WARSAW (Reuters) -Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday that Russia was seeking to drive a wedge between Poland and Ukraine ahead of peace talks, amid an outcry over a spectator who waved a Ukrainian nationalist flag at a concert in Warsaw.
Poland has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest backers since Russia invaded in 2022, but some Poles have grown weary of taking care of refugees, while historic tensions between the nations over World War Two massacres have at times come to the surface, straining ties and boosting the Polish far-right.
Many Poles were angered by footage shared on social media which showed a Ukrainian member of the audience at a concert in the National Stadium on Saturday waving the red and black flag of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, a nationalist group Warsaw says was involved in the 1943-1945 Volhynia massacres of Poles.
The Ukrainian man later apologised for his actions in a video also shared on social media, saying he had only meant to show support for his country.
Tusk told a government meeting that Poles and Ukrainians must not allow themselves to be divided ahead of a crucial summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday in Alaska.
“It’s truly fundamental from the perspective of Polish security that Putin not receive gifts before these talks, and such a gift for Putin would undoubtedly be conflict between Ukrainians and Poles,” Tusk said.
“This is precisely the… goal of Russian agents and Russia’s actions in Poland.”
The Russian embassy in Warsaw said it believed it was unnecessary to comment on Tusk’s statement.
European leaders including Tusk and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy plan to speak with Trump on Wednesday before his summit with Putin, amid fears that Washington, hitherto Ukraine’s leading arms supplier, may dictate unfavourable peace terms to Kyiv.
Warsaw police said they had detained 109 people during the concert by Belarusian rapper Max Korzh for offences ranging from drug possession to assaulting security personnel.
Tusk said proceedings were underway to deport 57 Ukrainians and six Belarusians following disturbances at the concert.
(Reporting by Alan CharlishEditing by Hugh Lawson and Gareth Jones)
