PM: Poland's EU presidency to push Ukraine's accession forward

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk has committed to using his country's presidency of the European Union to advance Ukraine's EU membership bid, emphasizing the need to break the standstill in the process.

Standing alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Warsaw, Tusk declared that Poland would work to accelerate Ukraine's accession to the 27-member bloc, Caliber.Az reports per foreign media.

Poland now holds the rotating EU presidency, which gives it significant influence in setting the EU agenda for the next six months. Tusk's statement came after the two nations reached an agreement to resolve a long-standing issue—the exhumation of Polish victims of World War II-era massacres by Ukrainian nationalists.

This sensitive matter had caused friction between the two countries, with Poland seeking to exhume victims buried in mass graves in Ukraine’s Volhynia region.

The agreement comes as Ukraine, which has been a staunch ally of Poland since Russia's invasion, faced domestic challenges, with the issue of the massacres remaining a source of bitterness in Poland.

Tusk, under pressure from the Polish electorate ahead of the presidential elections in May, acknowledged the importance of addressing the historical grievance. He emphasized that both countries were finding common ground on the Volhynian massacre, which remains a deeply painful subject for Poles.

In his joint remarks with Zelenskyy, Tusk noted that Poland would continue to support Ukraine but also safeguard its own national interests. Zelenskyy stressed the importance of strengthening the Polish-Ukrainian alliance against Russia, which he identified as the main threat to both nations.

The massacres occurred during World War II when Ukrainian nationalists killed tens of thousands of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. Poland declared the events as genocide in 2016, which led to Ukrainian resistance against exhumations.

However, a Polish NGO, the Freedom and Democracy Foundation, has announced plans to begin exhumation work in April.

By Aghakazim Guliyev