Between 40,000 and 100,000 Poles are estimated to have been murdered by Ukrainian Nazi collaborators

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have voted down a proposal calling on Kiev to apologize for the so-called Volyn massacres during World War II, when Ukrainian nationalists slaughtered tens of thousands of Poles.

Last week, The Europe of Sovereign Nations Group (ESN), a far-right faction in the legislature proposed several amendments to the resolution titled “Continued financial and military support to Ukraine by EU Member States.”

The proposal, as presented by Hans Neuhoff representing the far-right [AfD] Alternative for Germany party, suggested “recall[ing] the massacres of Poles in Volyn and Eastern Galicia from 1943 to 1945, which were committed by members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)” and “stress[ing] Ukraine’s obligation to apologize in full for these atrocities, allow the exhumation of the all victims and prohibit the veneration of the historical personalities responsible for the massacres.”

However, the amendment was rejected, with 395 against it, 142 in favor and 66 abstentions. Other amendments floated by the ESN, which would have seen the EU significantly soften its rhetoric on the Ukraine conflict and call for talks to end hostilities, also failed to pass.

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Among those who voted against were several leftist or centrist Polish MEPs. Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, one of those who opposed the motion, argued that a resolution on helping Ukraine “is not the time or place” for debating the historical events such as Volyn massacres.

MEP Krzysztof Smiszek explained that he voted against because the proposal sought to promote an “anti-Ukrainian agenda,” adding that it was supported by “anti-Polish neo-fascists from the AfD, who call [former German] lands in Poland eastern Germany.”

The Volyn massacre has long been a flashpoint in Ukrainian-Polish relations. Between 40,000 and 100,000 Poles are estimated to have been murdered by the UPA, which collaborated with the Third Reich during the Second World War. The Polish parliament has declared the massacre a “genocide,” a label Kiev has been reluctant to agree to.

Despite some ongoing diplomatic attempts to settle and downplay the historical score, Warsaw, which otherwise has been one of Kiev’s staunchest supporters in its conflict with Russia, has said it opposes Ukraine’s accession to the EU as long as the issue remains unresolved, and with one of its conditions being the exhumation of victims.