The Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, has hinted this Friday at his displeasure with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, for reopening old historical wounds after the recent decision to transfer the remains of the ultranationalist and Nazi collaborator leader Andri Melnik to Kyiv to rebury them with state honors.
"If we argue about the past, someone else will win the future," Tusk wrote on his social media. "The President of Ukraine should finally understand this. Poles too. Before it's too late!", added the head of the Polish government, in a message that directly points to Zelensky's initiative.
Last Monday, the Ukrainian leader presided over the reburial ceremony of Melnik, known for his collaboration with Nazi Germany, in the capital, just a week after his remains and those of his wife, Sofia, were transferred from Luxembourg to Ukraine.
Russia has taken advantage of the event to attack Zelensky, whom they accuse of "glorifying Nazi criminals," and has used this episode as an additional argument to legitimize the so-called "special military operation" aimed at "denazifying" eastern Ukraine, which began with the invasion launched in February 2022.
Melnik was one of the leaders of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) --banned in Russia--, a political formation of fascist inspiration, controversial for being praised for its resistance against Soviet rule and Polish occupation, and which collaborated with the Nazi regime in various phases of World War II.
He is held responsible for the massacre of Jews and Poles during those years, although he ended up being rejected by the Nazis themselves, who refused to accept the creation of an independent Ukrainian state and sent him to a concentration camp in 1944, where he remained imprisoned for several months.
The return of Melnik's remains is part of the repatriation program promoted by Zelensky's executive, which also includes the transfer to Ukraine of other controversial figures of Ukrainian nationalism, including Yevhen Konovalets.