Ukraine, Poland smooth over WWII dispute at Gdansk aid forum
Ukraine and its European allies are looking to encourage investment in Kyiv's postwar recovery. The first tranche of an EU loan has already arrived with
Ukraine and its European allies are looking to encourage investment in Kyiv's postwar recovery. The first tranche of an EU loan has already arrived with more deals on the table. But relations with Poland are strained. Ukraine is expecting to sign more than 160 defense, business and regional development agreements worth over €10 billion over the next couple of days, the country's prime minister, Yulia Syvyrdenko, said in Poland on Thursday. "The challenges facing our continent are existential," she said at the opening of the annual Ukraine Recovery Conference in the Baltic port city of Gdansk. "We're forced to to survive. This has become our superpower." Coinciding with the start of the conference, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry confirmed receipt of the first €3.2-billion ($3.63-billion) tranche of a €90-billion ($102-billion) European Union loan to Ukraine, which it intends to spend not only on defense and security but also on energy resilience. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, also in attendance, reasserted the EU's financial commitment to Ukraine and said a second tranche of €6 billion would follow "in the coming days" and would be dedicated to drone production. "Ukraine empowers European defense," said Syvyrdenko in an appeal for continued investment in her country. "And Ukraine empowers energy resilience." EU releases €3.2 billion from Ukraine recovery fund To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Poland: Zelenskyy stays away amid historic tensions Syvyrdenko is attending the conference in place of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has opted to stay away in a bid to reduce tensions between Poland and Ukraine over World War II atrocities. Late last week, Poland's nationalist president, Karol Nawrocki, stripped Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle — Poland's highest state honor — following the latter's decision to name a special forces unit after the World War II-era Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
While the UPA are regarded by some Ukrainians as heroes of the resistance to both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during and immediately after the World War II, the nationalist partisan formation was also involved in the Volhynia massacres, a series of killings from 1943 to 1945 in which Warsaw says around 100,000 Poles were murdered. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy (right) did not attend the Gdansk conference due to a dispute with Polish President Nawrocki Image: Czarek Sokolowski/AP Photo/picture alliance While Nawrocki and Polish nationalist parties have looked to stoke anti-Ukrainian sentiment, Prime Minister Donald Tusk attempted to smooth over the tensions. "We can build the future only on truth, on mutual respect, on an understanding of history," he said, adding that the choice of his hometown of Gdansk to host the conference was symbolic because it, too, had to be rebuilt following the devastation of the war. "The condition for true, full unification has always been an understanding of one's own history and a genuine capacity and willingness for reconciliation." The Ukrainian prime minister also struck a friendly tone, thanking the Polish audience for their solidarity, including welcoming over 1 million Ukrainian refugees since the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. "Thank you for your help when it was the most urgent time to support us," said Svyrydenko, without explicitly mentioning the historical spat. Ukraine's desperate search for farm labor To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video EU calls for investment in Ukraine Despite a recent opinion poll suggesting that almost 60% of Poles now oppose Ukraine's potential accession to the EU, Kyiv officially began EU membership negotiations on June 15. Rebuilding Ukraine's battered economy will cost an estimated $588 billion ($670 billion) over the next decade, the World Bank, the United Nations, the European Commission and the Ukrainian government said in February.
The BriefWire