Zelensky submitted a draft law on the special status of Poles in Ukraine, Polish president announced
President of Poland Andrzej Duda announced that President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday submitted to the parliament a draft law on the special status of Poles in Ukraine.
He said this in Warsaw during a ceremony honoring the victims of the Volyn tragedy, PAP reports.
"Today, Ukraine makes a symbolic invitation through the president's gesture; you are welcome with special rights. Let this be a sign for us," the Polish president said.
It is worth noting that the draft law is not yet available on the Verkhovna Rada website.
On Monday, Poland honors the memory of the victims of the Volyn tragedy. It is a day that for several years has formally been the National Day of Remembrance of the victims of the Genocide of the Citizens of the Polish Republic committed by Ukrainian Nationalists.
Duda laid a wreath at the monument to the victims of the tragedy in Warsaw. It is worth noting that the Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Zvarych, laid the wreath on behalf of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.
In his speech, Duda proposed to "bet on the truth" to strengthen relations between Poles and Ukrainians.
"I firmly believe that we will cope with this extremely difficult challenge and that what has been happening recently, over the course of these last months, is a future emerging from the ruins, a new image of Polish-Ukrainian relations, truly neighbourly and truly fraternal," Mr. Duda said.
Reference
July 11 is the shared pain of Ukrainians and Poles.
The source of mutual belligerence even before the Second World War was the ill-conceived national policy of the then authorities of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the frivolity and lack of respect shown by Polish politicians and settlers in Volyn for the rights of citizens of Ukrainian nationality to cultivate their own national and religious traditions. Ukrainians on the territory of the then Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth experienced attempts to erase their national consciousness and subjugate it to the dominant nationality, Polish, often through repression, pacification, and destruction of temples and places of their memory.
There is no excuse for deliberate crimes against civilians. Ukraine prays for the innocent killed. Ukraine with Poland and the Polish people is building partnerships and good-neighborly relations based on mutual respect and faith in our common European future.
In the course of the Volyn tragedy of 1943-44, tens of thousands of people died as a result of the actions of the Ukrainian insurgent army, on the one hand, and a number of Polish formations — nationalist, communist, and collaborators with the Nazis, on the other.
Read Rubryka's daily timeline of war: current news on Ukraine's defense against russia's aggression.
