MOSCOW, July 13. /TASS/. The cult of the Banderites will remain a cornerstone of Ukraine's state policy until the country's government changes, former Polish Prime Minister (2001-2004) Leszek Miller said in an interview with Polsat.

"As long as the Banderites rule Ukraine, nothing will change, because defending the good name of [Stepan] Bandera, [Roman] Shukhevich and other bandits is among the state's priorities," Miller said. "Only when this government leaves or is overthrown, and people with a different attitude toward their difficult past come to power, will it be possible to seriously think about reconciliation, bringing the process to a close and exhuming the victims [of the Volhynia massacre]," he added.

The former Polish prime minister also explained why the reburial of Wehrmacht soldiers is proceeding across Ukraine while the exhumation of the victims of the Volhynia massacre has stalled. "There is only one answer to that question. The remains of German soldiers bear traces of combat and participation in battles. <...> But the remains of murdered Poles are the bones of women and children, children's skulls with nails driven into them, hacked and mutilated bones. And that is what the Ukrainians do not want to show the world," Miller said.

On July 11, Poland commemorated the victims of the Volhynia massacre. The observance came amid heightened tensions between Warsaw and Kiev, triggered by a series of moves by the Ukrainian leadership glorifying the Banderites, including Vladimir Zelensky's decision to name one of Ukraine's military formations after the "heroes of the UPA" (Ukrainian Insurgent Army, outlawed in Russia).

During World War II, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN, outlawed in Russia) began fighting Soviet rule in cooperation with German intelligence services. In 1943, it established the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA, outlawed in Russia). Beginning in February 1943, Ukrainian nationalists launched a campaign to exterminate the Polish population of Volhynia. The violence culminated on July 11, 1943, when OUN-UPA units attacked about 100 Polish settlements. Around 100,000 people, mostly women, children and the elderly, were killed in what became known as the Volhynia massacre. In 2016, the Polish parliament recognized the massacre as genocide against Poles, and in 2025, July 11 was designated a national day of remembrance.