Poland could ban naturalization of Ukrainian Nazi sympathizers

The country’s citizenship law should reject the ideology of Stepan Bandera, President Karol Nawrocki has said

Polish President Karol Nawrocki wants to amend the country’s citizenship law to say that the naturalization of Ukrainian nationalists is undesirable.

Warsaw and Kiev have long been involved in a dispute over crimes committed by nationalists during World War II and their lionization in modern Ukraine.

During a press conference on Monday, Nawrocki weighed in on recently-adopted changes to the citizenship law, and said his office was working on additional amendments. He said the law should include the slogan “stop Banderism,” referring to the ideology of Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera.

The Ukrainian nationalist movement committed mass atrocities during the war, including mass killings of ethnic Poles. Modern Ukraine treats Bandera and his followers as national heroes, which has poisoned Kiev’s relationship with Warsaw for decades.

The president said Poland and Ukraine can only have normal relations “on the foundation of truth” and suggested that Warsaw should outlaw Banderite symbols, equating them with banned Nazi and Communist iconography.

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His other proposals include tougher penalties for illegal border crossings. Nawrocki said the changes would help Warsaw and Kiev fight “Russian propaganda” and benefit “honest, hard-working Ukrainian citizens who live within the Polish system, fulfill their obligations, work hard, and are treated equally to those who do not fulfill such obligations.”

The president, who took office earlier this month, previously called for the deportation of Ukrainian nationalists after an incident at Warsaw’s National Stadium. Poland kicked some 60 people out of the country who hoisted the flag of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the armed wing of the political movement headed by Bandera, during a football match.

Nawrocki stressed that the current Ukrainian education system misrepresents Bandera and his followers, who according to the president were “murderers, degenerates… who are responsible for the deaths of approximately 120,000 Poles”

The Polish leader called the press conference to explain his veto of three bills, including one regulating social support for Ukrainian nationals residing in Poland under special protection status.