Ukraine, Poland move to mend ties strained by views on WWII

Ukraine, Poland move to mend ties strained by views on WWII | iNFOnews.ca
Polish President Andrzej Duda, rear, and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, foreground, are seen during events to honor the memory of thousands of Polish officers killed 77 years ago by Soviet secret police in the Katyn massacre, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017. An estimated 22,000 Polish troops were taken prisoner by the Soviet army after it invaded Poland in September 1939. They were killed by shots to the back of the head near Kharkiv, now in Ukraine, and in the Katyn forest near Smolensk in western Russia starting in April 1940. (Mykola Lazarenko/Presidential Press Service Pool Photo via AP)

KHARKIV, Ukraine – The presidents of Ukraine and Poland have met to find ways of overcoming the World War II legacy that sours relations between the neighbouring countries.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and visiting President Andrzej Duda of Poland laid flowers on Wednesday at a monument to Polish soldiers killed by Soviet security forces in 1940.

Duda says they discussed bringing in peacekeepers as a step in ending the armed conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Poroshenko said: “History should not affect the strategic nature of Ukrainian-Polish relations.”

Poland generally supports closer relations between Ukraine and the European Union. But the government also wants Polish civilians who were victims of Ukrainian armed units during World War II recognized.

In Ukraine, the fighters are regarded as heroes who fought both German Nazis and the Soviets.

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Abbey Westbury

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