The Ukrainians' motion towards Poles. The flags of Bandera disappeared in Lviv

According to Interia's findings, during visits to the Lwowski Cemetery by president Andrzej Duda and president Zelenski, red-black OUN-UPA flags, a chauvinist organization liable for cultural cleansing of Poles in east Galicia, disappeared from necropolis.

Polish-Ukrainian tribute to the Lviv Eagles

As we wrote on the portalPresident Andrzej Duda visited Lviv on Wednesday 11 January as part of the Second Lublin Summit. During the visit, in addition to signing a joint declaration of political and military support of Ukraine, our president and the president of Ukraine paid tribute to the Orlęto Lwowski, or youth defenders of Lviv, who fought for the city's affiliation to Poland during the Polish-Ukrainian War, and then Polish-bolshevik war (in 1910 Poles constituted over 52% of the population of Lviv, Ukrainians only 20%).

The Orląt Cemetery of Lviv | Presidents of Poland @AndrzejDuda and Ukraine @ZelenskyyUa. pic.twitter.com/QAHBsrXHI0

Paweł Szrot, head of the political cabinet of the head of state, said in an interview with Interia that the Ukrainian authorities had removed the red-black flags of Bandera from the necropolis space before president Duda visited. He stated that it was a large success in changing the current historical direction of Ukraine.

What does symbolic flag removal mean for us? Is this the beginning of a change in Ukraine's historical policy? "I have said many times about the fact that thanks to the President's activity many tiny steps were taken towards historical fact and agreement between nations," said Paweł Szrot.

The head of the president's cabinet stated that Stepan Bandera is an unambiguously negative figure and the Polish authorities must consistently approach historical policy

The president has always made it clear that Ukraine should not build its identity on the tradition of Stepan Bandera and UPA. Unfortunately, it is simply a tradition of crime," he added.

Comment

When president Andrzej Duda visited the Lviv Orląt Cemetery in 2015, Ukrainian authorities and Polish diplomatic services did not guarantee that there were no flag flags in the burial site. We can see an improvement and presume with large probability that the war has made Ukraine aware of the value of Poland as the most profitable partner (we fight against the common enemy) and will so correct its historical policy for the fresh national myth. A akin phenomenon was seen in the 1990s in Croatia's regaining independence, in which Ustasha's story was displaced for fresh heroes from fighting for independency from Yugoslavia.

Ukraine is increasingly performing gestures showing that it is ready to face its criminal past. At the end of last year, Ukrainian authorities have given consent to the exhumation genocide in Volyn, and President Zelenski statedthat Poland and Ukraine are jointly curious in solving all delicate issues related to the tragic episodes of our common history.

It should be noted that the Interia article quoted above shows a lie. Editor Jakub Szczepański wrote:

Although it is said that characteristic colours symbolize the Ukrainians' conflict for independence, and their past dates back to even Cossacks and the 17th century, in Poland they are clearly associated with the Ukrainian Insurgency Army (UPA) and the Volyn genocide.

This is evidently not true. The red-black flags were first established at the 2nd Extraordinary large OUN Convention in April 1941, where it was decided: “OUN uses its separate organizational banner of black and red”.

Nationals.net/Interia.pl