Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski went out of his way to pronounce the Ukrainian name of an historically Polish-controlled region when reaffirming his country’s recognition of its neighbor’s western borders. He told the Sejm that “Russia is lying about Poland’s alleged plans to annex part of Ukraine. Donbas is Ukraine; Crimea is Ukraine. Lviv, Volyn, and the former Eastern Halychyna are also Ukraine. So I’m repeating this so that the Kremlin can hear it: Lviv is Ukraine”, with the last part said in Ukrainian.
“Lviv” is known in Polish as Lwów (pronounced “Lvoof”) and was part of the Polish Crown for over 400 years as explained here in late March. At the time, Sikorski quipped that “Ukraine and Poland have been one country for 400 years. [Conventionally intervening in Ukraine] would provide fodder for Russian propaganda. Therefore, we should be the last ones to do so.” This is only accurate with respect to Western Ukraine though as that piece proved.
In any case, Sikorski repeated his general point while speaking at the Sejm, but he went overboard by pronouncing the Ukrainian name of that historically Polish-controlled region. This implies that it was illegally occupied by the Poles for centuries, thus discrediting his country’s official claims that it and other regions were integral parts of the Crown. It also suggests that the partitions were a form of justice and that Poland’s restoration of control over those regions during the interwar period was illegitimate.
Even worse, this innuendo erodes Poland’s official claim that the mass killing of Poles by Ukrainian ultra-nationalists during World War II was a genocide. After all, if these lands were illegitimately controlled by Poland, then even the most radically violent forms of so-called “resistance” can be spun as “acceptable”. Sikorski could have avoided this scandal by sticking with the Polish pronunciation of those regions or simply not naming them at all.
Instead, he was so carried away with virtue signaling his support of Ukraine’s post-Soviet borders that he didn’t think about the consequences of pronouncing one of its historically Polish-controlled regions in that neighboring country’s language, which greatly harmed Poland’s national interests. He dealt more damage to them than any so-called “Russian propaganda” ever could since he’s his country’s top diplomat and should know better than to speak recklessly after being caught up with emotions.
Quite clearly, Russian claims of Polish plans in Western Ukraine have gotten under Sikorski’s skin so much that he can no longer keep his cool, thus explaining why he just inadvertently undermined Poland’s official historical narratives. This was done at the expense of possibly “legitimizing” interwar Ukrainian terrorism in the Second Polish Republic and the genocide of Poles by Ukrainian ultra-nationalists during World War II. Ukrainians wildly applaud what he just did while Polish patriots are completely disgusted.
