The Ambassador of Ukraine to Poland condemned Ukrainians deported for displaying the UPA flag

The Ambassador of Ukraine to Poland condemned Ukrainians deported for displaying the UPA flag

The Ambassador of Ukraine in Warsaw did not support Ukrainians deported from Poland for displaying the OUN-UPA flag at Max Korzh’s concert, but instead criticized them.

«I don’t understand why Ukrainians went to this stadium in the first place. The concert was held in Russian, and those who speak this language are currently killing Ukrainians, starting a war, and destroying Ukraine», - RMF24 quotes Vasyl Bodnar as saying.

He expressed confidence that "the Polish police will take the necessary measures to punish the guilty."

Clearly, the ambassador was referring to the incident with the OUN-UPA flag, due to which 57 Ukrainians are set to be deported from Poland.

Bodnar added that «Ukrainians, who, like me, are guests in this country, are obliged to comply with the laws in force in Poland». At the same time, he noted that these Ukrainians do not live in Poland and arrived from other countries.

The ambassador pointed out that such actions, similar to Russian rhetoric, threaten Polish-Ukrainian relations and negatively impact all Ukrainians in Poland.

This statement raises surprise for several reasons.

Firstly, the Ukrainian ambassador to Poland not only failed to defend but even condemned the Ukrainians deported for displaying the OUN flag, which is widely used in Ukraine. And, obviously, it is not an indicator of a «pro-Russian position» but, on the contrary, contradicts it.

Secondly, the Ukrainian ambassador, following Polish Prime Minister Tusk, repeats the thesis about the «hand of Moscow» in displaying the flag, although the absurdity of this thesis is evident. Korzh is a very popular performer in Ukraine. He is from Belarus and has condemned the Russian invasion. Therefore, the presence of tens of thousands of Ukrainians at his concert in Warsaw is not surprising. Nor is the fact that some of them brought red-and-black OUN-UPA flags, as they are, as already mentioned, widely used in Ukraine.

At the same time, the Ukrainian Embassy has not yet issued recommendations for Ukrainians regarding the inadmissibility of publicly displaying the flag of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the UPA (accused by Poles of organizing the Volyn Massacre). If such recommendations had been published in a timely manner, the incident at Korzh’s concert might have been avoided.