#Poland records a provisional national high temperature of 40.5 °C in Słubice, Lubusz Voivodeship, exceeding a 1921 record.

https://en-wp.org/wiki/2026_European_heatwaves

https://newsasfacts.com/news/157460

Previously I avoided the topic of #Poland #Ukraine row over UPA, but today general Kyrylo Budanov announced the following[^1]

No one will ever again dictate to Ukrainians which heroes to honor, which holidays to celebrate, or which history to study. Our ancestors fought for centuries for this right to freedom of choice and national independence, and it is for this very right that our warriors are shedding their blood today. Their memory must live on forever.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has submitted to the Verkhovna Rada the draft law “On the Ukrainian National Pantheon.” This is a decisive and much-needed step toward restoring historical justice, consolidating our society, and laying the foundation of memory for future generations. This document is a testament to our maturity as a state.

Also today President Zelensky said in an interview to Polish media[^2]

No one and never will anyone dictate to us how to live, how to speak, whom to love, whom to be grateful to, and which heroes to respect.

I will start from a reminder, that the “dictate” is already in place since 2015 when Ukraine’s Rada enacted a controversial law which makes it a criminal offence to “deny the legitimacy of the struggle for the independence of Ukraine in the 20th century” by organisations such as OUN and UPA. Essentially, if someone in Ukraine wants to dispute the goals and methods of OUN and UPA - which included killing political opponents inside Ukraine because they were “too conciliatory” or wanted Ukraine to be democratic, they are breaking the law.[^3][^4]

If you are surprised that OUN and UPA considered democratic movements in Ukraine to be enemies, that’s not a mistake. OUN and UPA had a very clear vision of Ukraine as a non-democratic, ethnically clean state with single state-supported religion, limited press freedom, state-controlled corporationist economy led by a single authoritarian Leader. I’m intentionally skipping the unambiguous labels attributed to this program by political scientists.[^5]

Only a few days ago Ukraine celebrated the Day of Constitution, which was first introduced in 1918 by ZUNR (Western Ukraine People’s Republic) and UNR (Ukraine People’s Republic).[^6] But both OUN and UPA considered ZUNR and UNR to be failures specifically due to what they perceived as “endless haggling” in democracy, solution to which was expected to be the autocratic rule of a the Leader of the nation. The OUN/UPA state would likely have no constitution at all.

It’s also ironic that this “endless haggling” did not spare OUN, which went through numerous fraction splits (OUN-B, OUN-M) and then even more absurdly with UPA, which was originally crated by moderate Taras Bulba-Borovets[^4] who was then chased by OUN-B radicals who forced him into exile, killed his wife and took over the name of UPA.[^7]

At the end of the day and as result of this infighting, only the most extreme fraction of UPA led by Dmytro Klyachkivsky and Roman Shukhevych was left fighting to the “ethnically pure” independent Ukraine. And they happen to be part of the “pantheon of heroes” while most Ukrainians seem to be totally unaware what their actual goals and methods were.

I will skip the whole incendiary topic of UPA and Polish population, but I will just reiterate that Ukraine politically is a very diverse society and unlike many populists on both sides I’m not going to aggregate it into “all Ukrainians love UPA” or “all Ukrainians support Zelensky”. I’m continuing to support the people and army of Ukraine regardless of what century-old symbols they choose, even if I don’t like them, but I’m also not going to sit silent about the history of the people politically nominated to be “unquestioned heroes”. If you need a legal act to make them “unquestioned” then it usually means there’s something questionable about them.

Sources:

[^1]: https://xcancel.com/Kyrylo_Budanov/status/2071238310123483253?s=20

[^2]: https://www.rp.pl/polityka/art44715681-zelenski-nikt-nie-bedzie-nam-mowil-jakich-bohaterow-szanowac

[^3]: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/letter-experts-worry-that-decommunization-laws-curtail-free-speech/#:~:text=Concerning%20the%20inclusion,denial%20of%20the

[^4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taras_Bulba-Borovets#Ukrainian_People’s_Revolutionary_Army

[^5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation_of_Ukrainian_Nationalists#Ideology

[^6]: https://dn.gov.ua/en/news/richnytsia-vid-ukhvalennia-maloi-konstytutsii-zunr

[^7]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Insurgent_Army#1943