I wrote this post exactly one year ago today. And boy, is it relevant today.

A bitter history lesson about the relationship between Poland and Ukraine.

Recently, Ukrainian historian and journalist Vakhtang Kipiani wrote the following after the Polish president’s visit to Ukraine:

“If the security detail of the Polish president can calmly wear an Armia Krajowa patch during a visit to Ukraine — even though that army carried out bloody atrocities against Ukrainians during and after World War II — then a small red-and-black OUN flag on the suits of Ukraine’s State Security Service staff during a visit to Poland should also be considered normal. That’s what mutually respectful and equal relations look like.”

For those unfamiliar with the background: Poland and Ukraine share a long, painful, and deeply entangled history.

The Polish view of the Ukrainian liberation movement (OUN-UPA) has been shaped not only by historical events but also by decades of Soviet NKVD propaganda. The Soviets portrayed Stepan Bandera, the OUN, and the UPA as Nazis and terrorists, and they carried out countless sabotage and disinformation operations to poison relations between Poles and Ukrainians.

My grandfather saw this deception firsthand. He told me how NKVD officers dressed as UPA fighters would come to his village and execute innocent people to frame the Ukrainian resistance. These same Soviet forces claimed they had “liberated” Poland in 1939 and 1944–45, and they lied about the Katyn massacre for decades, blaming it on the Germans. Driving a wedge between Poles and Ukrainians served Moscow perfectly, and too many swallowed the bait.

The reality is simple: the UPA fought for Ukrainian independence. Yes, some fighters committed atrocities, and those crimes must be fully acknowledged and condemned. But they do not define the entire movement. Most UPA fighters were people like my Ukrainian grandfather and my Polish grandmother, who fought side by side against both the Nazis and the Soviets.

There is certainly a bitter history between Poland and Ukraine that needs to be reconciled. Ukrainians did commit atrocities against Poles. The tragedy in Volyn was real. It was an atrocity and must be recognized as such. But Polish memory cannot stop there.

Poles must also remember their own dark chapters: Operation Vistula, the massacre of Ukrainians in Sahryń, the violence committed by the Narodowe Siły Zbrojne (NSZ), and many others. Or their celebrated “hero” Piłsudski, whom many Ukrainians remember as the butcher of Galicia.

Poland and Ukraine share a messy, blood-soaked history. We must face it honestly — not through Soviet myths, not through one-sided victimhood, but through honest, fact-based dialogue between historians on both sides.

Reconciliation does not mean selective memory. It means seeing the whole picture and having the courage to tell the truth.