{"id":16257,"date":"2026-07-09T12:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T12:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/16257\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T12:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T12:35:07","slug":"rift-over-world-war-ii-era-killings-rocks-crucial-ukraine-poland-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/16257\/","title":{"rendered":"Rift Over World War II-Era Killings Rocks Crucial Ukraine-Poland Ties"},"content":{"rendered":"

In July 2023, the presidents of Poland and Ukraine commemorated the victims of a wave of violence that left tens of thousands of people dead during World War II.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Andrzej Duda, then Poland\u2019s president, knelt side by side and placed candles in front of a memorial near the altar of a church in Lutsk, capital of the Volyn region in northwestern Ukraine. In social media posts, both sent a positive message: \u201cMemory unites us<\/a>!\u201d<\/p>\n

That proposition is being put to a tough test three years later, as a rekindled dispute over what Poland calls the Volhynian Massacre and Ukraine calls the Volyn Tragedy rocks relations between the neighbors, risking repercussions for Kyiv\u2019s defense against Russia <\/a>and for Ukraine\u2019s EU integration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The fuel for the flare-up was Zelenskyy\u2019s decision in May to give a military unit a name honoring the \u201cHeroes of the UPA\u201d — the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which Poland says massacred some 100,000 Poles in the area, then under German control, in 1943-45, killings Poland\u2019s parliament has designated a genocide.<\/p>\n

Ukraine rejects that designation and says Ukrainians faced hatred from Poles as well. Thousands of Ukrainians were killed in reprisals.<\/p>\n

The UPA was the military arm of nationalist resistance leader Stepan Bandera\u2019s Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), fought against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union at different times during the war. The groups are accused of carrying out murderous campaigns against Poles and Jews.<\/p>\n

But many Ukrainians hail them as freedom fighters — a perception that has widened as the country tries to fight off a Russian invasion 35 years after it won independence from Moscow as the Soviet Union collapsed.<\/p>\n

Poland, steeped in its own bad memories of the Soviet invasion in 1939 and decades of dominance by Moscow after World War II, has been one of Ukraine\u2019s strongest backers since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.<\/p>\n

‘Strategic Mistake’<\/p>\n

As Zelenskyy\u2019s appearance with Duda in 2023 indicated, both countries had kept the historical tensions largely at bay. But now, the public spat is injecting poison into bilateral relations and raising the prospect of broader problems at a crucial time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWading into a conflict between politicians in Poland and Ukraine \u200cis a strategic mistake that will harm both sides: business-wise, geopolitically, and reputationally,\u201d Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned<\/a> in a post on X last month.<\/p>\n

Ukraine may have more to lose.<\/p>\n

\u201cUkraine risks seriously hurting its support from Poland,\u201d Lucian Kim, senior Ukraine analyst at the International Crisis Group, told RFE\/RL, stressing that this support is \u201ccrucial\u201d for several reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWestern military aid for Ukraine goes through Poland. Poland hosts 1 million Ukrainian refugees,\u201d Kim said. \u201cPolish support will also be necessary for Ukraine\u2019s European Union aspirations.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Polish<\/p>\n


\n
\n Polish President Karol Nawrocki (left) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Warsaw late last year.
\n <\/p>\n

The key players in the dispute are Zelenskyy and Duda\u2019s successor, Polish President Karol Nawrocki, a populist historian who is the former director of a World War II museum and was heading the Institute of National Remembrance when the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) tapped him as its candidate in the 2025 election.<\/p>\n

On June 19, Nawrocki announced<\/a> he was stripping Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland\u2019s highest state honor, over his \u201cHeroes of the UPA\u201d decision.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy returned the medal to Poland, and three of his predecessors who had received the same award — Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko, and Petro Poroshenko — followed suit. Then, on June 28, he submitted legislation to parliament on the creation of a National Pantheon honoring key figures in Ukraine\u2019s history, warning that \u201cno one will ever tell us\u2026which heroes to honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Nawrocki, who had said Poland \u201cmust not remain indifferent to the affirmation of symbols of crime,\u201d called the pantheon bill \u201cthe next stage of escalation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campaign Trail<\/p>\n

While rooted in bloodshed that occurred over 80 years ago, the spike in tensions stems in large part from domestic political considerations in both Ukraine and Poland, analysts and observers said.<\/p>\n

In Poland, the dispute is part of a \u201cpre-electoral environment\u201d in which \u201cthe Ukraine factor can be used to win votes,\u201d an EU official told RFE\/RL, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject.<\/p>\n

The opposition PiS is seeking to gain ground against Tusk\u2019s more Ukraine-friendly Civic Coalition, which drove it from power in 2024, ahead of parliamentary elections that must be held by November 2027.<\/p>\n

The dispute over the World War II-era killings could enable Nawrocki and the PiS to tap into substantial anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Poland, stoked by resentment over the influx of Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion. Opinion polls<\/a> show that acceptance of Ukrainian refugees has declined dramatically as the war has dragged on.<\/p>\n

