There is a shadow behind the major government reshuffle called for by President Zelensky that aims to “give new energy” to the Kiev government at perhaps the most crucial moment of the war. And that shadow is not – as the Italian press hastily hastened to establish – the danger of excessive centralization of power, which would also make Kiev a “regime” on the Russian model. No, the long shadow behind the recent resignations – at least the most sensational ones, namely that of Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba – is called Poland.
Yes, it is true that in just three days four ministers, an undersecretary and a deputy prime minister had to resign (in addition to Kuleba, among others the Minister for Strategic Industry Alexander Kamyshin and the person responsible for Ukraine’s integration into NATO, Olha Stefanishyna, together with the new head of the State Property Fund and the president of the UKRENEGADEthe company that manages the national electricity grid).
However, while some of these replacements report to the powerful head of the national administration Abdry Yermak, the foreign minister Kuleba instead pays for the deterioration of his personal relationship with Warsaw. A type of relationship that Kiev cannot risk damaging, given that the extreme defense of the country invaded by the Russians will depend (it already depends, to tell the truth) precisely on the economic, logistical, humanitarian, political and above all military aid of Poland.
Moreover, as Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski reminded, “Poland will decide on the closing of further chapters in Ukraine’s negotiations with the European Union, so it would be better for Ukraine to resolve this issue as soon as possible.” The “issue,” as Sikorski calls it, is the Volhynia massacres, and Warsaw’s tone on the issue is as follows: “Poland will not allow Ukraine to join the EU until the two countries resolve it,” as Polish Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz stated.
The background. When in recent weeks the Polish Sikorski had invited Ukraine to allow the exhumation of the victims of the Volhynia massacres – a place where, during the Second World War, Ukrainian nationalists killed around 100 thousand ethnic Poles – the now former Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had commented in a vague and detached manner, dismissing the issue as follows: «Historical issues such as the Volhynia massacre should be left to historians, so that attention can shift to building a shared future». The minister’s trenchant comment was obviously greeted in Poland with disgust and anger, especially because it came right on the sidelines of an event organized for the National Day of Commemoration of the Victims of that terrible genocide. And Warsaw could not ignore it.
Kuleba’s almost contemptuous remarks on the Volhynia massacres, in fact, are a long-standing issue that alternately foments tensions between the two allies. Therefore, as informally requested by the Warsaw government, President Zelensky obtained, in deference to the “gratitude for what Poland is doing today for Ukraine”, the head of his biggest piece. In short, anything to avoid a rift with Poland that, especially at this stage of the conflict, could prove fatal for Kiev.
Of course, as Oleksii Honcharenko, one of the very few MPs openly critical of Zelensky, pointed out, it may be true that the Kiev government “is now a dependency of the presidential office”, but we are – as is known, although it is worth remembering – in times of war and under martial law; a type of war on which the very survival of Ukraine as we know it depends. And of course – at least this is Kiev’s version – the government will not get hung up on the replacement of some important pawns, because there is a much higher plan than a reshuffle: and that is to ensure that Poland and the rest of Europe remain strenuously on their side, under penalty of extinction.
“Minister Kuleba made a mistake, so it is better for Ukraine to resolve the exhumation issue as soon as possible,” thundered Polish Sikorski on X last Tuesday, adding that “Ukraine must understand the dark sides of its history” and that “the Polish victims of the Volhynia massacres deserve a proper burial.” Radosław Sikorski had spoken about this, about the exhumations, during bilateral talks with Kiev. And here is the immediate response in facts from Volodymyr Zelensky: Kuleba’s head for peace between two allied nations.
A peace, moreover, that threatens Poland itself, increasingly fearful of Russian war fury and rather skeptical about the possibility that Kiev can succeed alone – that is, without the intervention of European troops on the ground – in defeating the Kremlin’s war machine. Proof of this are the many missiles and overflights of Russian jets (and drones) that, for the last two years, have often crossed into Polish airspace. Add to this the bombings from Moscow that have now reached the city of Lviv, therefore a few kilometers from the border with Poland, recently hit with the deadly hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, and that rain down on this and other inhabited centers of Ukraine first of all to unleash panic and terror.
Just this week, before Kuleba’s unfortunate outburst (but after Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure), Warsaw had declared that Poland and other countries bordering Ukraine have the “duty to shoot down Russian missiles before they enter their airspace.” And this despite NATO’s opposition.
It was once again Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski who did so, that is, defended Ukraine’s possibility of having allies at its side who would directly engage in firefights with the invader, in the pages of Financial Times. Who believes that involving the Atlantic Alliance in the Russian war against Ukraine in a defensive function is not only legitimate but inevitable.
Music to the ears of Zelensky and the military leaders in Kiev. Which, consequently, following the age-old adage of your death my lifethey decided to sacrifice Dmitro Kuleba for what they considered to be a “greater good”, taking advantage of it to eliminate others who were not in line with the presidency, according to the logic of the reshuffle. Probably Volodymyr Zelensky, today in Italy to participate in the Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio, also knows the story of Henry of Navarre, who abandoned the Huguenot faith and became Catholic in order to become king of France: just as “Paris is well worth a mass”, today Warsaw is well worth a minister.
