DISINFO: Poland might understand Russia's denazification process in Ukraine by outlawing Banderaism
SUMMARY
In Poland, deputies from the opposition Law and Justice party have introduced a bill prohibiting the entire Bandera ideology. A common attitude towards Banderaism can, to some extent, push Russia and Poland to a common position. Because Russia has long banned this ideology, and its bearers are equated with Nazi criminals. Of course, [Russia and Poland] will not become friends. There are many problematic issues in relations between Russia and Poland, but a common look at one phenomenon can help them understand each other, such as with the goal of the Russian special military operation: the denazification of present-day Ukraine.
RESPONSE
Describing Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine as a "denazification" process has been a long-standing pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative (see our article Thirteen myths about Russia’s war against Ukraine exposed - myth 13). This view is not shared by any other state, least of all Poland, which provides support to Ukraine to enable it to defend itself against Russia's unjustified and unprovoked aggression.
Members of Poland's Law and Justice party are proposing a bill to ban the promotion of Banderaism for its role in the Volhynia massacre during WWII, which left up to 100,000 Polish people dead. As ultra-nationalist groups also played a role in Ukraine's independence in their fight against both Nazi and Soviet occupiers, opinions about them remain divisive in Ukraine. However, support of their fight for independence in no way translates to support for the massacres or Nazi sympathies.
In 2023, President Zelenskyy honoured Poles killed by Ukrainian nationalists in the WW2 Volhynia massacre. The Ukrainian government is also very decisive with any government official who underplays the extent of the massacre against the Polish people.
Labelling Russia’s adversaries as Nazis is a widespread pro-Kremlin disinformation technique, and has been used by Russia to try to justify the invasion of Ukraine by portraying it as a “denazification operation”. Russia spent years preparing the information battleground before its kinetic attack, with “Nazi Ukraine” being one of its most prominent disinformation features.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives that Russia’s military operation against neo-Nazis in Ukraine was unavoidable, that the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv must be brought to an end, that Zelenskyy is the heir of German Nazism, that the West turns Ukraine into an anti-Russian neo-Nazi project, that Zelenskyy's regime is based on Nazism and hatred towards Russians, that Bandera's sympathisers have large influence on Ukraine.