In Ukraine, elections are barred under martial law, which has been in place since the start of the full-scale invasion. But the prospect of a presidential vote in the not-so-distant future has loomed large amid intermittent external pressure and concerns among some Ukrainians over Zelenskyy\u2019s seven-year grip on power. While his approval ratings remain strong, a kind of shadow campaign pitting Zelenskyy against potential rivals<\/a> is underway.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s clear is that Zelenskyy was acting purely on domestic motivation and was not considering how it might come across outside Ukraine,\u201d Kim said of the decision to bestow the \u201cHeroes of the UPA\u201d name on special operations unit of the armed forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cZelenskyy is certainly wrapping himself in the cloak of Ukrainian nationalism and taking positions that he may not have taken earlier,\u201d he said, adding that the Russian invasion has made forces like the UPA less controversial than they previously were inside Ukraine.<\/p>\n

When Zelenskyy ran for president in 2019, \u201chistorical issues [and] the past were of no importance to him,\u201d Ihor Hryniv, a political strategist who headed then-incumbent President Petro Poroshenko\u2019s campaign headquarters in that election, told RFE\/RL.<\/p>\n

‘The Problems Ahead’<\/p>\n

Now, Hryniv said, he is playing to the portion of the electorate that did not vote for him in 2019 and for whom historical memory is important — in part because his most prominent potential rivals \u201care all perceived as more patriotic than Zelenskyy himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, he argued, Zelenskyy now \u201csometimes runs faster than society itself\u201d on issues involving nationalist figures of the past, and he \u201cdoes not know the problems that may arise with neighbors or in Ukraine itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The extent of those problems is not yet unclear.<\/p>\n

Revoking Zelenskyy\u2019s Order of the White Eagle \u201cdoes not signify a change in the strategic direction of Polish security policy,\u201d Nawrocki said in his announcement. \u201cWe have supported and continue to support Ukraine because we know that Russian aggression poses a threat to the security of Poland and all of Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he warned that Ukraine\u2019s EU path \u201crequires a willingness to honestly confront the difficult chapters of its own history.<\/p>\n

\u201cA united Europe was built on the rejection of totalitarianism and the cult of violence. These principles must apply to everyone. For those who do not understand this, there can be no place in the European Union, and Poland will certainly not allow it,\u201d Nawrocki said.<\/p>\n

Asked if the dispute with Poland would affect Ukraine\u2019s EU prospects, the EU official who spoke on condition of anonymity said: \u201cShort term, no. Long term, possibly very much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poland, one of the EU\u2019s 27 members, recently gave its consent for the opening of a \u201ccluster\u201d of negotiation \u201cchapters\u201d for Ukraine next week, moving the painstaking process forward. But the official said opening further clusters and closing chapters \u2013 that is, reaching agreement on them — might be difficult.<\/p>\n

Whether or not the current dispute slows Ukraine\u2019s path to the EU, Kim said, \u201cit highlights the problems ahead\u201d \u2013 problems that pertain to the present and the future rather than the past.<\/p>\n

Polish farmers\u2019 fears that Ukrainian supplies could put them out of business have led to protests, and Polish truckers have similar concerns about their livelihood if Ukraine joins — worries that are shared in other countries in the region.<\/p>\n

So far, there\u2019s no sign that the flare-up between Kyiv and Warsaw will bleed into sometimes volatile US-Ukrainian relations or affect US President Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Trump praised Nawrocki at a meeting with Zelenskyy on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Turkey on July 8, but he didn\u2019t mention the historical dispute.<\/p>\n

Escalation Or De-Escalation<\/p>\n

There have been efforts to de-escalate.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha met with his Polish counterpart, Radoslaw Sikorski, in Warsaw on July 3, and said he proposed \u201ca package of anti-crisis steps\u201d including meetings between diplomats and historians and outreach to religious leaders \u201cto leverage their authority.\u201d It was unclear if any agreements were reached.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Ukrainian<\/p>\n


\n
\n Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (left) and Polish President Karol Nawrocki on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Ankara on July 8.
\n <\/p>\n

For the first time since the spat erupted, Zelenskyy and Nawrocki met for about an hour<\/a> on July 8 on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Ankara. Nawrocki said they were \u201cunable to resolve the historical issues,\u201d but suggested that he hadn\u2019t expected them to do so.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy called it an “important and necessary conversation,” and both presidents said Russia is a common threat.<\/p>\n

Tension persisted ahead of Poland\u2019s annual commemoration of the victims on July 11. Zelenskyy\u2019s chief of staff, former Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov, asserted in an interview with news outlet RBC-Ukraine earlier this week that he had information indicating that Poland was \u201cpreparing a whole series of\u2026escalatory steps\u201d and that the tension was likely to continue. He did not provide details or evidence.<\/p>\n

While analysts say Zelenskyy may not have realized that naming a military unit after \u201cHeroes of the UPA\u201d would make waves outside Ukraine, Kyiv\u2019s success in fighting Russian forces to a near standstill in a war many initially believed Ukraine would lose quickly may have bolstered his confidence, and that of other senior officials, on the world stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cUkraine will not accept ultimatums from anyone in the world. The last [country] that tried to give us an ultimatum was the Russian Federation,\u201d Budanov said. \u201cNo offense to Poland, but [Russia] is a little more powerful than Poland\u2026. Do not speak to us with ultimatums.\u201d<\/p>\n

With reporting by RFE\/RL Ukrainian Service Correspondent Halyna Tereshchuk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In July 2023, the presidents of Poland and Ukraine commemorated the victims of a wave of violence that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,4648,9,3944,3945,127],"class_list":["post-16257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-poland","tag-europe","tag-features","tag-poland","tag-russia-invades-ukraine","tag-the-rundown-stories","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}