Ukraine’s timetable for EU accession talks was unrealistic, Poland’s foreign minister Radosław Sikorski told President Volodymyr Zelensky during his visit to Kyiv September 13.
The two leaders clashed over Ukraine’s EU accession negotiations, as well as missile defence and the 1943 Volhynia massacre of ethnic Poles by Ukrainian nationalists.
The meeting between Zelensky, Sikorski, and Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis took an unexpected turn when Zelensky expressed dissatisfaction with Warsaw’s support for his country’s EU accession, reported Polish news portal Onet.pl.
Zelensky “set the tone for the meeting” when he “produced a litany of complaints against Poland”. These included Poland’s lack of support for EU accession talks which Ukraine wishes to complete in 2025.
It took Poland 10 years to complete its EU accession talks, and Ukraine’s proposed timetable was unrealistic, said Sikorski.
Zelensky in turn criticised Poland for being slow to transfer military equipment, and attacked Warsaw’s air defence for not intercepting missiles and drones over Ukraine.
Sikorski explained Poland could not fire on Russian flying objects on Ukrainian territory without NATO’s agreement.
He said, though, Poland was willing to transfer its remaining MiG fighter jets, once NATO could plug the resulting gap in Poland’s air force capability with more modern aeroplanes.
Zelensky also said Poland should not be raising the Second World War Volhynia massacre while Ukraine was fighting its present war of self-defence against Russia.
Ukraine should respect the victims’ need for exhumations and proper burial, Sikorski retorted.
Lithuania’s foreign minister kept a low profile during the meeting, and did not offer support for Sikorski, said the portal.
Sikorski raised the issue of Volhynia again while speaking to reporters after.
“The exhumation of the Volhynia massacre victims is not a political issue or a subject for negotiation,” he said.
“Some 100,000 people died. Their remains deserve a Christian burial. This is a moral duty, not a political matter. It’s part of the European value system that Ukraine is part of,” added Sikorski.
The Volhynia issue had the possibility of derailing Ukraine’s accession, Poland’s defence minister and deputy PM Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said recently.
Ukraine would not join the EU if it did not resolve issues pertaining to commemorating Volhynia to Poland’s satisfaction, he said.
“Ukraine seems to be convinced that Poland is under so much threat from Russia that when it helps Ukraine it is in fact helping itself,” said Onet’s foreign policy analyst Witold Jurasz.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poland has received over one million Ukrainian refugees, acted as a hub for transfer of arms from the west to Ukraine, and has supplied Kyiv with hundreds of tanks, a dozen MiG fighter planes, and other military equipment.
However, relations between the two countries deteriorated in 2023, when Polish farmers and lorry drivers protested against competition from Ukrainian counterparts. Poland’s government backed the protesters.
