Skip to footer
Trust
The Monitor's View

Forgiveness in time of war

Despite its struggle with Russia, Ukraine seeks to reconcile with Poland over historical grievances.

|
Reuters
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha visit the Memory Wall of Fallen Defenders of Ukraine in Kyiv, Sept. 13.
  • By the Monitor's Editorial Board

The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, certainly has plenty on his plate: End Russia’s land grab. Join the European Union. Tour the world for support. Keep the economy and military up and running. And oh, by the way, reconcile with neighboring Poland over historical grievances from more than 80 years ago.

Yes, amid a war for its survival as a nation, Ukraine decided this week to make some amends with Poland. Next year, it will start to locate the bodies of thousands of Polish villagers killed during World War II by Ukrainian nationalists. The issue, among many in a long and complex history between the two peoples, has been exploited in recent years by conservative Polish politicians. What is often known as the Volhynia massacre is also frequently used by Russia to divide Ukraine and Poland.

Ties between the two countries are as close as ever, especially as each seeks to stop Moscow’s penchant for expanding its borders by force. Ukrainian refugees were warmly welcomed by Poles in 2022 after the Russian invasion. Yet Ukraine now sees a need for a reckoning on the truth about past atrocities, as well as full reconciliation with Poland.

“[We] value every life, remember history, and defend freedom together,” President Zelenskyy said during a visit by Polish President Andrzej Duda last year. The two attended a church service in the Ukrainian city of Lutsk to commemorate those who died in the massacre. In a spirit of humility, President Duda said both nations made mistakes “for which we paid the ultimate price.”

In recent months, a new government in Warsaw has suggested that Ukraine move faster on the historical reckoning in order to become a EU member. “We do not want revenge, we do not demand punishment, we just want a dignified burial of our ancestors,” Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski told broadcaster Polsat.

After Kyiv’s announcement this week, the Ukrainian foreign minister pointed to shared geopolitical interests. “The past, no matter how complicated, must not jeopardize the modern-day efforts to address common challenges and the future of the Euro-Atlantic family,” said Andrii Sybiha. A clean slate along with a bit of forgiveness between Poland and Ukraine will be one more tool in the war against Russian aggression.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe

Give us your feedback

We want to hear, did we miss an angle we should have covered? Should we come back to this topic? Or just give us a rating for this story. We want to hear from you.

 
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Forgiveness in time of war
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2024/1003/Forgiveness-in-time-of-war
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe