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Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, believes the escalation in Ukrainian-Polish relations will peak this week, linked to Poland's National Day of Remembrance of Victims of the Volyn tragedy. [The Volyn (Volhynia) tragedy was a series of events that led to the ethnic cleansing of the Polish and Ukrainian populations in 1943 during World War II. It was part of a long-standing rivalry between Ukrainians and Poles in what is now Ukraine's west. Poland considers the Volyn tragedy a genocide of Poles – ed.]
Source: Budanov in an interview with RBC-Ukraine, as reported by European Pravda
Details: Budanov stated Poland is preparing "a series of immature escalatory steps" ahead of 11 July, when Poland marks the National Day of Remembrance of "victims of the genocide committed by the OUN and UPA on the eastern territories of the Second Polish Republic". [The OUN (Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists) was a Ukrainian nationalist political group, the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) was its military wing, involved in armed resistance, and Stepan Bandera was a Ukrainian nationalist leader often criticised in Poland for extremist actions during WWII – ed.]
