\u201cOnce again, investigators uncovered the operating methods of Russian intelligence services, which sought to advance their own interests by instigating conflict between the Polish and Ukrainian peoples,\u201d the agency said in the statement.<\/p>\n
Jacek Dobrzy\u0144ski, spokesperson for Poland\u2019s minister for special services, said Thursday: \u201cThe young Ukrainian, acting on behalf of Russian services, placed inscriptions on buildings and memorial sites glorifying the UPA [now defunct Ukrainian Insurgent Army] and [late Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan] Bandera. In doing so he desecrated places of particular importance to Poles \u2026 including the Monument to the Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Volhynia Massacre Memorial,\u201d Dobrzy\u0144ski wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Ukrainian Insurgent Army killed tens of thousands of Poles during World War II in an ethnic cleansing campaign in what is now western Ukraine.<\/p>\n Although Poland and Ukraine remain close allies against Russia, historical disputes continue to strain relations. Tensions flared in May after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy named a Ukrainian military unit \u201cHeroes of the UPA,\u201d drawing outrage from Polish officials<\/a>.<\/p>\n