WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was welcomed by his Polish counterpart, Karol Nawrocki, at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw on Friday. Zelenskyy’s visit is intended to ensure that relations with key ally Poland remain stable, regardless of any change in power in Warsaw.
It has taken more than four months after Nawrocki was inaugurated in August for a meeting with Zelenskyy to happen.
That is long considering the symbiotic relationship between the two countries since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022: Poland needs Ukraine to keep Russia at bay, and Ukraine needs Poland to ensure deliveries of military aid. Poland will also be crucial in any set-up providing Western security guarantees for Ukraine if a peace deal is finalized.
Poland’s current government is a solid backer of Ukraine, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk acting as one of the most visceral advocates of Kyiv in international fora.
But presidential election results indicate that the previous, nationalist governing party Law and Justice might return to power in 2027. And Nawrocki, who won elections with the backing of Law and Justice, has been playing hard to get.
In words that echoed the attitude of U.S. President Donald Trump, Nawrocki said that he expected Zelenskyy to “express gratitude” for the significant military and humanitarian aid Poland has provided and will continue to provide to Ukraine.
“I have consistently demanded symmetry in relations between Poland and Ukraine,” he said in early December.
Nawrocki has said Ukraine’s accession to the European Union could not be unconditional and that Poland spends too many resources on Ukrainian refugees at the expense of Poles.
He has especially criticized Kyiv for blocking the exhumation of Polish victims lying in mass graves in the Ukrainian region of Volhynia, after being brutally killed during World War II. Polish authorities estimate tens of thousands of Poles were murdered.
During World War II, Polish-Ukrainian relations in the Nazi-occupied regions of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia were marked by violent interethnic conflict. Armed formations on both sides, including the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and Polish underground forces, were involved in attacks and reprisals that led to large-scale civilian casualties among both Poles and Ukrainians.
The historical tragedy has been a major source of tension between the two countries.
In January, however, Poland and Ukraine reached an agreement under which Ukraine will allow the exhumation of some Polish victims, which was considered a major breakthrough.
Exhumations have already taken place this year in the village of Puzhnyky in Ukraine’s western Ternopil region, uncovering the remains of at least 42 people believed to be victims of the Volhynia massacres, and at Lviv-Zboiska. Further permissions were granted by both sides for exhumations at other locations.
Even so, Nawrocki, whose promise to Poles is to put their interests first, will likely want to extract more promises from Zelenskyy on Friday.
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Illia Novikov contributed to this report from Kyiv, Ukraine.
