"An estimate of activities of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army is categorically negative in Poland," Kaczynski said in the statement. He said the OUN and the UPA 'carried out large-scale massacres' of the Polish people on the eastern territories of the former Rzech Pospolita'. "These killings raise unambiguous protest in Polish society," he said. "The Ukrainian President's latest actions are aimed against the process of historical dialogue and reconciliation," the Polish president added. However, Kaczynski underlines, "Poland believes that long and strong partnership of sovereign, free and democratic Ukraine and Poland is within the interests of both states. And we cannot forget about it," the statement reads. On January 22 the Ukrainian President signed a decree conferring the rank of the Hero of Ukraine to Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in the 1940s. The OUN and its Ukrainian Insurgent Army battled for Ukraine's independence, declaring the German and Red Armies as their opponents. On January 28 Yushchenko also singed a decree declaring soldiers of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army as the fighters for Ukraine's independence in the 20th century. In Poland Bandera is thought to be a controversial figure. Poles say he is personally responsible for the Volyn tragedy in 1943 when dozens of thousands of people were killed in Ukraine-Poland confrontation involving the UPA and the Polish Armia Krajowa. However, Ukrainian historians say those tragic events should be viewed in a broad historical context.