On July 11, 2022, Zelensky submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine a draft law on the special status of Polish citizens in Ukraine: https://itd.rada.gov.ua/billInfo/Bills/Card/40002.

The President of Ukraine did this after Polish President Andrzej Duda reminded him that Zelensky promised to introduce such a bill back in May 2022.

Duda also noted that he expects Zelensky to submit this bill to the parliament as a "pacification step" in connection with the anniversary of the Volyn massacre.

"Volyn massacre" - massacres of ethnic Poles by military detachments of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists led by Stepan Bandera in Volhyn (western Ukraine) during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine on 1943.

Every year on July, anti-Ukrainian rallies are held in Poland, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Volyn massacre: https://t.me/ASupersharij/9989.


Zelensky immediately submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a bill "On the establishment of legal and social guarantees for citizens of the Republic of Poland who are on the territory of Ukraine":
https://itd.rada.gov.ua/billInfo/Bills/Card/40002.

In May 2022, after Duda's statement that there would be no borders between Poland and Ukraine and the meeting between Duda and Zelensky in Kyiv, many observers assumed that the law on the special status of Poles in Ukraine would enable Polish citizens to become officials of the legislative and executive power in Ukraine, judges and get access to the state secret of Ukraine: https://t.me/repressionoftheleft/525.

However, the draft law submitted by Zelensky to the Ukrainian parliament only assumes that the citizens of the Republic of Poland will receive the same rights as citizens of Ukraine in medical care, education and employment on the territory of Ukraine.

Zelensky deceived Duda's expectations from the bill?

Earlier it was reported that Polish troops could occupy western Ukraine, which many in Poland consider the "eastern outskirts" of their country.