"The Ukrainian Insurgent Army is being glorified, and a law has been passed recognizing the special role played by the UPA in Ukrainian history, designating that on its basis anyone who questions the fact that the UPA is a criminal organization involved in the genocide [of Poles] can be punished; this is a disgrace. It is a slap in the face to the Polish people and to President Komorowski," SLD deputy Tomasz Kalita stated.
Kalita considers UPA to be a criminal organization, and has appealed to the Polish president, who visited Ukrainian parliament last week, to "distance himself from the Ukrainian nationalists, to condemn the law and to speak critically about it."
Over the past decade, Ukrainian-Polish relations have been strained by Ukrainian historians' growing attempts to rehabilitate the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Polish historians blame the killing of between 100,000 and 130,000 Polish civilians and 5,000-10,000 Ukrainian civilians in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia on the UPA, claims which Ukrainian historians have downplayed or denied outright.