No country supports the Ukrainian war effort more passionately than Poland, and no country shelters more Ukrainian refugees. Ukrainian-Polish relations have never been better. Polish political parties might disagree about everything else, but they all strongly support Ukraine and her borders.
Russian imperialist ambitions also threaten Polish security. Since Poland joined Nato in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, the country has been a strong advocate of Ukrainian membership in both organisations. To contain an increasingly aggressive Russia, Poles are all too aware that an independent Ukraine is essential.
But Polish-Ukrainian relations bear a heavy historical burden. There was a time when Ukrainian and Polish national interests seemed incompatible. To establish good relations with Ukraine, Poles had to accept the loss of their eastern borderlands as agreed over their heads in the conference of Yalta in 1945. In 2000 Ukraine was still one of the nations most disliked by Poles. The main reason for this goes back to events which occurred during the second world war. But WWII and 1,000 years of shared history also provide reasons why Ukrainians and Poles should be allies.
