Oh boy... I knew this subject would pop up even more so with current Polish government. I have issues with all sides involved pretty much. I didn't speak on this for a while but I guess it's time. 1) Calling Volyn "a tragedy" instead of a massacre is inappropriate and whitewashing of what happened. This was a clear case of ethnic cleansing by definition as people were targeted by ethnicity with an explicit goal of making them leave. 100000+ Polish civilians were violently killed by UPA. We, Ukrainians, should be absolutely acknowledging this massacre. Volyn massacre, however, is not recognized as genocide by virtually anyone, besides the Poles. Calling it "so-called genocide" is petty and uncalled for. But so is the pushing of this narrative when it's not even a debate anywhere outside of Poland and, funnily enough, russia. Ethnic cleansing is plenty bad and condemable however. 2) Poles, especially of concervative and nationalist variaty, are blatantly unhinged on this issue. They won't be satisfied with any acknowledgement or recognition of it as massacre or ethnic cleansing (I know, I tried). The only acceptable outlook is theirs. Which happens to be: Worst genocide ever, poor blameless Polish minority killed for no reason other than hatred (fully unjustified) of Poles by evil Ukrainians. This is not the drill. Absolute refusal to acknowledge that the Polish were occupiers in this scenario, dominated the region and made Ukrainians, who were the majority in Volyn into second class citizens, constantly terrorized and abused by the occupiers - Poles. Paccification alone was terrible but operation Vitsula (forced deportation of 150000 of ethnic Ukrainians from their land) was next level barbarity. Polish occupiers proudly engaging in "collective punishment" of Ukrainians and humiliating the majority population on every turn... Well, created resentment that turned into visceral hatred. And we all know how that ended. Will I pull a Hasan or typical Hamas/October 7 excusing asswipe and say "resistance isn't perfect" and such? No, I won't. The conditions Ukrainians were in do not excuse brutal slaughter of Polish women, children and elderly. However, Polish people, obsessed with Volyn and blaming Ukrainias outright refuses to acknowledge the wrong doings of the Poles that led to the massacre. Hell, I don't even see them speaking of occupation. They, frankly, are about as good as russians in accepting zero responsibility and still having deeply imperialist and colonial attitudes towards Ukrainians. Which... Doesn't make reconciliation any easier. In fact, it makes Ukrainians defensive and angry. You can and should condem the massacre but the other side needs to get a grip too. 3) Volyn Massacre has been and is used today to put a wedge between Poles and Ukrainians by russia. And I fucking detest when they succeed. I am a Ukrainian and biased obviously, but to me it is clear that newly elected Polish government is using Volyn for political gain and amplifies anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Poland. In the worst time ever too. Because we should be united today against the common enemy, not fucking squabbling about history. So do better, both Ukraine and Poland.