On May 26, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree that a special forces unit of the Ukrainian Army was being given the honorary name of Heroes of the UPA, explaining that this was to “restore the historical traditions of the national army”.
However, the decree has caused serious tensions with Poland, one of Ukraine’s most important allies in the war with Russia.
After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the Partisan Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) was formed to fight for an independent Ukrainian state – which it had previously done as an ally of Germany. To drive out the Polish population from areas claimed for Ukraine, the UPA committed war crimes against ethnic Polish civilians, including the genocide of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, an area now divided between Poland and Ukraine.
Poland’s right-wing conservative President Karol Nawrocki reacted to Ukraine’s decision to award the unit this honorific title.
“Unfortunately, President Zelensky has shown that Ukraine, in terms of mentality – glorifying bandits, killers of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army – is not ready to be part of the European family,” he said in Warsaw on May 29, according to Polish TV channel Polsat. “In the European family, you cannot glorify bandits [who] Murdered women and children, murdered Poles.”
Nawrocki said he was going to strip Zelenski of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest honor. The award jury is set to discuss the case on June 8.
Nawrocki ‘inciting anti-Ukrainian sentiment’
Military alliance with Ukraine was a Polish foreign policy priority under former President Andrzej Duda, who ordered the Ukrainian leader to resign in 2023. Warsaw’s military and political support significantly contributed to Ukraine’s success in repelling Russian attacks during the initial phase of the war in 2022.
Unlike his predecessor, Nawrocki has no qualms about criticizing Ukraine, as was evident in his 2025 election campaign. He has expressed skepticism about Ukraine’s prospects for joining the European Union, and has criticized the social support given to Ukrainian refugees in Poland, which he has declared to be too generous.
A year after his election, Nawrocki still has not made an official visit to Kiev, preferring instead to welcome Zelensky in Warsaw in December.
“Navrocki has used the opportunity to stir up anti-Ukrainian sentiment,” the Polish daily said. Gazeta Wyborcza “He has been given an excuse and is ruthlessly taking advantage of it,” wrote June 1.
Tusk tries to limit the damage
Poland’s pro-European Prime Minister Donald Tusk has made initial efforts to limit the damage. He stressed that Zelensky’s decision violated Poland’s “historical sensitivities.” Each nation is entitled to its own interpretation of the past, Tusk said, but Zelensky and “our Ukrainian friends” should show greater awareness of “what this grim legacy of the UPA means from the point of view of each pole.”
Tusk distanced himself from Nawrocki’s suggestion that Zelensky should be removed from office. “If we quarrel about the past, someone else will win in the future,” he warned, hinting that if Poland and Ukraine continued down this path, “the Kremlin will really have reason to celebrate.”
Other representatives of Poland’s ruling centre-left coalition have also expressed displeasure at Kiev’s decision to name the unit after UPA heroes. However, he also called for efforts to avoid any tension.
“Our response should not be hostile, but it should be tough,” Piotr Zagorzelski. a deputy marshal of the Polish parliament told broadcaster TVN on June 2. Zelensky was trying to sway nationalist forces in Ukraine to his side, he said, and in doing so was ignoring Polish sensitivities.
historical tensions resurfaced
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry issued assurances on 29 May that the new name was not aimed at Poland. A statement carried by the Polish news agency PAP said that for Ukrainian troops “the UPA’s struggle symbolizes opposition to Moscow’s imperialist policies in particular.”
Relations between Poland and Ukraine have long been affected by differences over the past. After the collapse of the Russian Empire at the end of World War I, both Poland and Ukraine laid claim to areas that had belonged to Poland until the late 18th century, but where the majority of the population was Ukrainian.
In 1918, the two countries fought several bitter battles, particularly for the city of Lviv (Lwów in Polish). Western Ukraine became part of the Second Polish Republic, while the eastern part of the country came under Soviet rule.
The number of victims of the massacres carried out by the UPA in World War II, which Poland calls genocide, is estimated at more than 100,000. At least 20,000 Ukrainians were killed in reprisals by Polish partisans. After 1945, the UPA continued to fight against the Sovietization of Ukraine until the 1950s. That is why it is still revered there as a model of Russian resistance.
When Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Polish-Ukrainian arguments about the past faded into the background. Initially, Poland was enthusiastic about its neighbor’s fight against the aggressor and the country hosted more than 1 million Ukrainian refugees.
However, now the sentiment has changed for the worse. Right-wing Poles are particularly critical of social security benefits for Ukrainians in Poland – and question Warsaw’s ongoing military support for Ukraine.
tusk dilemma
Nawrocki is also trying to score points on the domestic front by criticizing Zelensky. His proposal is aimed at Tusk – because if Nawrocki, as President of Poland, orders that the Ukrainian leader be removed from command, the Prime Minister must countersign the decree.
If Tusk moves forward on this order, he will damage relations with Ukraine – and Poland’s security depends on its eastern neighbor’s success in the war against Russia. On the other hand, if Tusk refuses to sign, the Polish right will label him a traitor who ignores the feelings of Poles.
The dispute comes at a delicate time: on June 25 and 26, the fifth Ukraine Recovery Conference is scheduled to take place in the Polish city of Gdańsk – an international conference critical of Ukraine’s reconstruction.
This article was originally written in German.