Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has called for dialogue and de-escalation following a rapidly worsening dispute between Warsaw and Kyiv over President Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u2019s decision to grant an elite Ukrainian military unit the honorary title \u2018Heroes of the UPA\u2019, reviving one of the most painful historical controversies in Polish\u2013Ukrainian relations.<\/p>\n
In a lengthy statement published in both Ukrainian and Polish, Sybiha argued that escalating tensions \u2018benefit neither Ukrainians nor Poles\u2019 and stressed that both countries had spent nearly two years rebuilding constructive dialogue through joint historical research, exhumations, and the reburial of victims. He insisted that the naming of the military unit had been chosen by Ukrainian soldiers themselves and was intended to honour those who fought against Soviet domination rather than express hostility towards Poland.<\/p>\n
The controversy began after Zelenskyy signed a decree on 26 May granting the honorary title \u2018Heroes of the UPA\u2019<\/a> to the Separate Special Operations Centre North of Ukraine\u2019s Special Operations Forces. The move immediately provoked outrage across Poland\u2019s political spectrum.<\/p>\n What makes the dispute particularly significant is the unusually broad consensus it has generated within Polish politics. President Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) camp, announced that he would seek to strip Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland\u2019s highest state honour.<\/p>\n At the same time, the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk\u2014normally locked in bitter conflict with Nawrocki\u2014also condemned the decision. Polish Foreign Minister Rados\u0142aw Sikorski described the naming of the unit as deeply harmful to historical dialogue and warned that it could be \u2018exploited by Russian propaganda\u2019.<\/p>\n The reason for the backlash lies in fundamentally different historical memories.<\/p>\n \u2018Honouring the UPA is comparable to Germany naming a military unit after the Einsatzgruppen, the Nazi mobile killing squads\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n While many Ukrainians view the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) as a nationalist force that fought Soviet domination, in Poland it is primarily remembered as the military wing of the fascist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), associated with the Volhynia and Galicia massacres. <\/p>\n Under the leadership of Stepan Bandera and other nationalist commanders, the OUN-UPA carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Polish population<\/a> of the eastern borderlands during the Second World War. Tens of thousands of Polish civilians were murdered, often with extreme brutality. The Polish state officially recognizes these crimes as genocide, and since 2025 Poland has marked 11 July as the National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide committed by Ukrainian Nationalists.<\/p>\n Bandera\u2019s legacy remains one of the most contentious issues in Polish\u2013Ukrainian relations, as the Ukrainian leadership continues to promote his image through school curricula and by renaming streets and public institutions. Over a dozen major Ukrainian cities<\/a>, including Kyiv, have streets named after him, and more than 40 monuments and statues have been erected in his honour across Ukraine, according to the Washington Examiner.<\/p>\n For many Poles, therefore, naming a military unit after the \u2018Heroes of the UPA\u2019 is comparable to glorifying a formation responsible for some of the worst atrocities committed against the Polish nation during the 20th century. The reaction has extended beyond the traditional conservative camp. Former president Lech Wa\u0142\u0119sa, former prime minister Leszek Miller, local authorities, and even former Polish diplomats have publicly criticized the decision. In the city of Lublin, officials removed the Ukrainian flag<\/a> that had flown above city hall since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion, explicitly citing Zelenskyy\u2019s decree.<\/p>\n Leszek Miller argued that honouring the UPA is comparable to Germany naming a military unit after the Einsatzgruppen<\/a>, the Nazi mobile killing squads responsible for mass murders in Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n The dispute comes at a time when Polish public attitudes towards Ukraine have cooled significantly compared to the unprecedented solidarity seen in 2022. According to a January 2026 CBOS survey, only 48 per cent of Poles still support accepting Ukrainian refugees, while 46 per cent oppose it\u2014the lowest level of support<\/a> recorded since the beginning of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion. The same survey found that 54 per cent of Poles favour ending the war even if Ukraine is forced to make territorial concessions to Russia.<\/p>\n Support for Ukraine\u2019s Euro-Atlantic integration has also declined sharply<\/a>. An IBRIS survey found that only 35 per cent of Poles support Ukraine\u2019s accession to the European Union, while 42 per cent oppose it. Support for Ukrainian membership in NATO stands at 37 per cent, with 42 per cent opposed. Only 35 per cent favour continued economic assistance to Kyiv, while 44 per cent oppose further aid. Meanwhile, 46 per cent want Poland to reduce or suspend military support altogether.<\/p>\n \u2018The controversy has already fuelled calls for tougher measures against Kyiv\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The controversy has already fuelled calls for tougher measures against Kyiv. Krzysztof Bosak, leader of the hard-right Konfederacja party, has demanded that Poland block Ukraine\u2019s EU accession process<\/a> until Kyiv abandons what he described as the \u2018cult of criminals\u2019 associated with Bandera and the UPA and fully resolves outstanding disputes concerning the Volhynia massacres.<\/p>\n\n
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