The president of the Polish bishops’ conference and the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church met in Warsaw on 7 July for a service of reconciliation marking 80 years since the Volhynia massacre, when Nazi-sponsored Ukrainian nationalists killed tens of thousands of Poles.
Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan and Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk also joined the presidents of Poland and Ukraine on 9 July at an ecumenical service in the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul in Lutsk in north-western Ukraine.
In a statement signed together in Warsaw, the archbishops said the Russian invasion had affirmed “that reconciliation between our peoples and collaboration between a free Poland and a free Ukraine are essential conditions for peace”.
Archbishop Gadecki said that reconciliation was impossible “without calling the genocide of the Polish population in Volhynia by name”.
The Ukrainian government has contested the description of the massacre as “genocide” and commemorates Ukrainians killed in Polish reprisals.
Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk said that it was “tragedy on both sides” and that reconciliation must be a “bilateral” process. “We should constantly tell each other: I forgive and ask forgiveness,” he said.
He added that Poland’s reception of Ukrainian refugees was “something extraordinary”, adding: “The Ukrainian people feel that Poles are their best friends.”
Besides receiving hundreds of thousands of refugees since the invasion last February, Poland has been one of Ukraine’s most consistent allies and a chief supplier of aid and military equipment.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda lit candles to mark the anniversary of the massacre. In a statement online after the service, President Zelenskiy said: “Together, we honour all the innocent victims of Volhynia! Memory unites us! Together we are stronger.”
The massacres perpetrated by Ukrainian nationalists during the Second World War have been used by President Vladimir Putin in his claims that Kyiv is controlled by “Nazis”, comparing President Zelenskiy’s government to the nationalist leader Stepan Bandera.
Last week’s services marked a significant departure for the Ukrainian authorities, who have been accused of lionising Bandera in their own propaganda efforts.
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