Poland has imposed a five-year ban on Ukrainian regional politician Sviatoslav Sheremeta entering the Schengen Area after he helped initiate a controversial resolution honouring the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and its wartime commander Roman Shukhevych. The restriction, confirmed by Poland’s interior minister on Wednesday, 21 October, represents a significant escalation in a diplomatic dispute over the historical legacy of forces responsible for massacres of Polish civilians during the Second World War.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński confirmed that Sheremeta, a member of the Lviv Regional Council in western Ukraine, had been entered into Poland’s register of foreigners whose presence is considered undesirable.
The restriction followed a formal request signed earlier that day by Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski.
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In a statement published on X, Kierwiński said the decision prohibited Sheremeta from entering or staying in Schengen countries for five years, until 20 October 2031.
The decision follows the adoption of a resolution by the Lviv Regional Council on Tuesday, 20 October, designating 2027 as a year commemorating the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), Roman Shukhevych and Ukrainian nationalist activist Oleh Olzhych.
Poland had already condemned the resolution, as Poland-24 reported when the dispute first emerged.
Wednesday’s announcement confirms that Warsaw has now taken administrative action against one of the initiative’s principal supporters.
A five-year restriction extending beyond Poland
The new restriction has implications beyond Poland’s borders.
The Schengen Area currently comprises 29 European countries, most of which have removed routine passport controls at their shared internal borders.
Under the arrangements described by Kierwiński, Sheremeta is barred from entering and residing in Schengen states until October 2031.
The measure is therefore considerably broader than a prohibition applying only to Polish territory.
Poland’s Office for Foreigners explains that national registers of undesirable foreigners and the Schengen Information System are used in immigration and border-control decisions.
The Schengen Information System allows participating countries to share alerts, including those relating to refusal of entry and stay.
However, the underlying administrative decision in Sheremeta’s case and any associated Schengen Information System record have not been made available for independent examination.
The confirmed public evidence is the Polish interior minister’s announcement that the registration has been completed and that the resulting restriction applies across the Schengen Area.
The decision may also be subject to the legal procedures available for challenging or reviewing such entries.
No legal challenge by Sheremeta against the latest restriction has been independently confirmed.
Why Poland objected to the Lviv resolution
The controversy began when the Lviv Regional Council voted to commemorate three subjects during 2027: the UPA, its wartime commander Roman Shukhevych and Oleh Olzhych, a figure associated with the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists.
The council is a regional self-government body and does not represent Ukraine’s national government.
The commemorations coincide with significant historical anniversaries, including the 85th anniversary of the UPA’s formation and the 120th anniversary of the births of Shukhevych and Olzhych.
For many Ukrainians, the UPA is associated with the struggle for national independence against foreign domination.
In Poland, however, the organisation is principally associated with the systematic killing of Polish civilians in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia during the Second World War.
UPA units and associated Ukrainian nationalist formations carried out massacres of Polish communities, particularly in 1943 and 1944.
The events remain among the most painful unresolved issues in Polish-Ukrainian historical relations.
Shukhevych, who commanded the UPA during much of this period, remains a particularly controversial figure.
Polish officials have repeatedly criticised attempts to honour him without acknowledging the organisation’s responsibility for atrocities against civilians.
Oleh Olzhych’s historical role was different. He was a Ukrainian poet and nationalist activist associated with the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, and his inclusion in the resolution should not be taken as an assertion that he personally directed the massacres.
The dispute centres primarily on the commemoration of the UPA and Shukhevych.
Who is Sviatoslav Sheremeta?
Sheremeta is a member of the Lviv Regional Council representing European Solidarity, the party associated with former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko.
He was among those who initiated the proposal to establish the 2027 commemorations.
He also holds a position in Ukrainian-Polish historical remembrance work.
According to RMF24’s account of the case, Sheremeta serves as secretary of a Ukrainian interdepartmental commission dealing with commemorations and is involved in work relating to the identification and exhumation of historical victims.
He also heads Dolya, a memorial and search organisation associated with the Lviv Regional Council.
The organisation has participated in investigations involving burial sites connected with the violent history shared by Poland and Ukraine.
This gives the restriction an additional dimension.
Recent bilateral efforts to locate, identify and exhume victims of wartime violence have been regarded as an important area of progress in Polish-Ukrainian relations.
Sheremeta’s involvement in this work means that restrictions on his international travel could complicate his personal participation in future cross-border activities.
However, there is no verified announcement that any scheduled exhumation, search operation or bilateral project has been cancelled because of the ban.
