The City Council of Polish Przemyśl unanimously voted on October 26 to suspend its partnership relations with Lviv. The reason was the decision of the Lviv Oblast Council to declare 2027 the year of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), Roman Shukhevych and Oleh Olzhych.
This was reported by the Mayor of Przemyśl Wojciech Bakun. The decision was also confirmed by Polish media outlets Polskie Radio Rzeszów and i.pl.
21 deputies of the Przemyśl City Council voted in favor of suspending cooperation. No one voted against, and there were no abstentions.
The draft decision initially provided for a complete severance of the partnership relations between the cities, established in 1995. However, before the vote, the deputies softened the wording, replacing the final termination of cooperation with its suspension.
Thus, Przemyśl is not yet permanently renouncing its partnership with Lviv. Further relations will depend on the position of the Ukrainian side.
Bakun earlier sent an official letter to the Mayor of Lviv Andriy Sadovyi asking him to express his attitude to the decision of the regional council on honoring the UPA and Roman Shukhevych.
According to the Polish mayor, joint activities of the two cities will be suspended until a clear position from the Lviv authorities is obtained regarding initiatives to commemorate organizations and historical figures that the Polish side associates with crimes against the civilian population.
As TOK FM reports, the suspension of cooperation is provisionally for one month. If the Lviv authorities do not present a position acceptable to the Polish side, partnership relations may be definitively terminated.
The restoration of cooperation is linked to two conditions: the official cancellation or revocation of the decision of the Lviv Oblast Council and a clear public distancing by the Lviv city authorities from initiatives to glorify organizations responsible for crimes against the civilian population.
It was the Lviv Oblast Council that made the decision to declare 2027 the year of the UPA, while Przemyśl's demands are addressed to the city authorities of Lviv. The City Council and the Mayor of Lviv do not have the authority to unilaterally revoke the decision of the regional council.
The partnership agreement between Przemyśl and Lviv was signed on June 10, 1995. It provided for the development of contacts between the cities in economic, cultural, educational and other spheres.
Amid the current conflict, there have been no reports of the termination of specific joint projects or humanitarian aid to Ukrainians.
The decision of the Lviv Oblast Council of October 20 provoked sharp criticism in Poland. The Polish side links the activities of the UPA with the mass killings of the Polish population in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia in 1943–1944 and opposes honoring figures involved in those events.
After the criticism appeared, information about the resolution disappeared from the official website of the Lviv Oblast Council. However, the removal of the publication itself does not mean legal cancellation of the document.
On October 26, a similar decision was made at the regional level by the Lublin Voivodeship of Poland. Its deputies unanimously voted not for a temporary suspension but for the termination of the cooperation agreement with the Lviv region, which had been in effect since 2004. This was reported by Radio Lublin.
Thus, the decision of the Lviv Oblast Council has already led to concrete changes in the interregional and municipal relations between Ukraine and Poland. The final status of cooperation between Przemyśl and Lviv will depend on the further decisions of both sides.
