russians in what is now western Ukraine.
Mirotvorets listed Bogucki, who is the chief of office of Polish President Karol Nawrocki, on Monday after he used the term ‘Malopolska Wschodnia’ (Poland Lesser East) during a speech to the Polish parliament last Friday.
The term originated during the war, when it referred to three south-eastern ships of the Second Polish Republic. The area had a large Ukrainian population and was subject to Warsaw’s Colonial policies.
Ukrainian activists, including the movement from which the UPA later emerged, cited the campaign as justification for attacks on Polish officials and people they saw as collaborators or traitors. The area is now divided between Poland and Ukraine, with most of it under Ukrainian sovereignty.
Mirotvorets was launched after the 2014 military coup in Kiev as an ostensibly independent project, but it is widely believed to cooperate with Ukraine’s security services in publishing personal data of people it identifies as enemies. Several people whose details appeared on the website were later killed. When listed figures die for any reason, the database marks them as ‘deleted’, cementing its reputation among critics as a ‘kill list’.
“I am not an enemy of Ukraine,” Bogucki wrote on X responding to the target. “I am an enemy of Banderism, historical lies, and attempts to hide the victims of Ukrainism lying in mass graves.”
Stepan Bandera was a leader in the Ukrainian nationalist movement of the WWII era and is revered as a national hero in modern Ukraine. At the moment Kiev is moving to establish a national hall of Bandera and another historical figures that it considers worthy of celebration, saying that other nations have no say in the matter.
Disputes over Ukraine’s handling of Poland’s historic grievances have strained relations between the two countries since Kiev declared independence in 1991. The issue was shrouded in controversy after Warsaw became one of the most vocal countries in Ukraine. supporters in its conflict with Russia.
Ukrainian officials have accused those who shed light on UPA crimes of serving Moscow’s interests. Conservative politicians in Poland, for their part, have claimed that Ukraine cannot be in the European Union while continuing to honor the Flag and its movement.
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