On 4 November, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Olexandr Mischenko held a meeting with Polish journalists at the Hennadii Udovenko Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine. A delegation of leading Polish media representatives is currently visiting Ukraine to examine the current situation in our country and the consequences of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The meeting was also attended by a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Heorhii Tykhyi, representatives of the Ukrainian Institute headed by Deputy Director General Alim Aliev and the Juliusz Mieroszewski Dialogue Centre of Poland headed by Deputy Director Lukasz Adamski, as well as diplomats from the Polish Embassy in Ukraine.
The delegation of Polish journalists included representatives from leading Polish media outlets, including the Polish Press Agency, Radio Kraków, the weekly Kultura Liberalna, and the newspaper Rzeczpospolita.
The Deputy Minister expressed his sincere gratitude to the Republic of Poland and the Polish people for the comprehensive military, economic and humanitarian assistance provided to our country since the beginning of the Russian full-scale aggression, particularly noting that the Polish state has not only accepted nearly a million Ukrainian refugees, but has also created all the necessary conditions for them to fulfil their potential, as evidenced by the significant contribution of Ukrainians to the Polish economy.
Olexandr Mischenko noted the extraordinary importance of Poland's role as a military ally and strategic partner of Ukraine, emphasising the need for further synchronisation of all Ukraine's partners’ efforts in providing military assistance to the Ukrainian Defence Forces to defeat the Russian aggressor, and positively assessed the high level of political dialogue between our countries at all levels.
The participants of the meeting noted significant progress in resolving sensitive issues of the shared historical past and establishing constructive bilateral dialogue on issues of national memory, in particular, the conduct of search and exhumation works on the territory of both countries during 2025, which has already reduced the level of tension.
The Ukrainian diplomat stressed that the parties must continue focusing their efforts on avoiding the politicisation of historical issues in bilateral relations between our countries, expressing hope for the resumption of the Ukrainian-Polish Forum of Historians as a platform for discussion on complex topics of the two nations’ shared history. Holding such a meeting of historians is also relevant because Russia is trying, through all means of disinformation and propaganda, to drive a wedge between our countries and peoples by exploiting certain tragic pages of our shared history with Poland to weaken Ukraine's alliance with the civilised world in the fight against the Russian terrorist state.
In this context, Olexandr Mischenko and the Deputy Director of the Polish Mieroszewski Centre, Lukasz Adamski, confirmed the likelihood of holding the first meeting of Polish and Ukrainian historians in November-December this year to prepare for the organisation of the Forum meeting in spring 2026.
The Deputy Minister called on Polish journalists to be as correct as possible in covering sensitive issues of bilateral Ukrainian-Polish relations in their media and assured that the Ukrainian side is ready for an objective discussion among historians, based on documents and historical facts, to prevent speculation on the topic of the Volyn tragedy in the discourse of both countries.
Olexandr Mischenko and Heorhii Tykhyi also thoroughly answered questions from representatives of the Polish media, which, in particular, concerned the current situation on the front line, Ukraine's urgent defence needs, the intensification of Russian disinformation campaigns in Poland, and the need for joint counteraction against Russian propaganda, including the establishment of cooperation while organising media literacy events for Ukrainian youth who are forced to live in Poland due to Russian aggression, etc.