“It was extremely difficult to cross the border. Rudeness, aggression from the Polish customs service, entered Poland twice. The first time we were returned in a deceptive manner, but only on the second attempt we passed,” he said.
According to the head of the UINP, he and two other employees of the institute “had an official invitation, permission, a request from the consulate.”
The Ukrainians spent a total of six and a half hours at the checkpoint between Shegini and Medica.
“It was very unpleasant. This is not expected from a European country and the relevant services. This is the EU border, not only Poland,” Drobovich emphasized.
Ukrainian diplomats in Poland confirmed to Radio Svoboda that the representatives of the UINP had official letters and confirmation of the motivation for the trip.
The radio notes that Drobovich in the Polish city of Przemysl communicated with Ukrainians, visited the Ukrainian People’s House, and also visited the burial places of Ukrainians who died in the twentieth century.
Poland and Ukraine have a difficult relationship due to the repeated destruction of Ukrainian memorial sites and Ukrainian graves in Poland in previous years. Because of this, in the summer of 2017 the Ukrainian side refused the Polish in the search and exhumation of Poles buried in Ukraine. On July 11, 2019, Polish President Andrzej Duda called on Ukraine lift the moratorium for exhumation. On August 31, 2020, after meeting with Duda, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that ready to give permission for the exhumation of the burials of Poles on Ukrainian territory.
September 27 Ukraine gave formal consent to resume search and exhumation works.
On January 20, 2020 it became known that unknown destroyed the plaque at the burial place of 62 soldiers of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and peaceful Ukrainians on Mount Monastyr, they tore off the embroidered towels and threw them into the garbage pit. Polish Foreign Ministry named the incident an attempt to undermine relations between countries.
On the eve of Duda’s visit to Ukraine, the memorial was restored. However, representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that there are no names and surnames on the new commemorative plaque fallen.
October 11-13 Duda visited Ukraine on an official visit, high-level talks were held in Kiev.
Zelensky stressed that both countries took steps towards each other in resolving disputes related to historical memory. In a joint statement, the presidents stressedthat Ukraine and Poland are aware of the importance of perpetuating the memory of innocent victims of conflicts and political repressions of the twentieth century and condemn vandalism in memorial sites.
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