According to the “Rzeczpospolita” daily, the investigation [conducted by the Belarusian authorities] regarding the genocide of the Belarusian nation’ during WWII “has hit Poland.”

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“While presenting the results of the investigation, the Prosecutor General of Belarus, Andrei Shved, committed manipulation and lied. He included the Home Army soldiers among the Nazi criminals,” the daily stressed.

“We have information about Nazi criminals still alive who participated in the activities of punitive battalions – first of all the Lithuanian SS battalions and the [Polish] Home Army,” Mr Shved said, quoted by the Belarusian government agency BelTA.

He announced that the national law enforcement agencies were to carry out “investigative measures” related to this matter, and that Minsk would also send a relevant request to the authorities in Warsaw.

He also added that soon the Belarusian Prosecutor General’s Office, after presenting evidence, will start the procedure of international “recognition of the genocide of the Belarusian nation”.

Belarusian historian Ihar Melnikau pointed out in an interview with “Rzeczpospolita” that “the Home Army was in no way a Nazi or fascist formation.”

As the daily points out, “the matter is serious, because it is no longer about [Alexander] Lukashenko’s propagandists,” but about the words of the Prosecutor General.

“These are absurd accusations. They are not based on historical facts. The authorities in Minsk create their own interpretation of history,” Andrzej Pisalnik, journalist, editor of the znadniemna.pl website and a longtime activist of the repressed Union of Poles in Belarus (ZPB) said.

The head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, Michał Dworczyk, also referred to the matter.

“We are dealing with another installment of the disinformation war led by the regime of Alexander Lukashenko,” he said, adding that “the accusations against the Home Army are outrageous.”

“We do not accept actions aimed at the Polish minority in Belarus,” he stressed.