Key facts
- Przemysl councilors voted Oct. 26 to suspend cooperation with Lviv.
- Lviv plans to honor the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and Roman Shukhevych in 2027.
- The UPA is associated with the 1943-1945 Volyn massacres in Poland.
- Poland's charge d'affaires in Kyiv called Roman Shukhevych a criminal.
Councilors in the Polish city of Przemysl unanimously voted on Oct. 26 to suspend cooperation with Lviv, a city in western Ukraine. The move was in protest against Lviv's proposal to honor the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and its leader, Roman Shukhevych, in 2027. Lviv's council had adopted decrees on Oct. 20 declaring the next year as the Year of the UPA, the Year of Shukhevych, and the Year of Oleh Olzhych. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk described Lviv's decision as "suicidal tactics" and warned President Volodymyr Zelensky that such gestures are not helping already patchy Ukraine-Poland relations. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry called Lviv's actions "counterproductive to our current efforts to further develop Ukrainian-Polish relations and resolve contentious issues amid Russia's full-scale aggression." In Poland, the UPA is associated with the 1943-1945 Volyn massacres, during which tens of thousands of Poles were killed. Poland's charge d'affaires in Kyiv, Piotr Lukasiewicz, stated that "Roman Shukhevych was a criminal who collaborated with the Nazis and whose hands are stained with the blood of thousands of innocent victims."