In an interview in a Viennese newspaper in January 1921, Wilhelm publicly rebuked Poland, condemning the pogroms in Lwów as something that would never happen in a civilized country, and referring to Poland and Poles as dishonorable. This caused a permanent, public estrangement between Wilhelm and his father Stephan. Formally he continued to be on payroll a colonel of the Ukrainian Army for a little while until the Austrian press published his anti-Polish declarations. Following that the Ukrainian government that temporarily moved to Poland officially fired him.