Kraków and Przemyśl are threatening to sever their partnership with Lviv over commemoration of UPA
The mayors of the Polish cities of Kraków and Przemyśl have called for a review of their twinning arrangements with Lviv following a decision by the Lviv Regional Council to honour the UPA and Roman Shukhevych in 2027. Kraków has proposed temporarily suspending cooperation, whilst Przemyśl has not ruled out terminating it entirely.
This has been reported by Censor.NET, citing a statement by the Mayor of Przemyśl, Wojciech Bakun, on Facebook and the Polish publication LoveKraków.pl, which quotes the Mayor of Kraków, Łukasz Gibala.
Bakun said that he had approached the mayor of Lviv, Andrii Sadovyi, demanding that he take a clear stance and publicly distance himself from the regional council’s decision.
At the same time, he asked the Przemyśl City Council to consider the possibility of suspending or terminating the partnership, depending on the reaction of the Lviv authorities.
"City partnerships are based on mutual respect, particularly for the historical memory of both communities. If one side honours those responsible for crimes against the ancestors of the other, the city council must assess whether cooperation can continue in its current form," said Bakun.
He emphasised that any restrictions on inter-municipal relations would not apply to humanitarian aid for Ukrainians affected by the war.
The Mayor of Kraków, Łukasz Gibala, put forward a similar initiative. During a city council meeting, he proposed temporarily suspending the partnership with Lviv and drafted a corresponding resolution.
According to Gibala, this is not a permanent breakdown in cooperation, but a temporary measure.
"We all know that Ukraine is a victim of Russian aggression. We support Ukraine in this struggle; our partnership with Ukraine is important to us, but this relationship must be built on the basis of historical reconciliation," said the Mayor of Kraków.
He called on MPs to support his proposal.
- As a reminder, on 20 October, the Lviv Regional Council passed a resolution declaring 2027 the Year of Roman Shukhevych, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and Oleg Olzhych.
- The initiative drew criticism from the Polish authorities. Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that the decision was detrimental to Ukraine, whilst Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz warned of negative consequences for bilateral relations.
- Poland’s Foreign Minister, Radosław Sikorski, also signed a motion to add Sviatoslav Sheremeta, a member of the Lviv Regional Council who had initiated the decision, to the list of persons unwelcome in Poland.