Sheremeta was previously subject to Polish entry restrictions in 2017, during an earlier dispute over historical commemorations and exhumation activities.
Sheremeta defends the commemorations
Before the latest restriction was formally confirmed, Sheremeta defended the regional council’s decision.
Speaking to the Ukrainian news outlet ZAXID.NET on Wednesday, he questioned the strength of the Polish reaction.
He argued that similar commemorative decisions had been adopted by Ukrainian regional authorities previously.
Sheremeta maintained that Ukrainians had the right to determine which historical figures they wished to honour.
He also rejected the suggestion that the Lviv resolution was intended as a gesture against Poland or the Polish people.
His comments highlight the different interpretations of the UPA’s historical legacy that continue to shape relations between the neighbouring countries.
They do not alter the established historical responsibility of UPA forces for massacres of Polish civilians.
Ukraine’s government distances itself from the decision
The dispute has also prompted intervention by Ukraine’s national authorities.
In an official response reported by Ukraine’s state news agency Ukrinform, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry described the Lviv Regional Council’s decision as counterproductive to the development of bilateral relations with Poland.
The ministry stressed that the regional councillors had acted without consulting Ukraine’s diplomatic service or other central government institutions.
It also pointed to recent progress in relations with Poland, including cooperation over historical searches and exhumations, defence matters and efforts to resolve longstanding disagreements.
The ministry warned that unilateral regional decisions touching on sensitive historical questions could damage Ukraine’s broader national interests.
At the same time, Kyiv called on Poland to avoid abrupt measures that could undermine attempts to normalise bilateral relations.
The Ukrainian position is important because it distinguishes the actions of Lviv’s regional councillors from the policy of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government.
Separately, a source within Ukraine’s government told the Polish Press Agency that the Lviv decision had taken national officials by surprise.
According to the PAP account published by Rzeczpospolita, consultations were taking place to prevent the measure from being implemented.
Those efforts reportedly included attempts to stop the resolution being signed or to secure the withdrawal of support by some councillors.
Iryna Vereshchuk, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, also publicly urged regional politicians to consider the consequences of decisions that could damage relations with Poland.
Poland says Kyiv has promised to stop the resolution
Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Bosacki said on Wednesday that Warsaw had received assurances from people close to President Zelenskyy that the Lviv resolution would not enter into force.
Speaking to TVN24, Bosacki said Poland expected the Ukrainian side to honour those assurances.
He also pointed to the disappearance of an announcement concerning the resolution from the Lviv Regional Council’s website as an encouraging development.
However, removing an online announcement is not the same as formally revoking a resolution.
As of 22 October, there is no independently verified final document demonstrating that the Lviv Regional Council has rescinded its decision.
It is therefore more accurate to say that Ukrainian national authorities are attempting to prevent implementation than to report that the commemorations have already been cancelled.
A dispute between close security partners
The controversy comes at a sensitive point in relations between Poland and Ukraine.
Poland has been one of Ukraine’s most important European supporters since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The two countries cooperate on defence, military logistics, humanitarian assistance and European security.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk criticised the Lviv resolution on Wednesday, saying that such actions harmed Ukraine and made the work of those supporting close Polish-Ukrainian cooperation more difficult.
He also warned that disputes between the countries could benefit Russia.
The diplomatic fallout has prompted conflicting media reports about whether Polish assistance to Ukraine has been affected.
A Ukrainian government source claimed that a military aid package had been suspended because of the dispute. However, Poland’s Defence Ministry publicly denied that military assistance had been halted.
Separately, Polish media reported that discussions about a possible financial support arrangement had been paused.
These accounts concern different forms of support and should not be conflated. No independently verified decision to suspend Polish military aid has been established.
What happens next?
The immediate administrative development is clear: Sheremeta has been entered into Poland’s register of undesirable foreigners, with a five-year Schengen restriction announced by the interior minister.
The broader diplomatic consequences remain unsettled.
Three developments will determine how the dispute progresses: whether Lviv’s regional authorities formally reverse or prevent implementation of their resolution, whether Sheremeta challenges the entry restriction, and whether the controversy affects ongoing Polish-Ukrainian historical cooperation.
For Warsaw and Kyiv, the case illustrates how differing views of Second World War history continue to create diplomatic tensions despite extensive cooperation on present-day security.
The Polish government has now taken concrete action against a Ukrainian regional politician.
Whether the dispute deepens or recedes will depend in large part on the response of Ukraine’s regional and national authorities.
