Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschchenko was greeted with a standing ovation yesterday when he arrived for a speech at Warsaw University.
It was some time before the rapturous welcome subsided, with the chants of 'Yush - chen - ko' echoing those of the Ukrainian crowds during the Orange Revolution.
Scores of Poland's students demonstrated on behalf of Yushchenko in the lead up to Ukraine's recent Presidential elections, and yesterday's meeting in Warsaw provided an opportunity for the triumphant leader to thank Poles.
Polish-Ukrainian relations have been difficult to say the least over the last few centuries, and negative stereotypes continued to linger for many decades after the Second World War.
Poles had previously come out on top during the Polish Ukrainian War that came in the wake of the First World War. In 1918, Poland had re-emerged as a country, but this was not the case for the Ukraine. For the next twenty years, the majority of the Ukraine lay in Soviet Russia, whilst several hundred thousand Ukrainians lived in Poland.
During the ensuing German Occupation the Nazis liquidated the Jewish population, and as the situation deteriorated, a rogue Ukrainian nationalist army hit out at Poles in the Western borderlands, believing that either Polish rule or Stalinist rule loomed.
During the Soviet era, contacts between the Ukraine and Poland were by and large cut off. However, with the opening up of the borders since 1989, the situation has steadily improved. The high point was when crowds of Ukrainians chanted for Poland in central Kiev after Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski (as well as Solidarity veteran Lech Walesa) helped smooth the flow of the Orange Revolution.
Poland is the leading champion for Ukraine's entry into the European Union, a factor which President Kwasniewski reiterated at yesterday's meeting. President Yushchenko warmly thanked Poles for their support, and voiced his hopes for Ukraine's future in Europe.
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